An amicus brief is a learned treatise submitted by anamicus curiae(Latin for “friend of the court”), someone who is not a party to a case who offers information that bears on the case but that has not been solicited by any of the parties to assist a court. The amicus brief is a way to introduce concerns ensuring that the possibly broad legal effects of a court decision will not depend solely on the parties directly involved in the case....

Acton Institute President and Co-Founder Rev. Robert A. Sirico was in Argentina last week for Acton’s conference in Buenos Aires on Christianity and the Foundations of a Free Society, which is part of a series of Acton conferences being held around the world on the relationship between religious and economic freedom. While he was there, he was interviewed on Infobae.tvand spoke about the problems of poverty that Argentina is struggling with, and also addressed the relationship between Pope Francis and...

“60 Minutes” correspondent Lara Logan interviewed Iraqi Christians for a report that aired March 22. There will be mercial embedded at the start off the video, but just get past it. Logan’s interview, and the images of the destruction wrought by ISIS, vividly illustrate what this persecution means for more than 125,000 of Iraq’s Christians who have abandoned homes, villages and churches in the face of this barbaric assault. She interviewed Nicodemus Sharaf, archbishop of the Syriac Orthodox Church in...

For us the rebirth of Russia is inextricably tied, first of all, with spiritual rebirth … and if Russia is the largest Orthodox power [pravoslavnaya dershava], then Greece and Athos are its source. —Vladimir Putin during a state visit to Mount Athos, September 2005. Writing for the Carnegie Council, Nicolai N. Petro says that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “call for greater respect for traditional cultural and religious identities was either missed or ignored in the West. One reason, I suspect,...

It is no secret that rule of law in places like Slovakia is weak. Corruption, pay-offs, bribes and twisted use of power often pass for “rule of law.” However, this problem has infected health care as well, which means those who are able to bribe the doctor or health care worker is the one who will get the care. The Economist describes Communist-era corruption as a holdover infesting much of central and eastern Europe, and not just in health care....

A columnist for Al-Monitor who writes under the pseudonym Edward Dark visited Siryan Adeemeh, or Old Siryan, an elevated area in the regime-controlled west of Aleppo, the largest city in Syria. Dark wanted to “gauge the sentiment” of this area, which he describes as a working-class neighborhood home to Christian Arabs of several denominations and also inhabited by a sizable Muslim and Kurdish population. “It’s one of the few areas of Aleppo where churches outnumber mosques, munal relations had always...

Christina Hoff Sommers, of American Enterprise Institute, takes on the idea of men being obsolete. Civilization now needs empathy, social intelligence, emotional knowledge – right? And that’s where females excel. So do we still need men? ...

It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no senator’s son, son It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no fortunate one, no “Fortunate Son” – Creedence Clearwater Revival What do Al Gore, George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, Barry Bonds, Peyton and Eli Manning, Aage Bohrs, and Michael Douglas all have mon? Each of them reached the same level of success as their fathers in a petitive field. We like to think that the U.S. is a meritocracy, a...

“Rembrandt The Hundred Guilder Print” by Rembrandt – www.rijksmuseum.nl: Home: Info. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons. “No, those who labor and are heavy-laden do not all look the way Rembrandt drew them in his ‘Hundred Guilder’ picture—poverty-stricken, miserable, sick, leprous, ragged, with worn, furrowed faces. They are also found concealed behind happy-looking, youthful faces and brilliantly successful lives. There are people who feel utterly forsaken in the midst of high society, to whom everything in their lives seems...

A few weeks back, Acton ed Gene Edward Veith to the Mark Murray Auditorium as part of the 2015 Acton Lecture Series. This week, I had the opportunity to talk with Veith for this edition of Radio Free Acton. We discuss the influence of the Protestant Reformation on the development of capitalism, Luther’s beliefs on vocation, and how young people can discern their vocations as they contemplate their futures. You can listen to the podcast via the audio player below;...