Samantha Power, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, writes: The Syrian people have endured 14 years of brutal civil war and 24 years under the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad, who stayed in power by torturing and killing – including with chemical weapons – any of his people who dared to oppose him.… Read More The End of the Butcher Bashar al-Assad’s Murderous Regime

David Brooks writes: In trying to construct a society that maximized talent, Conant and his peers were governed by the common assumptions of the era: Intelligence, that highest human trait, can be measured by standardized tests and the ability to do well in school from ages 15 to 18. Universities should serve as society’s primary… Read More Reimagining Our Broken Meritocracy

Michael Jordan Laskey writes: My 4-year-old son—rascally, chaotic—is better behaved at church than he is anywhere else…. We have to be sitting as close to the choir as humanly possible. And Mr. John, the bald, bespectacled Boomer who plays the drum set at this Mass, can’t be out sick or on vacation. If all these… Read More How I Learned the True Meaning of ‘Good’ Liturgical Music

via the Berkley Center: October 21-22, 2024 | This conference will commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), with a special focus on the commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Patrick F. Healy Conference on “Freedom and Man.” Held at Georgetown University on December 2, 1964, the conference on… Read More Revisiting “Freedom and Man”

via Jesuits Magazine: In 2023, and earlier this year, Fr. Patrick “Paddy” Gilger, SJ, presented a lecture on loneliness in two venues—first at St. Paul’s College in Winnipeg, Canada, and then as part of an Ignatian Volunteer Corps event at Saint Ignatius College Prep in Chicago. Through anecdotes, research findings and statistics, Fr. Gilger examines… Read More Antidotes to Loneliness

Christopher Hale writes: Kamala Harris’ 2024 campaign displayed a noticeable aversion to engaging with Catholic voters. Unlike Biden, Harris avoided any sustained outreach to religious communities, including Catholics, who comprise nearly a quarter of the U.S. electorate. Her campaign did not run targeted ads aimed at Catholic voters, nor did it make a concerted effort… Read More Why Kamala Harris Lost

Millennial of the Year Pete Davis writes: If I could make everyone at Democratic National Committee headquarters read one book, it would be Theda Skocpol’s Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life, published in 2003. In the early 20th century, according to Skocpol, civic life was mostly based in mass-membership organizations—religious congregations,… Read More The Democratic Party Needs to Transform Itself