“Why not become a missionary yourself, my child?” With these words, Pope Leo XIII challenged an ardent, young, American woman, Katharine Drexel. The year was 1887, and Drexel had been granted a private audience with the pope. Drexel had come to Rome to tell Pope Leo XIII of the need for religious—men and women—to staff…
On the cover of the history textbook The American Venture, students will see a picture of Fr. Pierre-Jean De Smet, S.J. (featured photo in this article). Outside the Catholic Church, not many people have heard of him. And even among Catholic students and laity, few have heard of him. Yet Fr. De Smet played a…
This week in history — Though the Allies had driven the Germans from France, they bogged down along the fortifications that guarded the German fatherland. By mid-October 1944, the allies had taken Aachen, Metz, and Strasbourg; in November and early December, fierce German resistance halted their advance into the Saar region. For fear of unconditional…
The Institute for Catholic Liberal Education offers a robust alternative to state teacher licensure: a national credential that prepares educators to infuse a deeply Catholic philosophy and practice of education into their teaching, namely the Catholic Educator Formation and Credential (CEFC) program.. The pilot program, launched in 2021 for Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila of Denver,…
This week is Celebrate Catholic Schools Week across America. Catholic schools enrolled more than 5 million students in the mid-1960s but today just 1.6 million. Many things have contributed to this decline including family economic stress, rising college costs, and other factors. And, of course, massive secularization. The stakes are really high. Now, more than…
Popular culture holds a dismissive attitude toward history. Common headlines include “unprecedented times”, “worse than ever”, and “never before.” But how often is that really true? What do we face that is truly without precedent? This mindset—that all things have either escalated or de-escalated, that the present is always somehow more or less than the…
“Either the government will be given to us, or we will seize it by marching on Rome!” declared Mussolini. And his Fascists responded with the cry, Roma! Roma! Roma! The following text comes from the pre-eminent history textbook series for Catholic students, Volume: “Light to the Nations II: The Making of the Modern World.” The…
“God bless you and all with you,” wrote Lincoln to McClellan after the Battle of Sharpsburg (or Antietam). “Destroy the rebel army if possible.” But September passed, and McClellan still did not pursue Lee. On October 1, Lincoln ordered McClellan to pursue Lee. McClellan obeyed — but only after another 18-day delay. Though not a…
More than 700 Catholic educators from across the country and overseas will gather online next week to explore, celebrate, and strengthen the growing movement to save Catholic schools through the recovery of the Church’s proven tradition of education. The Institute for Catholic Liberal Education’s 8th National Conference was forced to shift to an online format…
It was perhaps the final insult for German statesman Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck and Duke of Lauenburg—who was known as Otto von Bismarck (view image to right, below). Ultimately this statesman is credited with masterminded the unification of Germany in 1871. He served as its first chancellor until 1890, in which capacity he…
In April 18, 1506, Pope Julius II laid the cornerstone for a new basilica church over the burial place of St. Peter the Apostle in the Vatican. A great lover of the arts and a patron of artists, Pope Julius hoped to accomplish what Pope Nicholas V had begun fifty years before; namely, to replace…
Conditions did not improve when George IV became king in 1820. As regent for his insane father, George III, since 1811, George IV had long supported the repression of radicals. Though a clever man (he was a student of the classics and fluent in French, Italian, and German), George IV was not a particularly good…
October 2, 2017 It’s a commonplace in education that “a textbook is only as good as the teacher who teaches it.” But according to Michael Van Hecke (pictured above), founder of the Catholic Textbook Project, sometimes a textbook can transform a good teacher into a better teacher—or even into a great teacher. Founded in 2000, the Catholic Textbook…
September 11, 2009 On Saturday morning listeners to The Catholic Business Hour found out why a busy headmaster launched a textbook project — producing textbooks that are now in use in schools in all 50 states and overseas as well! In an informative interview Saturday morning on the EWTN Global Catholic radio network, which includes 130 AM/FM stations…
