The Blindness of Modern Man

The Church: "Dying, We Live" (2 Cor 2:9)
This is the final fact, and it is the most extraordinary of all. The faith has not only often died but it has often died of old age. It has not only been often killed but it has often died a natural death; in the sense of coming to a natural and necessary end.

It is obvious that it has survived the most savage and the most universal persecutions from the shock of the Diocletian fury to the shock of the French Revolution. But it has a more strange and even a more weird tenacity; it has survived not only war but peace. It has not only died often but degenerated often and decayed often; it has survived its own weakness and even its own surrender…read more.

The Mind Of Modern Man
The mind of modern man is a curious mixture of decayed Calvinism and diluted Buddhism; and he expresses his philosophy without knowing that he holds it. We [i.e. Catholics] say what it is natural for us to say; but we know what we are saying; therefore it is assumed that we are saying it for effect. He says what it is natural for him to say; but he does not know what he is saying, still less why he is saying it. He is just as partisan; . . . just as much depending on one doctrinal system as distinct from another. But he has taken it for granted so often that he has forgotten what it is. So his literature does not seem to him partisan, even when it is.

But our literature seems to him propagandist, even when it isn't.

- G.K. Chesterton


Two important items this Easter weekend include Pope Bendict XVI who has delivered a blistering attack on the “satanic” mores of modern society today, warning against an “inane apologia of evil” that is in danger of destroying humanity. Read the article here.

Equally important and newsworthy reading this Easter weekend is Mark Steyn's brilliant and much lauded City Journal article called Facing Down Iran …our lives depend upon it. This is absolutely essential reading if you are concerned at all for the future of our foundational culture within the atrophying structures of our rapidly decaying, disgustingly debased, superficial, western civilization.

Mark Steyn is indispensable to the journalistic culture of the free world. One the finest & most prolific writers in the English language.

Talking Points: I wish to thank Stephen Hand for his kind mention and linkage recently in his musings section at his TCR website. It's always nice to be appreciated by others who also happen to be ardent admirers of Bob Dylan. As a true philosophical conservative however I'm about 180 degrees apart from Stephen's own personal and religious politics but as Catholics we can certainly share in the spirit of our late beloved Pope John XXIII who reminded us all years ago as God's children to seek that which unites rather than what divides.

Spotlight: I've been meaning to spotlight a wonderful Catholic site for some time now called Pro Ecclesia which happens to be one of my reciprocal sidebar links. Jay Anderson’s Pro Ecclesia site has always impressed me with it's very high caliber content and writing and I recommend it highly as a beautiful and well organized Catholic site that I'm sure you will enjoy reading and coming back to often.