Dear
Friends:
Bella gerant alii; tu, felix Austria,
nube. “Let others make war;
you, happy Austria, marry.”
This famous reworking of a line from the
Roman poet Ovid lauds the late fifteenth century
successes of the Hapsburg Family in strengthening its
domains through carefully arranged marriage alliances
rather than ill-considered and therefore generally
appallingly self-defeating military action. But Ovid’s
words, in the much broader significance given to them by
the Hapsburgs nearly fifteen hundred years later, can
also be appropriated to describe the vision and strategy
of the Roman Forum today.
Simply put, what the Roman Forum seeks to
do is two-fold.
On the one hand, its project is to free
Catholics from an embrace of the thoughtless, rancorous,
and self-defeating political and polemical conflict that
characterizes the global pluralist regime; to liberate
them from infatuation with an intellectual “dialogue”
which amounts to nothing more than endless,
instantaneous, and ultimately meaningless commentary on
the latest battles on the blogosphere.
On the other, the Roman Forum works to
direct Catholics down the only valid path to solid,
long-term success in each and every realm of life, the
political realm included. And this entails cultivating a
romance and marriage alliance with Christ, gaining a
full recognition of what that union really entails, and
obtaining the incomparably happy fruits that its
transforming experience yields.
A mammoth spiritual and intellectual
culture war with terrible practical consequences is
indeed being fought in our time. Unfortunately, most
believers are fighting that war by arming themselves
with concepts of freedom, the individual, and society
that are naturalist in character and destroy the last
remnants of Catholic Christendom. The Roman Forum urges
a retreat from this suicidal endeavor for the purpose of
providing a “basic training” that emerges from a more
solid marriage with Christ. Such training arms potential
crusaders with spiritual and intellectual weapons that
will not explode in their faces when they renew battle
with their foes. It is a training that the Roman Forum
undertakes on both the international and national level.
But how?
1) Through the Summer
Symposium on Lake Garda, Italy.
For twenty years, for two weeks in the
summer, a small Italian resort, Gardone Riviera, on Lake
Garda, the largest and most beautiful lake in Italy, is
literally transformed into an international Catholic
village, with daily traditional masses, lectures,
camaraderie, superb food and wine, and day trips to
surrounding sites, such as Venice and Trent. For
participants, many of whom come back year after year and
feel like family, it is a rare and wonderful opportunity
to experience Catholic life on the continent where
Catholic culture first fully came to flower. The
Summer Symposium hosts a large international
faculty, which has included Dale Ahlquist (G.K.
Chesterton Society of America), Patrick Brennan
(U. of Villanova), Christopher Ferrara (American
Catholic Lawyers Association), Fr. Brian Harrison
(Catholic U. of Puerto Rico, Emeritus), James Kalb
(author of The Tyranny of Liberalism), Michael
Matt (editor of The Remnant), Brian McCall
(U. of Oklahoma), John Médaille (U. of Dallas),
Fr. Richard Munkelt (Roman Forum), Fr. Gregory
Prendergraft (FSSP), Duncan Stroik (Notre
Dame U.), Alice von Hildebrand (Hunter College,
Emeritus), David White (US Naval Academy,
Emeritus), and myself from the United States; Msgr.
Ignacio Barreiro-Carámbula (Human Life
International, Rome) and Danilo Castellano (U. of
Udine) from Italy; James Bogle (Catholic lawyer,
activist, and writer) from the United Kingdom; Miguel
Ayuso-Torres (U. of Madrid) from Spain; Thomas
Stark (Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule, St.
Pölten) and Gregor Hochreiter (Oekonomika
Institute, Vienna) from Austria; David Berlinski
(Discovery Institute) and Bernard Dumont (editor
of Catholica) from France; and Taivo Niitvaagi
(Hereditas Foundation) from Estonia. The late, prolific,
traditionalist author Michael Davies, from the
UK, and my predecessor as chairman of the Roman Forum,
the late William Marra (Fordham U.), were honored
speakers for many years. Faculty and students are
served spiritually by a large number of secular and
religious clergy.
My new book, Black Legends and the
Light of the World: The War of Words with the Incarnate
Word (Remnant Press) describes what we have learned
regarding Catholic Christendom and its proper defense in
the first twenty years of the Gardone program.
