The Myth of the ‘Primal Man’: A Critique of Trad Cat Americanism
Seen through the lens of authentic Catholicism, the popular ‘Trad Cat’ movement in the United States is increasingly revealing itself as a strange amalgam of Christian symbolism and secular hyper-masculinity. What is presented as a return to tradition turns out, on closer examination, to be a radical break with Catholic anthropology — a ‘manliness’ far…
The Tollgate in the Garden of Eden: On the Metaphysical Theft of Creation
Somewhere in a laboratory – perhaps in Leiden, Missouri, or Basel – a technician bends over a microscope, examining the cellular structure of a crop. A few kilometers away, in a tower of steel and glass, a lawyer types a new clause into a patent application. Elsewhere again, deep in the servers of a data…
The Beam in Our Own Eye: A Critique of Politicized Christianity
There is a deep and painful paradox at work in the Church today. A movement born of one of the most fundamental and noble convictions of our faith — the defense of the inalienable right to life — has come more and more to speak the language and adopt the methods of secular political combat.…
In the Trenches of Being Right
We live in the trenches of being right. Anyone who today opens a newspaper, visits a news site, or wanders into social media is at once swept up into a state of permanent ideological warfare. It is a battle waged not with bullets, but with concepts; a conflict in which the weapons are not of…
The Church as Stumbling-Block
There is a strange dynamic in the search for God in our modern times. It often begins not with a clear longing, but with a subtle dissatisfaction; the gnawing recognition that the career you have built and the surface successes the world offers leave a deeper emptiness untouched.
Ex Umbris et Imaginibus in Veritatem: The Journey of Life as the Path to Truth
On the memorial stone of the great thinker and theologian, Cardinal John Henry Newman, a single Latin sentence is engraved: *Ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem*. “From shadows and images, into the truth.” These words were not merely an epitaph; they captured the motto of his entire life. It is the story of a soul…
Our Voluntary Servitude under Soft Tyranny
It is nearly two centuries since the French thinker Alexis de Tocqueville set this down after his visit to the young American democracy. Does he not describe, with almost unbearable precision, the world in which we live today?
An Ordination Mass as Company Party
The episcopal ordination of Ronald Cornelissen as Bishop of Groningen-Leeuwarden on 11 October 2025 was, at first glance, a festive and hopeful event. The media spoke of a relaxed atmosphere, a packed St. Joseph’s Cathedral, and a jovial new bishop who won the hearts of those present. But in my view, the sacred rites of…
Do You Still Believe in St. Nicholas?
It is that time of year again. The streets turn red and gold, children’s eyes sparkle with anticipation, and an air of innocent magic fills the sky. The feast of Sinterklaas — St. Nicholas as the Dutch celebrate him — is, we are told, an innocent fairy tale, a tradition that brings joy. But what…
Our Idol: The Opinion of Others
In a dark, indeterminate space a young man kneels, his body bent into an impossible arc. His whole being is fixed on the surface of the water beneath him. He seeks no refreshment; he is wholly under the spell of his own reflection. Caravaggio’s *Narcissus* is a masterpiece of obsession. The young man is caught…
In Veritatem
A search for truth
