Churchill: The Forgotten Years, 1945-65

A superb documentary covering the last two decades of Winston Churchill's extraordinary life. It focuses on his astonishing defeat in the 1945 election, his political recovery at Fulton, Missouri, and then his political victory in 1951 when he again became Prime Minister. Presented by the ever-excellent Professor David Reynolds, it is first-class material for students of the man and the period.

 

 

 

Father Rutler: God's Perfect Consistency

Ralph Waldo Emerson had moments more perceptive than his vague religiosity: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” He spoke not of consistency itself, but of a “foolish” consistency. As True God and True Man, Christ was perfectly consistent, but from the platform of a fallen world, that consistency could seem inconsistent.
 

Consider how reluctant he was to let his divinity be known. He spoke of it cryptically in the synagogue at Nazareth, but insinuated enough to enrage his neighbors. Then he went into hiding. When he healed the leprous and blind, he ordered them sternly to tell no one. When he cured the paralytic at the Siloam Pool, he slipped into the shadows of the Temple like a fugitive. And he sternly ordered Peter and James and John not to reveal what they had seen on the mountain.
 

Was it inconsistent then that he made a spectacle of himself when he entered Jerusalem? It was a flagrant publicity stunt, encouraging the cheers of children who enjoyed a good show: with a theatrical entrance foolish enough for some to mock him with a crown of thorns, and shocking enough for others to cut his nerves with nails on a cross. If he was so reticent, why did he suddenly burst into the city in a way that seemed to some like a circus come to town, and to others like an anarchist about to blow everything up?
 

God is not inconsistent to those who listen carefully: “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). With a consistency more perfect than human consistency, because it is from outside time, the hour of which he spoke at the Wedding in Cana had come, and the only clock that could measure it was his Love. His human will dreaded that hour, but his divine will embraced it, and in that valiant act, the selfish pride that brought sin and death in the world was confused, confounded, and ultimately washed away in blood.
 

Jesus said that if the children singing to him were silenced, “the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19:4). Here in our neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen, the great glass skyscrapers now rising all around may seem indifferent, but the energy and skill that are building them cry out in testimony to God who
gave life and intelligence. Dante read over the gates of Hell: Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate—“Abandon all hope, you who enter here.” By entering the gates of Jerusalem, Christ opened the gates of Heaven where hope is fulfilled. That is God’s perfect consistency. “Lift up your heads, O gates! And belifted up, O ancient doors! That the King of glory may come in” (Psalm 24:7).

Faithfully Yours in Christ,

Fr. George W. Rutler

My Letter to the Bishop of Charleston

Today on the Feast of Saint Joseph, Patron of the Church, I sent the following letter to the Bishop of Charleston.  The linked "Open Appeal to the Catholic Bishops of the World" is self-explanatory and involves what I believe to be one of the greatest crises ever to confront Christendom.  I hope you will consider contacting your own bishop and forwarding this appeal.  Contact information for bishops is usually found on the diocesan website.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Your Excellency:

Catholic World Report has recently published "An Open Appeal to the Catholic Bishops of the World" which I would respectfully recommend to you.  It is an urgent appeal to avert a spiritual crisis which has been foisted on the Church by corruption and heresy emanating from the very top.  The letter contains four specific recommendations as to how our spiritual shepherds can preserve and promote the Christian deposit of faith.  I prayerfully hope that you will consider acting on these recommendations.

The heretical teachings being promoted under a "new paradigm" are as old as the devil who inspires them and we have already seen the ruin they have brought to the Anglican communion.  I assure you of my prayers and eagerness to help in any way you may see fit in preserving the teachings of our Church, handed down to us by the Apostles.

Very respectfully yours in Christ,

Daniel J. Cassidy
A parishioner of St. Peter's Church, Columbia

Father Rutler: A Fact More Fabulous Than a Fable

There are those of us who remember how as schoolboys, the clever use of rhythmic dactyls in Virgil's metrical Latin verses made unforgettable the sound of horses galloping. And one of my schoolmates gained fleeting fame when our French teacher announced that, as our classmate was recovering from an appendectomy, the first words he whispered as he came out of the anesthesia were from a line in LaFontaine's fable about the Crow and the Fox: "Maître Corbeau sur un arbre perché . . ."
 

Fables have always been entertaining ways to teach children to remember moral wisdom. LaFontaine in the late 17th century drew on stories of Aesop, a Greek slave in the fifth century before Christ. Many of those fables in the Aesopica were adopted along the way in Welsh (Chwedlau Odo—“Odo’s Tales”), Middle Low German, and even Middle Scots. Moral truths have no national borders or chronological barriers. Everyone in any place can learn a lesson from Aesop’s fable of the Tortoise and the Hare, in which the tortoise defies all odds and wins the race because the hare was so smug that it took a nap.
 

The parables of our Lord are different from fables, for they are about people, while fables make animals talk. Fables enliven moral consciences while Christ’s parables make moral points but also direct attention to eternal realities. When our Lord says, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like . . .” he describes a heavenly reality, and not a fantasy.
 

Commissioned as an apostle of the Good News, Saint Paul wrote: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take the prize. Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable” (1 Corinthians 9:24-25). This race is not a fable about tortoises and hares. Those are illusions, but Paul’s race is an allusion. He is speaking of real people in Corinth, where the Isthmian Games took place before and after the Olympic Games, and whose winner received a crown of wild celery instead of the Olympic olive leaf. And celery leaves fade fast.
 

Lent is a microcosm of life in its entirety, with all its trials. When Saint Paul speaks of discipline, he employs a Greek word used for wrestling and any struggle for victory—agonia, from which we get agony. The Anti-Christ wants us to surrender the race and tries to persuade us that life is nothing but agony without a prize. His plot is to discourage, while Christ’s Holy Church is constantly encouraging, through the Sacraments and the heavenly cheerleaders called saints and angels. Saint John Vianney was convinced of a fact more fabulous than a fable: “Not all the saints started well, but all of them ended well.”

All I've Ever Known: Margaret Gallagher's Story

This documentary produced for the BBC in 1992 has proven to be very popular from its first broadcast, and continues to attract interest from across the world in 2018. Margaret Gallagher from Belcoo, Co Fermanagh, N. Ireland, enjoys her rural lifestyle, living without modern amenities. This was shot on 16mm film.

Gary Oldman Visits Hillsdale College

On December 15, Hillsdale College hosted a special screening of Darkest Hour for over 800 guests. The following day, Dr. Larry Arnn was joined on stage by Gary Oldman and producer Douglas Urbanski for an 80-minute panel discussion. The three men talked about Gary Oldman's preparation for the role of playing Winston Churchill, the significance of Churchill's actions in May 1940, and why a modern audience should watch this film.

Saint John Cantius: Restoring the Sacred

Today is the fifth anniversary of one of the darkest days in the history of the Church.  There have been Popes guilty of moral turpitude, but never before has there been a heretic who sought to change the immutable teachings of Christ, preserved by Popes for two millenia.  The following video is a beautiful story about the renaissance of an inner-city church in Chicago.  It is a heartening reminder that He "who makes all things new" will ultimately reclaim and restore the Church universal.  

Thy Kingdom Come!