This year’s Summer Symposium, with
fifty-five participants, was especially lively. We are
grateful to Michael Voris and his associates on The
Vortex (churchmilitant.tv) for having
produced an excellent documentary that well captures the
spirit of the program. Gardone, 2012 ended with a public
ceremony marking our twentieth anniversary in the
village. It was held in the splendid villa housing the
local municipal government---henceforth to be used as
the site of our daily lectures.
Next year’s Summer Symposium---entitled
“Divine Comedy? Or Theater of the Absurd?”---will
take place between July 1 and July 13, 2013 (twelve
nights). It will discuss the nature and history of
Catholic Christendom as a social “stage” wherein “the
drama of truth” is performed by distinct individuals
utilizing innumerable natural and supernatural
tools---all designed to help gain them eternal life with
God. The Catholic stage will be vividly contrasted with
the impoverished “stage of life” provided by modernity.
For modernity cheapens and ultimately annihilates the
drama of life by placing a variety of crippling and
arbitrary limitations on the number of intellectual and
social aids made available to the individual---on what
amounts to his naturalist journey to nowhere.
Full details will be available in
November.
Catholicism and Catholic culture are
international in character. Developing an international
Catholic camaraderie in encouraging the True, the Good,
and the Beautiful in these difficult days of global
secularist parochialism immeasurably strengthens our
vision and effectiveness. We can see the ever-growing
value of this annual cultivation of an international
dialogue, camaraderie, and concern for beauty in our
“Catholic village” for the animation of our life back in
our various homes during the rest of the year.
2) Through the New York City Church
History Lectures
For the last twenty-one years, the
Roman Forum has been the only organization in the
country offering men and women not enrolled in an
academic program a systematic, university-level course
in the history of the Catholic Church and Catholic
Culture. The 2012-2013 series---entitled The Tyranny
of Words? Or the Triumph of the Word?---deals with
the decades between Martin Luther’s emergence as a
public figure in 1517 and the closure of the Council of
Trent in 1563. Details and the schedule of Sunday
lectures are enclosed.
3) Through the Modern Image and
Catholic Truth Series
These special luncheon/dinner conferences
deal with the self-defeating character of the dominant
naturalist world-view and the contrasting richness of
the Catholic vision. One dinner conference will take
place on December 9th, 2012, in the context
of our annual commemoration of Blessed Pius IX’s
Syllabus of Errors (1864). Another will be scheduled for
April 20th, 2013, when the Forum celebrates
the Birthday of Rome (the Parilia).
4) Through Lecture Downloads
2010-2012 Summer Symposium lectures
are available through The Remnant Newspaper (www.remnantnewspaper.com).
Almost all of the lectures of our History of
Christianity program from 1993-2010 can be downloaded to
your computer for only one dollar per lecture or
purchased on audiotape at
www.keepthefaith.org. We are working hard to
bring the lectures available through Keep the Faith
up to the present.
5) Future Projects—International
and National
The success of the Summer Symposium
and the interest of the local community in helping to
expand it has made us realize that Gardone Riviera
provides a valuable venue not only for our annual
international congress of Catholic scholars and
students, but also for more specific courses in Catholic
history and culture. We are exploring the development of
a Gardone program for the month of August that would
help to satisfy home schooling high school students’
college entry requirements in history, literature,
language, and other disciplines. The Roman Forum is also
studying the opening of an Online Academy. This
would not duplicate the work of already existing sites,
but offer specialized courses of interest to adults as
well as home schoolers who cannot attend our sessions
either in New York City or in Italy
Please consult our website (www.romanforum.org)
and that of The Remnant Newspaper for more
complete information on these projects, as well as the
2013 Summer Symposium, Modern Image and Catholic
Truth gatherings, and other events, such as our
annual New Year’s Eve Dinner Dance (details on
back of this letter).
Appeal for Funds
In order to undertake current projects
properly, the Roman Forum requires an annual budget of
$60,000. It is for this reason that we urgently need
your help in the form of a tax-deductible donation.
Where do these funds go?
Mailings, advertising, books, storage
space for them, and use of conference halls alone now
cost us at least $20,000 per year. A much greater sum is
needed to support the Summer Symposium. Our
international roster of scholars, clergy, and musicians
grows larger every year. Although none of these men and
women receives any compensation for their work here,
their travel as well as their daily food and lodging
expenses must be covered. Moreover, almost all college
students, seminarians, and young priests hoping to
attend the Summer Symposium require at least some
financial assistance. Aiding both speakers and the young
participants whose presence is so crucial to the future
of the traditionalist cause takes up almost all of the
rest of our annual budget. As a not-for-profit
registered charity this budget is, of course, open for
public inspection.
