Choosing Life’s Paths Wisely
In 1915, American poet Robert Frost wrote “The Road Not Taken,” a poem that has ever since been among the [...]
The Catholic Church and the 2024 Election
The 2024 presidential election was admirably carried out. Around the nation crowds of voters waited patiently and politely, often in [...]
Is the First Amendment in Jeopardy?
The First Amendment of the U.S. constitution is as follows: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, [...]
God, Truth, and Civilization
Christians tend to think of truth as something we are commanded to reflect in our speech. The Bible supports that [...]
Bravo Catholic Bishops: Now Let’s See More of This
The Catholic bishops of Florida recently issued a statement praising Governor Ron DeSantis's signing of legislation for a 15-week abortion [...]
Donald Trump’s Problem, And Ours
Donald Trump's problem and the problem of many American voters, though separate, are very much intertwined. Trump's problem is his [...]
Whatever Happened to Wisdom?
Why have many people abandoned religion? Why do many young people do much worse in school than their parents and [...]
Tracing the Jesuits’ Decline
Shortly after publishing an essay lamenting the Jesuits' Magazine America's embrace of Wokeism, I read a prominent Jesuit's article lamenting [...]
When a Catholic Magazine Goes ‘Woke’
St. Ignatius Loyola The term "Woke" is often used to refer to "politically liberal or progressive especially in [...]
Harmony Is Wonderful, But How Is It Achieved?
Now that the election is growing very close, the messaging from both parties is increasingly focused on some version of, [...]
Our Shrinking Attention Spans
Recently, in an essay titled "Escaping Media Control" I cited research on the length of TV commercials in 2020, the [...]
Escaping Media Control
G. K. Chesterton once commented on his experience of returning home after a trip to another country. He suddenly saw [...]
Understanding Attitudes, Part 2
Part 1 of this essay explained how identifying and evaluating other people’s attitudes can increase our appreciation of people with good attitudes [...]
Understanding Attitudes
An attitude is a way of feeling or thinking that has become habitual. People show their attitudes but seldom express [...]
Was America’s Decline Planned?
Rodin's The Thinker Given the increasingly destructive things that have been happening in America in recent decades, it [...]
The Soros Effect
George Soros is a controversial financier accused by conservatives of undermining entire economies and defended by progressives as a misunderstood [...]
Nonsense Is STILL Destroying America
Warning: Nonsense is Destroying America was published thirty years ago, in 1994. I introduced it with these words: "Books warn [...]
What’s Wrong with Bishop Seitz’s “Look at the Border”
In What's Wrong with the World, G. K. Chesterton observed that "In the last analysis most common things will be [...]
Revisiting “Death by a Thousand Slurs”
I published "Death by a Thousand Slurs" on January 10th, 2018. It focused on Trump's performance during his first year [...]
What Trump’s “Bloodbath” Remark Reveals
The U.S. media recently put aside their coverage of important stories at home and around the world to weigh in [...]
How Modern “Truth” Opposes Christianity
In "Revisiting the Idea of Truth" I discussed how Americans' abandonment of the ancient view of truth has destroyed rationality [...]
Revisiting the Idea of Truth
"Truth" has always been one of the most important words in the dictionary. Unfortunately, it is greatly misunderstood today, and [...]
The Issue of Women Deacons, Part 2
Part 1 of this essay explained the continuing controversy over whether the Catholic church should allow women to serve as [...]
The Issue of Women Deacons
The Catholic hierarchy's recent uproar over the idea of women deacons seems as intense as their uproar over blessing gay [...]
Author Vincent Ryan Ruggiero
Since retiring from teaching, I have continued my work in promoting sound thinking in education and in the general culture. More specifically, I have kept refining my textbooks, four of which have been continuously in print for an average of 33 years. I have also continued to write books for the general public, the latest of which is Corrupted Culture: Rediscovering America’s Enduring Principles, Values, and Common Sense, and I write a weekly column for an online journal.