The government-focused debate over how to emerge from the coronavirus shutdowns has been too dismissive of faith and private initiative, says Acton Institute President and Co-founder Rev. Robert A. Sirico in a new radio interview. In a wide-ranging discussion on Respect Life Radio, hosted by Deacon Geoff Bennett, Rev. Sirico began by outlining a wholistic response to the global pandemic. The public square has been dominated by petencies: science, economics, and faith, he says. “The extremes that people can take...

Bradley J. Birzer, professor of history and the Russell Amos Kirk Chair in American Studies at Hillsdale College, joins this episode of Acton Line to speak about his newest book, “Beyond Tenebrae: Christian Humanism in the Twilight of the West.” What is Christian humanism and what role does it play in the Republic of Letters? What does it mean to live as a Christian humanist? Birzer helps lay down some of the foundational ideas in his book and explains the...

Did central planning in health care and government make the COVID-19 pandemic worse by making the response more ineffective? Rev. Robert Sirico, president and co-founder of the Acton Institute, offers his thoughts on how centralization in health care and the economy has marginalized other perspectives and pushed aside notions of subsidiarity. ...

The coronavirus global pandemic has scrambled everything from economic policy to geopolitics. This disruption has created space for many to reconsider the world’s pre-coronavirus arrangements. Trade and globalization will undoubtedly be on the menu for renegotiation. As the world again considers the extent to which it wants to be interconnected, we must continue to forge a path that connects as many people to markets as possible. It is this arrangement, and this arrangement alone, that has led to the greatest...

Soon after COVID-19 infection rates began to skyrocket in New York City and other densely populated urban areas, progressives and Democrats demanded data on the racial disparities of testing, treatments, and deaths. The data showed that blacks and Latinos were much more likely to die from the virus than whites and Asians. As expected, progressives moved to explain these disparities in terms of structural, systemic injustice in America’s health care system: Such injustice follows the country’s material and economic inequality....

Millions of people within our country are experiencing extreme social isolation and loneliness. In a time defined by a pandemic and lockdowns, one would naturally expect people to feel this way, being cut off from family, friends, and neighbors. In actuality, the coronavirus has just exacerbated an existing pandemic that had been plaguing the United States for many years: a broad cultural trend of increased social isolation and alienation. Long before the coronavirus started, large segments of our society were...

On May 6, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos unveiled new Title IX regulations concerning sexual harassment and sexual assault on campus. Despite outraged cries of “turning back the clock” that echo across both sides of the Atlantic, the 2,033-page code reasserts the moral, ethical and legal norms that formed the basis of Western society. The prior definition of wrongdoing was so tantalizingly vague as to be infinitely elastic. “Sexual harassment is e conduct of a sexual nature,” said a 2011...

Perhaps nowhere is the disconnect between private citizens’ views and those of the government clearer than when es to the role of religion in society. Acton Institute President and Co-founder Rev. Robert A. Sirico told a nationally syndicated radio program that state orders that effectively ban clergy from caring for sick patients represent “the marginalization of religion as a non-essential service,” and this “flies in the face of our entire history as an American republic.” “Who knows best what is...

Amid the economic pain and disruption of COVID-19, much public attention has focused on the growing assortment of government interventions—from ever-increasing rules and regulations, to direct economic relief, to a mix of price controls and “stimulus” programs. Yet as governments continue their attempts at stabilizing the situation, we observe many solutions arising elsewhere. Across the economy and society, inventors, entrepreneurs, and workers are continuing to innovate and explore—reimagining their industries and businesses to address new constraints and meet human needs...

If there is anything that we have learned over the past five years of political turmoil in Western countries, it is that large numbers of people across the political spectrum are increasingly dissatisfied with the workings of modern democracy. These trends reflect, as numerous surveys illustrate, deep distrust of established political parties and, more particularly, those individuals whose careers amount to a series of revolving doors between elected office, government service, the academy, and politically-connected businesses. What’s often missing from...