The Moynihan Letters

    "The world can and must return to God: this is a necessity dictated by the divine order that the Creator has imprinted on creation. It must return to God, because only where Christ reigns can there by true justice and true peace." —Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, in a June 21 interview conducted by American political [...]

    Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, 67, an advisor to the Russian government after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and an advisor to the Vatican in recent years, has just published a piece in Tikkun magazine which he calls the present war in Ukraine "the culmination of a 30-year project of the American neoconservative movement." Full text [...]

    Letter #79, 2022, Thursday, June 30: Again, World War III...     Today marks the end of the first half of 2022.     I begin with a couple of "news notes," then return to sending out articles and essays I find of interest, as I announced in the last two emails ago, in helping to create a kind [...]

St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 140 to 202 A.D.) depicted in stained glass in St. Irenaeus Church in Lyons, France (link). He has been declared the Patron Saint of Church unity     Letter #78, 2022, Tuesday, June 28: World War III     Today is the feast day of St. Irenaeus of Lyons.     Five months ago, [...]

    British scholar Anatol Lieven, 61, in a photo from 10 years ago at the Chatham House event "A New Era in Maritime Security?: Risks, rules and responsibilities," held in October 22-23, 2012, in London. Anatol Lieven is a British author, journalist, and policy analyst best known for his expertise on the Taliban of Afghanistan. He is currently [...]

    "Notice that this phenomenon of abstract ideas about the human condition is ancient. It characterized, for example, decadent scholasticism, a theology of pure ideas, totally distant from the reality of salvation, which is the encounter with Jesus Christ. That is why a cultural magazine must work on reality, which is always superior to the idea. [...]

    "One wonders whether the transfer of Metropolitan Hilarion to Budapest is related in any way to the position taken by Patriarch Kirill on Ukraine. Aside from advocating peace and help for refugees, Metropolitan Hilarion has been relatively quiet on the subject of Ukraine. He has not echoed the more controversial statements made by the Patriarch." [...]

Pope Francis greets cardinals during the Mass marking the closing of the Year of Faith in St. Peter’s Square on November 24, 2013, the Solemnity of Christ the King.     Letter #73, 2022, Thursday, June 9: Endings     In Rome in recent days, there is much talk about "August 27" and "August 28" -- and on [...]

    "The hegemony exercised by the Anglo-sphere over what is now called the West then signals the Protestant matrix of the cultural-social-political system in question, not in the sense that only (historically) Protestant countries are now considered the West, but in the sense that it is the philosophical-political legacy of Protestantism that defines the ideological horizon [...]