Insights from Our Ancestors
Bust of Socrates In the late 1980s I was invited to Singapore to help their Curriculum Development Institute [...]
Dangerous Developments in American Education
The concept of academic freedom is centuries old and has been modified over time. Since 1940 it has had these [...]
Bishop Fulton Sheen’s Message to Us
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1971) is best remembered for his incisive and witty television presentations, but he was also a [...]
America’s Epidemic of Foolishness
Watching the news these days calls to mind the old Jewish adage, “Send a fool to close the shutters and [...]
Welcome to Topsy-Turvydom
Erika López Prater was an adjunct professor of Art History at Hamline University. Her course syllabus included a warning that [...]
Does U.S. Border Policy Violate Catholic Teaching?
I recently read an article in the Jesuit magazine America titled “Biden, Benedict and Immigration: How U.S. Border Policy Violates [...]
A Worthy New Year’s Resolution
Pope Benedict XVI died in December 2022; Queen Elizabeth, a few months earlier. Not only were both mourned throughout the [...]
The Importance of Anticipating Consequences
People often assume that their actions will achieve what they intend and nothing else. But that assumption is dangerous. What [...]
Restoring Internal Harmony
Viktor Frankl From all indications, more and more Americans are experiencing disillusionment, despair, and even suicidal thoughts over [...]
Pope Francis Offers Guidance
On November 22 five staff from America Magazine, two Jesuits and three laypeople, interviewed Pope Francis on topics ranging from [...]
The Gift of Truth
We humans are wonderful creatures, yet we have significant limitations. We can be either in this location or that one, [...]
Catholic Bishops and Leadership
A recent study revealed that half the diocesan priests in the U.S. are experiencing significant burnout. The researchers found that [...]
Reconsidering Trump
The word sanctimonious means “making a hypocritical show of religious devotion, piety, righteousness.” Its synonyms include phony, insincere, deceitful, fake. [...]
What Would Satan Do?
I know, I know . . . Modern “with-it” people don’t believe that Satan exists, let alone has any influence [...]
How to Contribute to Social Harmony
The great majority of Americans agree that overcoming the division among us is imperative. We have to learn to speak [...]
Seeing Our Human Nature More Clearly
Rodin's The Thinker The Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759–1796) wrote the following verse, expressed here in English prose: “O, [...]
Jesuits’ View on Immigration Morality
At the end of the summer of 2022, Governors Abbott of Texas and DeSantis of Florida transported migrants to New [...]
The Whatever School of Morality, Part 2
Part 1 of this essay explained that WhateverMorality is the belief that good and evil, right and wrong, are whatever [...]
The Whatever School of Morality
One of the most fundamental and ancient moral precepts is Do Good and Avoid Evil. It was expressed (in different [...]
The Morality of Forgiving Student Loan Debt
President Biden’s plan to forgive student loans has prompted a national discussion, and the Jesuit publication America Magazine has offered its [...]
The Inflation of Infallibility
-----------Carl Rogers---------- My recent essay on the doctrine of Papal Infallibility showed that many popes were mistaken about [...]
The Befuddling Concept of Infallibility
Catholicism is the only religion that formally claims infallibility for its leaders. Infallibility is defined as being "exempt from error [...]
Restoring Social Harmony
I ended my recent essay, “Revisiting Ancient Wisdom,” by recalling Confucius’ view that getting beyond self-adulation improves ourselves, our communities, [...]
The Culture of Absurdity
The battle for social dominance is over and the results are clear—common sense has been routed and absurdity is savoring [...]
Revisiting Ancient Wisdom
Recently, as I was browsing through my bookshelves, I came across a little book I had bought in Singapore in [...]
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.