Tea at Trianon: How to Raise a Warrior of Faith

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, August 21, 2021

How to Raise a Warrior of Faith

From Crisis:

How do we ensure our Catholic faith is successfully embraced by the next generation? That is one of the most crucial and vexing questions facing American Catholics in a time of declining church membership and attendance. A poll from last year found that more than a third of young Catholics planned to attend Mass less regularly after the pandemic (whenever that is).

Much of the answer lies in how we parent. That’s the argument made by Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, who noted in a recent article that “passing on the faith is one of the most important challenges we face in the Church today.” This is the same Archbishop Gomez who, as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a controversial statement regarding abortion on the inauguration President Joe Biden—a statement that elicited the ire of Cardinal Blase Cupich. Archbishop Gomez has also stridently sought to defend the integrity of the Eucharist, in an age when politicians (like Mr. Biden) present themselves for Holy Communion while publicly flaunting Church teaching on abortion. Perhaps in part by looking at the moral example of Archbishop José Gomez—as well as his own comments in his recent article—we can discern some solutions to this crisis of passing on the Faith. (Read more.)