Human flourishing

May 23, 2019

Unseen wonders: Man’s creative power and the sacramentality of nature

When I lived in Rome I taught a religious education class for a year, preparing kids for their first Communion. When they found out I was American, some of them were confused as to why I would come all the way across the Atlantic to study in Italy. Continue Reading...

May 10, 2019

Global poverty reduction slows – but there’s a fix

For the past many years, the news about extreme poverty around the globe has been extremely encouraging. The number of people living on $1.90 a day (2011 PPP), which the World Bank defines as extreme poverty, has been falling for decades. Continue Reading...

April 19, 2019

Rev. Sirico: Easter in the wake of the Notre Dame fire

It was a terrible thing on Monday to watch as flames consumed the beautiful and historic Notre Dame du Paris cathedral; I’m certain that I was not alone in fearing that before the conflagration was over, we would see that sublime structure come crashing down in a heap of ash and shattered stone. Continue Reading...

April 17, 2019

New video of Rev. Robert Sirico: ‘Defending the Free Market: The Moral Case for a Free Economy’

Earlier this month Fr. Robert Sirico delivered an address to the Liberty Forum of Silicon Valley titled, ‘Defending the Free Market: The Moral Case for a Free Economy’. The talk begins with an account of a formative childhood experience which first kindled in him a passion for justice. Continue Reading...

April 17, 2019

Free market environmentalism: Conserving and collaborating with nature

In an age of rapid industrialization and ever-accelerating technological change, many have grown fearful of environmental neglect and impending natural catastrophe. Such concerns tend to be based in a pessimistic view of economic opportunity, through which more individual ownership will surely lead to more reckless exploitation. Continue Reading...

April 12, 2019

The search for transcendence

Yesterday a short video, originally posted by Forbes a few months ago, popped up in my browser. Called “Finding Meaning Through Travel,” it discusses several people who have supposedly found their calling in a life of travel and exotic pursuits. Continue Reading...

April 11, 2019

Learning to love institutions in an age of individualism

In the wake of rapid globalization and widespread consolidation, many have grown weary of human institutions, whether in business, religion, politics, or beyond. Threatened by their structure and slowness, we have tended to detach ourselves, opting instead for more “organic” approaches to human interaction. Continue Reading...

April 09, 2019

New Interview with Rev. Robert Sirico: ‘Socialism & Venezuela: What Can Catholics Learn?’

Fr. Robert Sirico was recently interviewed by Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J., on The Catholic Current. Their topic: ‘Socialism & Venezuela: What Can Catholics Learn?’ The conversation was wide ranging. It begins with a consideration of the disastrous socialist commitment to central planning and its present fruit of shortages, starvation, and totalitarianism in Venezuela. Continue Reading...

April 02, 2019

Grace in our life together: Community beyond markets, states, and ‘social capital’

When discussing the role of economics in our life and world I am always careful to make a distinction: life is economic but economics is not all of life. I’ve suggested this broader understanding of personal and social interests has been common among major free-market theorists since Adam Smith. Continue Reading...

March 26, 2019

The virtues of boredom in an anxious age

Today’s parents are fixated on setting their children on strategic paths to “success”— cramming their days with lessons, sports, clubs, camps, and so on. The goal: to enrich their kids’ lives with new knowledge and experiences. Continue Reading...

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