August 28, 2020: Feast of St. Augustine
“This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.”
(T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men)
“In the world you shall have distress. But have confidence. I have overcome the world.“
(John 16:33)
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Dear Friends of the
Roman Forum,
“Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad”.
Our entire secularized but formerly glorious Christian civilization has gone stark raving mad, and deserves whatever fate lies in store for it for having abandoned God. Since it has lost its Faith it has also lost its Reason, proclaiming absolute nonsense as unquestionable, infallible, scientific wisdom.
At least we Catholics can take consolation in the fact that we have been provided by our robotic opponents with a “Galileo Case” that they will never be able to live down: when - and if - our brain dead civilization ever does regain its sanity. And Christ will, of course, triumph over an arrogant, modern, “enlightened” world, now seemingly ending with a pathetic whimper regarding not a Bubonic Plague but an admittedly tragic flu that nevertheless has mercifully left 99% of mankind quite intact.
Given everyone’s justifiable focus on the electoral drama, and given also the great uncertainty surrounding a crisis being manipulated by a variety of what I can only label terrorist organizations - whose crimes cry out to heaven for a new set of Nuremberg Trials to punish - this Roman Forum information letter will be very brief.
If the borders are reopened and conditions permit our proper use of the parish church of Gardone Riviera, our 28th Annual Summer Symposium dealing with The Traditionalist Movement: Its Origins, Its Manifold Ramifications, Its Divisions, and its Enemies, planned for 2020, will take place in the summer of 2021. Further information and exact dates will be provided as we become more secure about the future.
The last four years of our New York City Church History Lectures may be found for free on the Internet by calling up
The Roman Forum at Sound Cloud. As already mentioned in the past, our hope is eventually to redo all of the previous lectures of this present cycle of the history program - some 450 conferences in total - and make them similarly available to interested listeners. Meanwhile, the tentative schedule for the 2020-2021 New York City Church History Lectures, The End of the Modern World: From the “Purifying War” to Danger on All Fronts (1914-1945), is pasted below.
We are obviously grateful to those still capable of offering us tax-deductible donations in these difficult days. Donations can be made either through PayPal on
our website or by checks made out to the Roman Forum and mailed to the address indicated above. All donors are remembered in the monthly Traditional Mass said on their behalf, offered by our chaplain, Rev. Dr. Richard A. Munkelt. And all of you are always in our daily prayers.
Viva Cristo Rey!
John C. Rao (D.Phil., Oxford)
Chairman, Roman Forum
Associate Professor of History, St. John's University
SCHEDULE:
“Even if the wounds of this shattered world enmesh you, and the sea in turmoil bears you along in but one surviving ship, it would still befit you to maintain your enthusiasm for studies unimpaired. Why should lasting values tremble if transient things fall?” (Prosper of Aquitaine)
The Roman Forum
29th Annual New York City Church History Program (2020-2021)
The End of the Modern World:
From the "Purifying War" to Danger on All Fronts (1914-1945)
Lecturer: John C. Rao, D. Phil. (Oxford University)
Associate Professor of History, St. John's University
September 13: Benedict XV and the ”Purifying War”
September 27: One Man’s Purification is Another Man’s Chastisement
October 11: A Terribly Troubled Brave New World
October 18: Benedict XV, Pius XI, and the “Roman School” of Purification
November 1: “The Peace of Christ in the Reign of Christ” and the Occupation of International and National “Spaces”
November 15: A Formidable Competition for Control of the Ecumene
November 22: Multiple Ideological Bids for Occupation of National Spaces
December 6: A “Loyal Opposition” to the “Roman School”? Part One
December 20: A “Loyal Opposition” to the Roman School? Part Two
January 10: Salve, Popolo D’Eroi! The Popolari, the Clerico-Moderates, the Victory of the Fascisti, and the Lateran Accords
January 24: Viva Cristo Rey! Revolutionary Mexico, the Cristeros, and Friends Perhaps Worse Than Enemies
February 7: The Third Republic, the Action Française, and “the Revenge of the Sillon”
February 21: The Crises of Liberal Europe and the Stalinist Red Menace
March 7: Es Zittert Die Morschen Knochen: Germany Between a Rock and a Hard Place
March 21: A “Third Way” Free for All?
March 28: Popular Fronts and the Spanish Kaleidoscope
April 11: Pius XII: Taking Arms Against a Sea of Troubles
April 25: Danger on All Fronts: A New World Order?
May 2: Danger on All Fronts: International Communism or International Americanism?
Sundays at 2:30 P.M. Wine & Cheese Reception
N.B.---The live sessions are now organized as a private seminar. Those wishing to attend must contact Dr. John Rao drjcrao@aol.com to indicate their desire to attend. Once again, audiotapes of all lectures will be posted on SoundCloud.