God and the World: A Conversation with Peter Seewald Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger Ignatius Press, 2002 Comments by Dr. Samuel Gregg: As Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has demonstrated again and again that he is one of the world’s leading theologians. In this extended interview with the renowned German journalist, Peter Seewald, we are given an insight into Ratzinger’s thought on a range of topics fundamental to Christian belief. This includes profound...

An excerpt from Cardinal Ratzinger’s “Homily at the Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff,” given yesterday: How many winds of doctrine we have known in these last decades, how many ideological currents, how many fashions of thought? The small boat of thought of many Christians has often remained agitated by the waves, tossed from one extreme to the other: from Marxism to liberalism, to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from...

Visit the Acton Institute’s special section on Pope Benedict XVI to keep up-to-date about the new pope and the media activities of Acton staff. ...

Join Rev. Robert Sirico for a live chat at 11 am ET this morning hosted by Live Online at , “Insight on the New Pope.” ...

Rev. Robert Sirico has been mentary in a number of media outlets. Today Rev. Sirico appeared on BBC America and The Laura Ingraham Show. Research fellow Kevin Schmiesing wrote an op-ed appearing in the Detroit News, “New pope starts debate on direction of Catholic Church”. Director of research Samuel Gregg also wrote a short reflection for the Detroit News, “Reaction on the streets of Rome”. ...

The Institute for Religion and Democracy (IRD), and the broader munity, has lost two leaders within the space of a few months. President Diane Knippers, “an intellectual heavyweight who rallied opposition to the liberal drift of mainline churches,” passed away Monday at the age of 53. Ed Robb, co-founder of the IRD in 1981, also died recently, passing away on December 14. ...

The days following April 15 (and our tax bill, again) I question the government behemoth and how it takes so much of MY money to feed it. My parents struggled financially; they couldn’t send me to college. But I received a great debate scholarship, worked year round and went to grad school too. That self-sufficiency, success model that my husband and I followed means that by 2004 we were increasingly penalized for our success. We can’t make all we can...

On the occasion of the Earth Day celebrations this year, Dr. Samuel Gregg reflects on the role of people of faith in environmental discussions. The exercise of legitimate human dominion over creation “must be actualized in accordance with the requirements of God’s divine law,” he writes. Read the full text here. ...

Acton adjuct scholar Alejandro Chafuen argues that the new pope places the concept of freedom centrally to his thinking. And “with es an incalculability — and thus the world can never be reduced to mathematical logic,” writes Chafuen. Read the full text here. ...

Some might be acquainted with the argument about education that C. S. Lewis makes in his The Abolition of Man, especially his idea of “men without chests.” If you haven’t read it, please do, it’s well worth the time. But many are probably not familiar with Lewis’ view of the specifically American educational system. To this end, I’ll share some representative sections from a pair of Lewis’ works below. First, we have the Preface to Lewis’ “Screwtape Proposes a Toast,”...

Excellent and ments from Cardinal Ratzinger from the conference held on April 1, 2005, at the Monastery of St. Scholastica, Subiaco, Italy. The entire text will be published by Cantagalli Editore, Italy. Full text of the extract available from the Seattle Catholic : The true contrariety which characterizes the world of today is not that among diverse religious cultures, but that between the radical emancipation of man from God, from the roots of life, on the one hand, and the...

Reporting on an act of vandalism on the cathedral of Buenos Aires, Reuters asserts that Latin America is a region “whose poor and hungry often cannot afford to follow Roman Catholic doctrine.” How’s that??? Reuters does not expand on its theology, but we can take a guess at what this all implies. The poor and hungry cannot be expected to follow the Catholic Church’s teachings on abortion and contraception, because we all know that poverty and hunger are alleviated by...