Dr. Art Hippler [video]: Comparing classical Jesuit and Progressive views on...
Bellarmine Forum Board Member Dr. Art Hippler speaking on classical education. An excellent lecture! Dr. Hippler, Chairman of Theology at Providence Academy, Minnesota, compares classical Jesuit and...
View ArticleFr. Ciszek and the North American Martyrs: Reflections on Sinfulness and the...
On August 4, 1964, Fr. Ciszek began his annual eight-day retreat in preparation for his final vows, which he would take on the Feast of Our Lady’s Assumption, August 15, 1964. The site for this...
View ArticleFr. Robert J. Araujo, SJ (1948-2015)
This past week saw the passing of another giant of Catholic education and Catholic legal theory: Fr. Robert J. Araujo, SJ. To those in Catholic academe or in the realm of law, Fr. Araujo was a...
View ArticleRefugees, Immigration, and Catholic Discourse
I think it might be a general experience that Thanksgiving Day tends to bring extended families together more than even Christmas Day. I’m not sure why this is or whence this came about. My own...
View ArticleVeni, Veni, Emmanuel: Advent 2015
Today is the First Sunday of Advent. Here is an excerpt on the meaning of Advent: In Advent, the Greek Church celebrates particularly the ancestors of Our Lord–all the Patriarchs and Prophets of the...
View ArticleThe Cosmic Battle, Two Pontiffs, and a Novena
Is it weird to have a favorite holy water font? Well, I do. I’m weird. In the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls–not far from the place where the Apostle was buried after being decapitated for the...
View ArticleEpiphany House Blessing
It’s that time of year again to re-consecrate our families and homes to Our Lord! This blessing is needed today for those who celebrate in dioceses in the United States. For the Pope and those in the...
View ArticleFeast Day Ramblings
I admit it. I’m a decadent Roman. While I admire my friends of the Oriental Catholic persuasion who celebrate “Cheesefare Sunday” today in preparation for Lent (and have already whittled away their...
View ArticleLegitimate Islam
In his Regensburg Address, Pope Benedict XVI quoted a Byzantine Emperor’s statements on Islam and considered his words rather “brusque” for modern ears; but I don’t think the pope ever criticized the...
View ArticleGuarding Our Shrines as An Act of Political Realism
Ours is an era of both functional atheism as well as spiritual immaturity. When recent attacks occurred in France and Germany, it was amazing to read on my Twitter feed how many people shunned the...
View ArticleThe Canonization of John Paul II and John XXIII and “Traditionalist”...
On this Quasimodo ( Dominica in albis, Low, and Divine Mercy) Sunday, I am shocked at the pusillanimity of some of the so-called traditionalists in the Church. A great gift has been given to the whole...
View ArticleThe Totalitarianism of Equality
Even though I have differed in some conclusions from the late Fr. John Courtney Murray, S.J. in discussing the life of the Church in the context of the United States, I have always agreed with his...
View ArticleDear Bishop Galantino…
“The legalization of the termination of pregnancy is none other than the authorization given to an adult, with the approval of an established law, to take the lives of children yet unborn and thus...
View ArticleFr. Schall on Charlie Rice’s Latest
Excellent analysis in Catholic World Report. Excellent analysis in Catholic World Report. The post Fr. Schall on Charlie Rice’s Latest appeared first on The Bellarmine Forum.
View ArticleDiscussion: Men and the Church
Recently I had the privilege of being asked by Mr. Matthew Christoff to sit down for an interview on the state of men in the Church. Mr. Christoff’s apostolate–The New Emangelization and Catholic Man...
View ArticleWhat Our Grandparents Have Always Done
I’ve been following opera and Italian food expert Fred Plotkin for a number of years now. Politically, philosophically (in large measure) and theologically, we would likely find ourselves opponents. He...
View ArticleTo Restore What Has Been Seized Unjustly
If the Christian Religion forbade war altogether, those who sought salutary advice in the Gospel would rather have been counseled to cast aside their arms, and to give up soldiering altogether. On...
View Article“The Ambiguity of Islam”–Members of ISIS are Authentic Muslims
I commend to the readers of the Bellarmine Forum, a most excellent explication on the truth of Islam by one of the Holy See’s experts on the issue, Fr. Samir Khalil Samir, S.J. His book, 111 Questions...
View ArticleGiving Over the Keys
The Edgewater Beach Apartments are an interesting sight on Chicago’s north side lakefront. Built in 1928, it was part of a complex that housed the famed Edgewater Beach Hotel which was built in 1916....
View ArticleBlasé Cupich?
