"Nations are the wealth of mankind"

Here is a powerful quote given by the great Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn during his Nobel Lecture of 1970:

"Here it is merely fitting to say that the disappearance of nations would have impoverished us no less than if all men had become alike, with one personality and one face. Nations are the wealth of mankind, its collective personalities; the very least of them wears its own special colours and bears within itself a special facet of divine intention."

More links added

I know it seems that most of the latest work I've done on this blog has been adding new links. Don't worry, within a week or two things should be settling down so I might have more time to write more well thought out posts.

Anyways here's a list of the links I've recently added. You'll notice that many of them deal more with what is commonly termed "the Culture War". Not only does this blog support a Catholic(or even generally Christian) alternative to modern politics, but especially an alternative to our modern decadent culture. These links wish to promote that agenda:

Center for a New American Dream offering an alternative to the materialism prevalent in American culture.

The Simple Living Network promoting the ideal of simple living, which rejects the materialist ethos of our modern culture

NetFuture: Technology and Human Responsibility offers excellent analysis of modern technology, and takes a critical approach to the philosophy governing its development.

Adbusters these guys are well known for their challenge to the corporate domination of our culture and way of life.

Chivalry Today in our modern age of moral degradation, these guys advocate the revival of chivalric ideals!

Traditional Wisdom wishes to be the light in our modern 'Dark Age'.

Art for the Catholic Restoration a great site that wishes to revive more traditional-based aesthetics into Catholic art. Much better than what most "experts" consider "art".

Spirit Daily Spiritual news from around the world. Lots of news and links concerning Catholicism, very nice!

The Ramblers Association wishing to promote the ideal of regular walking as an alternative to the couch potato lifestyle. Fitness and physical well-being are a big part in the cultural war.

So enjoy!

Remember the Ukrainian Genocide!

Recently, Ukrainians both at home and abroad marked the 70th anniversary of the 'Holodomor', the brutal famine that occurred in 1932-33 that resulted in the deaths of several million innocent Ukrainians.

I myself am of Ukrainian descent and proud of my ethnic heritage. There simply are few words I can say about this, except that that the Ukrainian community should do whatever it takes to keep the memory of this event alive to our future generations. And also try to obtain wider attention towards this atrocity.

A great site that struggles to achieves these goals is the Ukrainian Genocide Famine Foundation.

I'm sorry there's nothing more I can say, my heart is too broken!

Catholic universalism and particularism

In a footnote to my previous post concerning the relationship between Christianity and nationalism, I wish to add a more specifically Catholic perspective on the issue. Many try to argue about the universalist nature of the Catholic Church as a way to claim that Catholicism and nationalism(or any form of particularism for that matter) are incompatible. In response to such claims I offer the insights of the late Adrian Hastings:

"The point is that Catholic Christianity, understood in a wide sense, was both incarnationalist and universalist - it tended to both identify closely with particular communities, cultures, and nations, and to insist upon a communion transcending such particularities. It oscillated, one might say, between Old and New Testament sources of inspiration."
-- The Construction of Nationhood: Ethnicity, Religion and Nationalism pg.203

More and more links

Yeah I'm sure you may noticed them.

After much internal debate, I have decided to add Patrick Harrington's Third Way party to my links. There is certainly much about this group that I like, and their basic philosophy of the 'patriotic centre' brilliantly outlines the viewpoint of this blog. However, I had many reservations about their views concerning prostitution and such. Nevertheless, I've decided to overlook these flaws and see the merit of this group.

G2mil: Magazine of Future Warfare is a website hosted by Carlton Meyer that offers brilliant analysis of military affairs, which often goes against the cliches offered by more corporate and governmental sources.

Catholic Rural Life: another Catholic agrarian website with plenty of interesting resources

And the homepage of Father Andrew Greeley. For those who remembered, back in April I actually attacked Greeley for his staunch support for a Third World pope. However I have recently stumbled across his other writings and commentaries, and I was amazed at the insight he offers both on religious and political matters. While I certainly don't agree with his progressive and liberal views(me being more traditionalist minded), nevertheless I like his attitude and his fighting spirit.

So enjoy.....soon I'll probably be adding more links here.

New EWTN series....Part II

Some of my readers may remember my post concerning a new series on EWTN that deals with the social teachings of the Catholic Church. I also noted that I would give a review of the series in due time. Although time constraints prevent me from giving a real in-depth commentary, nevertheless there are a few things I have to say about this program.

I must admit that at first I was highly cynical and skeptical as to the quality of this program, as one could conclude from my previous post on the matter. I certainly was not impressed with the first episode I watched. However, after viewing several more episodes my opinion on the series has dramatically changed. I find this series as an excellent introduction to the vast array of topics addressed by Catholic Social Doctrine.

Msgr. Stuart Swetland is a wonderful host and does a wonderful job explaining the Church's view on several issues. The nature of the show follows him addressing a small group of college students.

My personal favorite episode was the one covering families and communities. What impressed me most was when Swetland stated that the Church has always placed greater emphasis on "organic" communities as opposed to "artificial" ones. Although Swetland didn't mention ethnicity as an example of such(rather he actually gave "the state" as an example), but certainly the logic of an "organic" community presented could very easily be used to justify ethnicity as a basis for social organization from a Catholic perspective. And indeed it has been used to justify such. In his "Letter to Families"(1994), Pope John Paul II explained the importance of ethnic ties in linking individual families with society as a whole.

