«Ad Rem» N° 65 (3/6/2008): Catholic Normalcy, Communion in the Hand, and Our Conference

Summary:

1. News Notes / Site Additions

2. The Latest on Our Conference

» Recent additions to our web sites. A venture in literary hagiography, Saint Boniface and the Missionary Culture of the Faith by Dr. Robert Hickson is now posted on our main site, as is a doctrinaire offering: Questions and Answers on Salvation by Rev. Michael Muller, C.SS.R. The Theology Blog presents a philosophical paper: Modern Philosophical Anthropology and the Catholic Conception of Man.

» Bishop against Communion in the Hand. Have you seen the video of Bishop Athanasius Schneider on Communion in the Hand? This ten minute interview, a “must-see,” concerns His Excellency’s book, Dominus Est: Meditations of a Bishop from Central Asia on the Sacred Eucharist, which boasts a foreword by Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith, the Vatican’s Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Sacraments.

» Dr. John Senior’s Two Important Books Now Back in Print

• The Death of Christian Culture.
• The Restoration of Christian Culture.

These books are a clarion call for restoring Christian normalcy to the family and society.

The Latest on Our Conference

The following is our first press release, also posted on the site in PDF and Word formats. Please help us to promote this event among your friends and family. Updates, including announcements of additional speakers, are forthcoming. Publishers, bloggers, and information cyber-warriors of every stripe are hereby invited to spread the word.

The Saint Benedict Center, administered by the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary — America's oldest and foremost religious order of traditional Catholics — will hold its twelfth annual Saint Benedict Center Conference from Thursday, July 17 to Sunday, July 20, 2008. The conference, the largest gathering of Catholic traditionalists in the United States, will begin with an Open House at the order's monastery in Richmond, New Hampshire, on July 17, and will reconvene on July 18 for three days of talks by guest speakers at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nashua, NH. The conference will conclude Sunday, July 20, with Mass, a brunch and final speaker presentations. Call 603-239-6485 or visit www.sbcconference.com for registration information.

The theme of this year's conference will be The Light of our Faith in the Darkest of Times. The list of speakers includes retired U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Beret) officer Dr. Robert Hickson, a former professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy and the Defense Intelligence College, and former Chairman of the Literature and Latin Department at Christendom College. Joining Dr. Hickson will be the celebrated Catholic writer and chronicler of the traditionalist movement in the Church, Gary Potter, the founding editor of Triumph magazine and the author of After the Boston Heresy Case.

The conference will also feature Lieutenant Commander John Sharpe, USN, the Silent Service (submarine) officer who has become a one-man powerhouse in Catholic publishing. Sharpe's IHS Press is the only publishing company dedicated exclusively to the social teachings of the Catholic Church, and it has made available to the modern reader the classic works of such Catholic luminaries as Hilaire Belloc, G.K. Chesterton, and Fr. Vincent McNabb.

Other speakers include Brother André Marie, M.I.C.M., Prior of the Saint Benedict Center since 2002, and a distinguished lecturer in the fields of apologetics, ecclesiology, church history and devotional practices; Boston's veteran culture warrior and noted defender of the Faith, C.J. Doyle, Executive Director of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts; and prominent conservative journalist R. Cort Kirkwood, author of the important new book Real Men: Ten Courageous Americans to Know and Admire.

Brother André Marie made the following comment: "Although the condition of our society remains perilous, and the challenges facing the Church are daunting, this Conference will also be marked by hope and confidence. Pope Benedict's restoration of the traditional Mass is a turning point in the history of the Church and a source of great joy and consolation for us, which shows that after decades of struggle, our concerns and our aspirations are now resonating in the very corridors of the Holy See itself."

Nos, cum Prole pia, benedicat Virgo Maria!

In the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
Brother André Marie, M.I.C.M.