When I heard of the announcement of the new Archbishop of Chicago this weekend, I checked my Twitter account. I like Twitter for the fact that I have several news sources that give interesting and up...
View ArticlePatriarch Sako Schools American Bishops
“[This American Bishop] is also not experiencing first hand what we are experiencing. In America they put baskets with asylum request forms on church altars during mass. As if the migration of...
View ArticleOut of Depth
Minne’s Diner is a fantastic breakfast joint in Rogers, Minnesota. Right off I-94, the place reminds one of so many other classic breakfast places in the big city–only the hours are different, i.e.,...
View ArticleOn Meetings of Bishops (This should be shared and Tweeted far and wide!)
If I should write the truth, I believe that I ought to flee all meetings of bishops, because I have never seen any happy or satisfactory outcome from any council, nor one that has deterred evils more...
View ArticleThe Feast of St. Andrew
While our minds should rightly turn towards the First Sunday of Advent, don’t forget the Feast of St. Andrew (November 30). The brother of St. Peter and one of Our Lord’s Apostles. Fr. Reginald Foster,...
View ArticleSausages, Fireplaces, and The Mystery of Christmas Traditions
Well, I am within the 12 Days of Christmas, so I don’t consider this article late (by the way, don’t forget the Epiphany House Blessing!). My bride and I both spring from good ethnic stock–she, a...
View ArticleA Skiff in Raging Waters & Grace and The Value of Suffering in Marriage
Author’s Note: My wife Annie and I were honored to be asked by Fr. Nate Meyers and the good people of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Buffalo, MN to deliver a reflection on marriage for their annual Cana...
View ArticleOut-Loud Discussions
In past generations, communication was limited. Society was largely agrarian and the modes of communication and the technology to deliver such to people outside one’s immediate circle was limited. It...
View ArticleShades of Grey
The Lakeview neighborhood is an attractive area of Chicago’s north side. It seems as if it had always been a popular part of town. Though I didn’t realize it at the time we were dating, my future wife...
View ArticleCharles E. Rice (1931-2015): Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant
Composing an encomium for Charles E. Rice is possibly one of the most difficult things to do. Difficult, not because he is unworthy; rather it is difficult, because words in a brief space cannot...
View ArticleAll Their Wars are Merry, And All Their Songs are Sad
For the great Gaels of Ireland Are the men that God made mad, For all their wars are merry, And all their songs are sad. –G.K. Chesterton There is a strange phenomenon on the east side of Cleveland,...
View ArticleA Gift to Our Readers: Easter Strudel
We here at the Bellarmine Forum have often spoken of the revered traditional customs, especially those that take place at Easter and Christmas. Pope Benedict XVI has spoken eloquently of these and we...
View ArticlePopule meus, quid feci tibi, aut in quo contristavi te?
O my people, what have I done to thee? or wherein have I afflicted thee? Answer me. Because I led thee out of the land of Egypt, you have prepared a cross for thy Savior. O holy God! O holy God! O holy...
View ArticleKerygma for a Magdalen Ministry
About 20 years ago a friend of mine wrote a satire of modern ecclesial life in which he parodied the Bishops of the United States in a classic inversion of priorities in which the High Holy Day of...
View ArticleFrancis Cardinal George, Teacher and Witness (1937-2015)
I first met Francis Cardinal George shortly after his elevation to Cardinal, probably sometime in early 1998. I met him through Fr. Leo Sweeney, S.J., a friend, teacher and long time philosophy...
View ArticleMetz Yeghérn (“The Great Evil”)
In the summer of 2005, my family and I had the pleasure of visiting Dr. Mitchell Kalpakgian at his home in New Hampshire. I have followed the work of Dr. Kalpakgian since the early nineties. I first...
View ArticleStargazing
Looking at the stars is, perhaps, the single best way to excite the imagination--i.e., to wonder. I can think of no other human activity that commands the attention of both body and soul. It is...
View ArticleMemory and Imagination
As a boy growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, I must say—quoting Evelyn Waugh’s description of his own youth—that “I had an idyllic childhood.” At the end of our street was Lake Erie and as kids, my friends...
View ArticleGod’s Pursuit of Fr. Walter Ciszek, S.J….and Each of Us
I suspect every person—at one point in his life or another—has a moment when he reflects on where he’s been, where he is, and muses at where he might be going. Similarly, I suspect that each person...
View ArticleWanted: Intellectually Competent Bishops and Priests
In the opinion of this writer, one of the most evident marks of decline in the Church in the past 50 years has been the virtual non-existence of an authentic intellectual life in seminaries and among...
View Article(A Lack of) VIRTUS
The COVID-19 corona virus has really shown who can man up, and who waits for the government to tell them what to do...
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