In our modern age that looks negatively upon ethnic and national loyalties, we Catholics cannot stressed this point enough!

Other good episodes in this series addressed issues concerning the workplace, labour relations and organization, and even today's episode concerning the environment.

So I highly recommend any socially-minded Catholic to watch this wonderful series!

Check your local listings.

Italian candidate promises to revive old pilgrimage route

BBC is reporting that Italian opposition leader Romano Prodi promises to revive a Medieval pilgrim route, the Via Francigena, if elected prime minister. The route dates all the way back to the 10th century and stretches from Cantebury in England through France and Switzerland and ending in Rome itself.

The article doesn't specify why Prodi wishes to carry out this project. Most likely he wishes to increase tourism to Italy. I like how the article mentions that many pilgrimage sites throughout Europe still attract thousands of visitors each year. In fact, I made mention of this in a previous post; which actually leads me along with others to question how far secularism has prevailed within Europe. And I certainly plan on commenting on this issue further in another post.

The proposed plan is said to be welcomed by Italy's Catholic voters, as it should. I certainly hope Prodi has more than just merely commercial concerns in proposing this project. Hopefully there's an element of geniune faith and concern for Italy's(and indeed all of Europe's) spiritual heritage at work here as well.

Charles Martel....Where are thou?

Here's a very interesting article detailing how the Christian faith, with fine warriors like Charles Martel under its banner, were able to stop the onslaught of Islam onto Europe and what long-term effects this had on the world at large. Namely that Islam was not able to conquer the world.

Many people don't realize it, but the notion of Islam imposing a world-wide empire is at the core of Islamic political thinking. Islam has little if any regard for local culture and traditions. So if Islam managed to conquer Europe(then or now), you could pretty much kiss goodbye everything we love so dear about European culture.

With the Muslim riots in France still raging(but thankfully I've read reports that things are beginning to calm down) studying the efforts of Charles Martel and other Christian warriors protecting Europe from Islamic invasion couldn't be more relevant. Hopefully we'll be able to repeat the victory that Martel obtained in 732 A.D.!

Still busy...But added new links

Yes sadly, I'm still very busy with other affairs to attend to. Nevertheless, I did manage to add some news links, which I've been meaning to do for some time now. Here's a list of them:

Christus Rex - offers good information on Catholic politics and aesthetics

Cahiers Peguy - Catholic political blog from the perspective of the thinker Charles Peguy

Orthodoxy Today - Political and social commentary from a traditional Christian perspective

Catholic Rural Solutions - promoting an agrarian social ideal enlightened by Catholic social teachings

Simple Catholic Living - offering a Catholic alternative to our consumerist-materialist driven society

Economy in Crisis - the real deal behind what's going on with the economy, and how "free trade" is negatively effecting hard-working people.

The New Agrarian - offering a Christian alternative to decadent urban living



***Links added as of November 14, 2005:

English Independence Fighting to preserve the Anglo-Saxon heritage of England

E.F Schumacher Society and Library dedicated to the life and work of E.F. Schumacher, famous for his book Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered

The Idyllic - nice online resource for Third Way commentaries

Americans Against the American Way of Life - criticism of the decadent lifestyle and culture that prevails in American society

Alasdair MacIntyre: Online Articles and Resources - dedicated to the man who is perhaps the greatest philosopher of the late 20th century

Christopher Lasch: Online Resources Dedicated to the insightful work of the late social critic

The Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies and The Communitarian Network. The close connection between the Communitarian movement and Social Catholicism has long been noted. Many Communitarian thinkers are either Catholic or admit the influence of Catholic Social Doctrine on their work.


So enjoy, and hopefully soon I'll be able to spend more time blogging here.

Riots in Paris!

I'm sure many people have been reading or hearing about the current chaos going on in France. I must say this is a great tragedy that has fallen on the French nation. Sadly I've not been able to fully follow this story, and furthermore much less time and energy to fully comment on these events.

Melanie Phillips has herself offered a far-sighted commentary on these events, concluding that these riots are the final result of the multi-culturalist insanity that has governed France and indeed all of Europe for the past half-century. As I and others continuous say, multi-culturalism simply does not work!

My hopes and prayers go out to the French nation, may they bring order to the situation as quickly as possible. And may this tragedy help awaken France and the rest of Europe to the Islamic threat that it has ignored for far too long. Hopefully this incident will help surge support for men like Jean-Marie Le Pen and others who seek to preserve and revive the glory of the French nation.


Hopefully in the near future, I'll be able to more fully comment on this.

All Saints' and All Souls' days

Well it's the day after Halloween, so I hope those evil and demonic forces didn't attack you last night. hehehehe....just joking.

Well anyways, today is November 1st, which makes it All Saints' Day; which is meant to celebrate all those saints who may not be well known or have their own feast day. Tomorrow, November 2nd, will be All Souls' Day, which pays homage to the souls of those who have departed from this world.

So enjoy these feast days my fellow Catholics.

Sadly I will not be able to blog here for quite some time. I'm extremely busy with other matters at the moment. And there are so many topics I plan on commenting on in hopefully the near future.

So take care!