Qui fideliter cuncta faciebant.
Jacques Maritain (1882-1973) was a French Catholic philosopher and a close friend of St. Pope Paul VI who had an enormous influence on the Second Vatican Council. He is known as a political theorist of Christian Democracy, "Thomistic personalism," and "Integral Humanism," especially in the Catholic Worker Movement. The following excerpt is from his 1966 … Continue reading Jacques Maritain on the Left/Right Spectrum
Among her secular leftist and Communist friends, Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, often encountered lifestyles and ideologies which promoted sexual sin. As a convert to Catholicism, who repented of the “free love” and fornication of her past life, Dorothy frequently referenced Lenin’s commentary on “bourgeois immorality” to help her revolutionary friends understand … Continue reading Vladimir Lenin on the Errors of the Sexual Revolution
A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found.But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity Psalm 37:10-11 Many claim that capitalism has saved us from frequent famines and the “back-breaking” labor of peasant farming. “For example, Rutger Bregman tells … Continue reading Were Premodern Peasants Starving and Overworked?
The following easy excerpt is from Chapter Six: "The Use of Energy” of Wendell Berry’s famous book “The Unsettling of America” (1977), an essential critique of the cultural and agricultural damage caused by the technocratic domination of farming and food production. Though it seems impossible to distinguish between the living and the mechanical aspects of … Continue reading Wendell Berry on the “Cheerful Prophets” of Modernity
This Easy Essay is not yet published. For an excellent essay on the topic, see "Adam Without Scarcity" by Marc Barnes. Featured Picture: "L'Abondance" by Noël Coypel
He said unto them: Therefore every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven, is like to a man that is a householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure new things and old. Matthew 13:52 The Catholic Church is the guardian of the Sacred Tradition passed on to the disciples by Jesus Christ. In this … Continue reading A Manifesto of the New Traditionalism
Yet it is quite true in one sense that monasteries are devoted to Communism and that monks are all Communists. Their economic and ethical life is an exception to a general civilization of feudalism or family life. Yet their privileged position was regarded as rather a prop of social order. They give to certain communal … Continue reading What are the Commons?
...hope does not weaken commitment to the progress of the earthly city, but rather gives it meaning and strength. It is of course important to make a careful distinction between earthly progress and the growth of the Kingdom, which do not belong to the same order. Nonetheless, this distinction is not a separation; for man's … Continue reading What is Liberation Theology?
General Information Spiritual Requirements: We are looking for faithful Catholics who practice prayer, fasting, and almsgiving with a firm desire for sanctity. This also entails either actively discerning, or generously living, their vocation. We strongly encourage all new lay missionaries to perform some form of personal consecration or to join a Third Order (or other … Continue reading Our Worker-Scholar Missions
At Tradistae, we believe that modern Christians must reject the atomization of industrial capitalism and live in some form of intentional community. Therefore, we intend to help all of our lay friends and members to (a) found a new community or Catholic Worker where they live, or (b) re-settle in, or next to, an existing … Continue reading You Are called to Community