The Feast of St. Joseph: A Family Tale

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Brad Birzer

The Feast of St. Joseph: A Family Tale

My ancestry is quite fascinating, if I do write/say so myself! My father’s side (the Birzers) came from eastern Bavaria (from several small villages near the Czech border) in 1888, immigrating stra... More

Neither Left nor Right, Greek nor Jew, Male Nor Female

[caption id="attachment_45266" align="alignleft" width="614"] A Jesuit mission, northern Michigan.[/caption] We’ve all been bombarded with information, notions, guesses, photos, hopes, and fears ... More

The Word of John

I can’t let the day pass without writing and posting a brief meditation regarding St. John the Beloved, St. John the Apostle, St. John the Evangelist, St. John the Revelator. Throughout my adult ... More

On this, the Feast of St. Stephen

[caption id="attachment_39807" align="alignright" width="384" caption="Canterbury, Easter morning, 1988"][/caption] Today is the second of the twelve days of Christmas, the Feast of St. Stephen, on... More

The Beginner’s Guide to Big Big Train

As I type this, I do so from Delta Flight 1094, just having departed Detroit, en route to the Pacific Northwest for a week of lecturing for the college. Somewhat brilliantly, at the other end of thi... More

The Historical Vision of St. Augustine

One would be hard pressed to find a greater influence on two of the finest Catholic Humanists of the twentieth century, Christopher Dawson and Russell Amos Kirk, than St. Augustine. One only has to e... More

Remembering the Importance of St. Max Kolbe

When innocent prisoner #5659 was about to be placed in Cell Block #13, the worst of all tortures prior to the invention of the gas chambers, prisoner #16670 volunteered to take his place. Stunned at... More

Progressive Chatter

[N.B. Though many of the bands I review below are quite suspicious of illegitimate authority and, especially, the terrifying possibility of a reified dystopia, this post has absolutely nothing to do... More

Why No Christian Should Support the Democratic Party

In 1976, Senator Bob Dole rather caustically labeled the Democrats as the “War Party”: World War I, World War II, the Korean conflict, and the Vietnam conflict were all begun by Democrats, leadi... More

Reclaiming Liberty: Archbishop Chaput’s speech, “Building a Culture of Religious Freedom”

Though it barely made the whirligig of national and international news on Friday, Archbishop Charles Chaput offered a major address on the state of Catholicism within the American republic. It is a ... More