Book 1: Margaret MacMillan’s “Paris 1919.” I don’t think I ever realized how haphazard the treaty construction process was, I think a more linear narrative would have been more effective, but the focus in issue by issue captured all at stake. #Fee2026Reading
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Book 42: Shelby Foote’s final volume of “The Civil War: A Narrative.” I’ve finished one of the great American tomes. It’s masterfully written, though, in its final volume, the author’s admiration for the defeated South comes through most strongly. He also doesn’t like Grant.
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Book 43: Alistair Horne’s “Seven Ages of Paris.” It’s a fascinating look at how Paris changed over time, but also the outsized role Paris played in shaping French history and her history of revolutions. Looking forward to our trip. #Fee2026Reading
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James Fee retweeted
Pope Leo XIV at Mass in Uruguay, delivers a magnificent reflection to parents whose children no longer practice the faith despite their best efforts:
“When we wonder and ask, where our faith comes from, the name of a specific woman often comes to mind; a mother, a grandmother, a godmother, a religious sister, or a catechist.
We may not remember every word they said to us, but we do remember how they prayed, how they spoke to how they spoke of the Lord snd with what conviction they lived out, what they taught us.
Today, I would like to thank all of those women. Thank you for having believed, and for having kept open a path to God in so many families.
Some were able to do so, supported by a long standing family tradition, others had to sustain that faith with greater effort, perhaps without always finding understanding or support within their own homes.
I know that many of you carry a very specific sorrow; you taught your children to pray, and today, they no longer do so.
You used to attend Mass together, and it has been years since they entered the church. You spoke to your grandchildren about God, and now you do not know if those words left a mark. Sometimes you wonder if you did something wrong. Or if it was all future.
Allow me to recall St. Monica here, who knew that pain well. She prayed for years for a son who seemed to be drifting further and further from God. But she never stopped trusting in His grace.
Therefore, do not consider what you have sown to be lost. The Lord Himself taught us that the seed can grow without the sower, knowing how.
Mothers and grandmothers never tire of passing on the faith. Preach with your lives, as well as with your words. Insist on prayer, love and hope. Insist on them, in seasoning and out of season.
Do so with patience, without harshness or discouragement, even if your loved ones seem far from God continue to place them before Him. Do not stop blessing them, accompanying them, and simply reminding them of what they once received. There are doors that you cannot open, but God can.
My daughter’s high school is doing Frozen (she’s Sven), but they are selling water as “Olaf in Summer” and I love it … little dark
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James Fee retweeted
Ivereigh is an ideological hack of the highest order. Bishop Barron is actually a real theological scholar. And Vesco’s rejoinder only digs himself a deeper hole. Monotheists have “better things to do”? Good grief what a sad attempt at deflection. The word “quisling” comes to mind. Does Vesco actually believe in the Gospel as something true? Seems questionable.
Go out and....?????
amywelborn.wordpress.com/202…
My .01 on the Catholic X discourse of the past day....
James Fee retweeted
I hate to tell you man, that isn't a terrific response, its a confession Barron was right.
Vesco doesn't speak "from the Church", Pope Leo does, and he wants people to come to Christ.
Terrific response by Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco to @BishopBarron disgraceful attack on his integrity. Vesco speaks from the Church, Barron for himself.
James Fee retweeted
“Why on earth did the Australian Army buy actual tanks? Why not just purchase tank simulators instead?” 😵💫
James Fee retweeted
I have a bet with @canonlawyered that we can get five new paid pillar subscriptions today. Curmudgeon that he is, he thinks we can't.
Prove him wrong here:
pillarcatholic.com/subscribe
James Fee retweeted
Well, another Cardinal has come out with a, shall we say, puzzling take on evangelization.
A few years ago, Cardinal Américo Aguiar, at the time auxiliary bishop of Lisbon, said that he and the other organizers of World Youth Day in his hometown had no interest in converting anyone to Christ.
Now Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco of Algeria has opined that “the Church is not there to convert” and “Christians should approach other religions through fraternity rather than seeking conversions.”
Excuse me, but…what?
Last time I checked, the Founder said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Sure sounds like conversion to me.
When St. Paul came to Corinth or Athens or Thessalonica, his purpose was not to listen or to form a discussion group but rather to declare an unnerving message: the euangelion (glad tidings) that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.
So impassioned is he for this work that he says, “I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel” (1 Cor. 9:22); and “If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel” (1 Cor. 9:16)!
Moreover, the entire thrust of the Second Vatican Council was toward bringing the Light of Christ to the peoples of the world (Lumen Gentium). And this missionary élan has given rise in the last few decades to the idea of a “new evangelization,” which is to say, a fresh declaration of the Lordship of Christ.
Quite obviously, no one thinks that this work of evangelization should be done in a brow-beating, overbearing, or disrespectful manner (proselytization), but for God’s sake, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
If I really thought that the Church does not exist to bring people to Christ, then I would resign and get an honest job.
James Fee retweeted
It is telling and entirely predictable that for the Cardinal the greatest challenge is entirely a question of political configurations, as the spiritual means nothing to him.
(Which is also why the liberal order is cooked)
“The great challenge we face over the next 20 years,” Cardinal Reinhold Marx tells Patrick Hudson in this week’s @The_Tablet, “is the threat to democracy posed by the growth of ethnic nationalism and populist far-right parties. There are two powers that stand for democracy, human rights, multilateral ideas, our common home & humanity: the European Union and the Holy See. Where are the others?” Marx bangs the table. “Nowhere.”
thetablet.co.uk/features/the…
James Fee retweeted
If America had built 1,000 nuclear reactors by 2000 and continued expanding, nuclear power would supply ~90% of our electricity today, even with dramatically higher demand from electrification.
We wouldn’t just have cheaper, abundant electricity. We’d have an entirely different industrial economy. Never forget what they stole from you.
Ralph Nader, 1997: “When we came out against nuclear power in the early '70s, the government had predicted that there would be 1,000 nuclear plants by the year 2000 in the United States, and there's 109 and shrinking, as more and more get shut down.” pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline…
Given how ugly second terms usually are … or at least have been of late … one wonders why more presidents don’t follow the example of Polk.
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James Fee retweeted
An even better rule of history is to learn some.
A good rule of history: if you find yourself opposing a student movement while siding with the ruling class, you're wrong. Every time, in every era, whatever the issue.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
Student movements have not always been on the right side of history. Mao's student Red Guards persecuted hundreds of thousands. Students helped Castro and Khomeini rise to power, and Nazi student groups opposed the Weimar Republic.
britannica.com/topic/Red-Guar…
encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/art…
aei.org/education/actu…