Christianity Is Not Utopianism – “We must train ourselves to see things as they are, ourselves as we are. To have Christian hope is not to expect everything to work out alright.” Conversation with Matteo Matzuzzi (Coram Fratibus Intellexi)
Under-Covered Stories – “At year’s end, it’s standard journalistic practice to look back at the most important stories of the past 12 months. Since plenty of people already do that on the Vatican beat, I decided a long time ago to go another direction by offering a list of the most under-covered Vatican stories of the year.” 2024 in review: Vatican controversies missed by the mainstream press (Catholic Herald)
Sheepish About Good Works? – “Do the sheep and the goats support the Catholic take on faith and works?” Protestants Reign on the Catholic Parade (Catholic Answers)
Sacred Art in Medieval Perspective – “Sienese art insists that the material world is the precise place—the only place—where God’s self-revelation is to be found.” God’s Art: ‘Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350’ (Commonweal)
French Canadians, A Strange People – “We are a strange people, we descendants of the 17th and 18th century French pioneers in North America.” Franco-American Dilemma (The European Conservative)
The New Theists – “Almost 150 years after Nietzsche said ‘God is dead,’ some of our most important thinkers are getting religion.” How Intellectuals Found God (The Free Press)
Anti-Theology – “It dawned on me that perhaps not everyone was pursuing theology for the same reasons.” The Purpose of Theology (Word on Fire)
My Father’s House – “If I simply remembered who he was, I would have known right where to find him.” Lectio Divina, Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph December 29, 2024 (Agapao)
A True Influencer – “What’s special about Moriarty is the way he evokes an Ireland that is now gone, and its relationship both to the spiritual and the hard realities of land and labour. Awe and wonder was partnered with the earthiness of that rural life.” A Kerry philosopher discovered (The Irish Catholic)
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@ French Canadians, A Strange People
Charles A. Coulombe surveys the French element in Quebec and beyond, noting the dispersal to New England, Louisiana, and farther west in Canada. Plus, differences in assimilation between what is now the United States, and Canada—where French identity was shielded by the British monarchic form, until recently when secularism has taken over.
Of the historical mix, the American war for independence was fueled, in some small part, by an anxiety that French Catholicism constituted a threat after British passage of the Quebec Act– following their victory over the French in the French and Indian War (1754-1763). The Quebec Act extended to Catholics in Quebec freedom of religion and the right to hold public office. Some colonials feared the spread of such tolerance, while others migrated from the northern colonies farther north into Quebec.
Coulombe’s overall history is very welcome by yours truly.
Half of the family history traces back to the French Catholics who moved west to the interior of Canada and then drifted south into Minnesota and Wisconsin. I am 50% French and 50% German. My parents (Catholic and Lutheran) met in northern Wisconsin, and married (on Sept. 2, 1939) coincidentally one day after Hitler initiated World War II by invading Poland in old-country Europe. Yes, to American “assimilation,” and yet in childhood at home both parents still heard both English and either French or German. My mother did not learn English until kindergarten.
All family memories are to be remembered, even what is branded as “backwardist.”
I’m not so well versed on folks from Quebec but Cajuns descend from ancestors who were forcibly removed from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Creoles and Cajuns have different histories, cultures, and origins but many Cajuns today have some Creole ancestors. As well as Spanish, German, Jewish, African, Tribal American, etc. There’s been a good bit of mixing in Louisiana and because of the historic isolation of Cajun communities they can suffer from inherited diseases. One disorder is thought to have been introduced by a Jewish trapper years ago.
Creoles, including those of colour , did own slaves. Some Free Creole people of colour were quite wealthy and owned large plantations with many slaves. That was far less the case for Cajuns. Until the oil boom in the 20th century most Cajuns lived very simply and some older Cajuns still speak French today. Cajun French wasn’t a written language and even though older Cajuns know French hymns by heart they can struggle to read the lyrics. Louisiana had the highest rate of illiteracy back in the day and it can still be an issue today.
“Christianity is not utopianism.” And yet, Christ is the second Adam, who entered into the world to bring to us the knowledge of God, in order that we might be restored to that perfect order where we live in the forested garden-like setting in harmony with God and His creation.