The myth of the divine state

If you follow the current controversy surrounding the role of religion in American society, you might conclude that the country faces but two options: throwback theocracy or take-no-prisoners secularism. The following lines sum up an admirably clear and concise understanding of faith and politics: The state is not the whole of human existence and does not embrace the whole of human hope. Continue Reading...

Economics and Benedict XVI

Rev. Sirico gives a brief survey of the continuity on economic thought between John Paul II and Benedict XVI in this excerpt of an interview on yesterday’s EWTN show Live from the Vatican. Continue Reading...

Too poor to be Catholic?

Reporting on an act of vandalism on the cathedral of Buenos Aires, Reuters asserts that Latin America is a region “whose poor and hungry often cannot afford to follow Roman Catholic doctrine.” Continue Reading...

Europe in a crisis of cultures

Excellent and challenging comments from Cardinal Ratzinger from the conference held on April 1, 2005, at the Monastery of St. Scholastica, Subiaco, Italy. The entire text will be published by Cantagalli Editore, Italy. Continue Reading...

Benedict XVI and freedom

Acton adjuct scholar Alejandro Chafuen argues that the new pope places the concept of freedom centrally to his thinking. And “with freedom comes an incalculability — and thus the world can never be reduced to mathematical logic,” writes Chafuen. Continue Reading...

Acton staff on Pope Benedict XVI

Rev. Robert Sirico has been providing commentary in a number of media outlets. Today Rev. Sirico appeared on BBC America and The Laura Ingraham Show. Research fellow Kevin Schmiesing wrote an op-ed appearing in the Detroit News, “New pope starts debate on direction of Catholic Church”. Continue Reading...

HABEMUS PAPAM

Visit the Acton Institute’s special section on Pope Benedict XVI to keep up-to-date about the new pope and the media activities of Acton staff. Continue Reading...

A dictatorship of relativism

An excerpt from Cardinal Ratzinger’s “Homily at the Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff,” given yesterday: How many winds of doctrine we have known in these last decades, how many ideological currents, how many fashions of thought? Continue Reading...

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger is Pope Benedict XVI

God and the World: A Conversation with Peter Seewald Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger Ignatius Press, 2002 Comments by Dr. Samuel Gregg: As Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has demonstrated again and again that he is one of the world’s leading theologians. Continue Reading...