Religion & Liberty Online Archives

International Affairs

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...

The reason women don’t enter STEM professions revealed

Conventional wisdom believes three things: Women are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); this is largely due to sexual discrimination; and the government must redress this imbalance. But multiple studies have discovered a much different reason behind the STEM gender gap. Continue Reading...

The downside of paid family leave: Denmark

As Republicans unveil plans for compulsory paid family leave, they would be well instructed to see how such policies have hurt women’s employment prospects. In Europe, where paid leave is often compulsory, women face fewer prospects for advancement than in the United States. Continue Reading...

A Spaniard defends Conservative Liberalism

“Conservative liberalism” isn’t a term commonly used in the United States. Indeed, to American ears, it seems positively oxymoronic. In Europe, however, it constitutes a venerable tradition of political thought and embraces figures ranging from the French thinkers Alexis de Tocqueville and Raymond Aron to economists such as the primary intellectual architect of the German economic miracle, Wilhelm Röpke, and the French monetary theorist Jacques Rueff. Continue Reading...

All homeschoolers may have to register with the government

The Department of Education has proposed new guidelines that all homeschool parents must register with the government. Officials say the registry, which comes as a booming number of children are being educated at home, would be used for government officials to check up on students and assure the pupils are receiving the government’s definition of a quality education. Continue Reading...

The biggest beneficiaries of the success sequence

Good choices benefit everyone but, as in all of life, not all groups gain equally. The success sequence is no different. The sequence says that the vast majority of people can avoid living in poverty if they make a few deliberate life choices: finish high school, work full time, wait until age 21 to get married, and do not have children outside wedlock. Continue Reading...

How to eliminate 99% of all poverty

Can avoiding a handful of socially harmful activities virtually guarantee someone will not live in poverty? Social scientists in the United States said they have found the secret, and a new report from Canada has found it also applies across the northern border. Continue Reading...

The Russian Five: ‘You want to be free’

Twenty-two years ago the Detroit Red Wings played the Colorado Avalanche in their final regular season matchup. The Avalanche had defeated the Red Wings in the previous season’s conference finals on their way to a Stanley Cup Championship, and the series included a dirty hit on Wings center Kris Draper, which ended his season. Continue Reading...