The crisis of Catholic Christendom
is a global spiritual and intellectual crisis.
It can only be addressed by redirecting men and women
back to faith in Christ; back to serious and complete
Catholic teachings on the individual, society, and the
proper meaning of freedom; back to a politics that has
substance to it and is not a criminally expensive fraud.
It is this work of redirection back to Christ---with
the help of an infinitesimal percentage of the funds
wasted in but one modern political campaign--- that
the Roman Forum seeks to accomplish on both a national
and an international level.
To show you our appreciation, we have
arranged that the intentions of our benefactors be
remembered once a month at a traditional Mass offered in
Rome by our chaplain, Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro-Carámbula.
With the acknowledgment of your donation, of any size,
you will receive a note confirming that you have been
enrolled in these Masses. I thank you in advance for
your generosity.
Sincerely yours in Christ
John C. Rao
Chairman, D. Phil. Oxford
Assoc. Prof. of History, St. John's University
Make all your tax-deductible donations
payable to:
The Roman Forum, 11 Carmine St., Apt.
2C, NY, NY 10014
“Even if the wounds of this shattered
world enmesh you, and the sea in turmoil bears you along
in but one surviving ship, it would still befit you to
maintain your enthusiasm for studies unimpaired. Why
should lasting values tremble if transient things fall?”
(Prosper of Aquitaine)
The Roman Forum
Lectures in Church History
2012-2013 New York City Program
The Tyranny of Words--Or the Triumph of
the Word?
Two Conflicting Visions of the Meaning of the
Incarnation
(1517-1563)
Lecturer: John Rao, D. Phil., Oxford University
Associate Professor of History, St. John's University
Schedule
September 9: The Desperate Plight of a Vibrant
Christendom
September 23: Luther, Zwingli, and the
Evangelical Revolution: Part One
October 7: Luther, Zwingli, and the
Evangelical Revolution: Part Two
October 14: Politique D’Abord and
Catholic Collapse
November 4: The Anglican Revolt: Part One
November 18: Jean Calvin and the Geneva System
December 2: Sinners, a Divine Surprise, and
Serious Catholic Revival
December 16: St. Ignatius Loyola and Companions
January 13: The Council of Trent: Act One
January 27: Dubious Victory and Further
Evangelical Growth
February 10: The Anglican Revolt: Part Two
February 24: The Council of Trent: Act Two
March 10: Politique D’Abord and the
Peace of Augsburg
March 24: Genevan Academy and the
Calvinist International
April 7: The Council of Trent: Act
Three
April 21: The Vibrant Catholicism of a
Desperate Christendom
May 5: Globalism “Catholic Style”
May 12: Black Holes, East and West
All Sessions Meet on Sundays, at 2:30 P.M.
Wine & Cheese Reception. Entrance Fee at
door of $10.00
University Parish
Church of St. Joseph
371 Sixth Avenue
Church Hall Entrance on Washington Place,
south of Waverly Place
A, B, C, D, E, F, V trains to West 4th
Street Station
Wheelchair Accessible
The Roman Forum
St. Sylvester--New Year’s Eve Party
December 31, 2012—January 1, 2013
8:00 P.M.—1:00 A.M.
Dance in the New Year
Eat, Drink, and Make Merry with Fellow Catholics
The Best Swing, Waltz, and Other Ballroom
Music Ever Recorded
Price
$25 per person—all 18 years or younger
come for free.
All ages, including infants, are welcome.
Parents, come and enjoy yourselves!
Price includes the hall rental, the
music, set-ups for drinks, place settings, and
magnificent breads, biscuits, cold meats, pâtés,
cheeses & pastries. Bring
anything else you wish, but especially your own
wine, beer & liquor. Alcoholic beverages
must be provided by attendees.
Checks made out to the
Roman Forum
R.S.V.P. By December 15th,
2012
The Roman Forum
11 Carmine St., Apt. 2C
New York, New York 10014
For questions, e-mail:
[email protected]
University Parish
Church of St. Joseph
371 Sixth Avenue
Church Hall Entrance on Washington Place,
south of Waverly Place
A, B, C, D, E, F, V trains to West 4th
Street Station
Wheelchair Accessible
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