Michael Severance earned his B.A. in philosophy and humane letters from the University of San Francisco, where he also studied at the university's St. Ignatius Institute, a great books program. He then pursued his linguistic studies in Salamanca, Spain where he obtained his Advanced Diploma in Spanish from Spain's Ministry of Education before obtaining his M.A. in Philosophy and Modern Languages from the University of Oxford. While living in Italy, Michael has worked in various professional capacities in religious journalism, public relations, marketing, fundraising, as well as property redevelopment and management. As Istituto Acton's Operations Manager, Michael is responsible for helping to organize international conferences, increase private funding, as well as expand networking opportunities and relations among European businesses, media and religious communities, while managing the day-to-day operations of the Rome office.
Posts by Michael Severance
November 12, 2019
I like the word
inclusive. Who doesn’t? My colleague certainly likes the word
inclusive, especially when I include more money in her paycheck. My wife likes the word
inclusive, when I include her equally in my share of assets and especially when I include myself in the housekeeping.
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November 09, 2019
Without warning, in the middle of a pleasantly warm August 13 night in 1961, German Democratic Republic authorities hatched and executed their stealthy plan: 10,000 soldiers were ordered to race to secure the border between East and West Berlin by early dawn.
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July 03, 2019
Every summer, as I prepare for much needed vacation, I am reminded of my favorite book, Josef Pieper’s
Leisure: The Basis of Culture. It was written by the neo-Thomistic philosopher who condemned a world of “total work.”
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June 28, 2019
Today’s demolition of the already half-collapsed Morandi Bridge is the definitive end of an economic revival that began over 50 years ago in the mega Italian port city of Genoa. The economic boom lasted well into the early 2000s thanks to what was then considered a perfect marriage of civil engineering and rapidly globalizing commerce.
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May 30, 2019
Yesterday, Prof. Mary Hirschfield of Villanova University received the prestigious “Economy and Society International Prize”, a €30,000 biennial award given by the Vatican’s Centesimus Annus Foundation. The dual doctoral degree holder in economics and theology was granted the prize money for her groundbreaking book
Aquinas and the Market: Toward a Humane Economy (Havard University Press, 2018).
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May 24, 2019
Robbing Peter to pay Paul. This is an idiomatic expression about bad – or at least disappointing – economics.
Curiously, it was born within the context of the Church’s supposedly poor financial administration of its properties.
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May 16, 2019
Matthew Harvey Sanders, a former seminarian turned successful technology and communications entrepreneur, has sought to fuse deep theological and moral convictions with his natural talent and contagious pioneering spirit. His brain child: Humanity 2.0, a self-described “human progress accelerator” showcased last May 9 at a forum held inside Vatican walls.
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May 03, 2019
On May 1st, the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, a Catholic church named after the saintly carpenter and foster father to Jesus, tragically burned to the ground in Phoenix, Arizona.
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April 16, 2019
Like most big stories, the world discovered last night’s fire devouring Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral at breakneck speed on social media. Images and video reached billions within a few minutes, nearly as fast as the dramatic flames took to completely engulf the ancient roof and send its tallest spire hurdling into a billowing smoky abyss.
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April 10, 2019
Last week in Rome, U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Callista Gingrich invited think tank leaders, journalists, and human rights advocates to the private colloquium “Stand Together to Defend International Religious Freedom.”
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