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The then Prince of Wales went on to condemn the mega-corporations that fund such experiments, specifically expressing concern over the US giant Monsanto, which produces disease-resistant genetically modified crops. ‘It is money that drives everything and wisdom has been banished in the face of seemingly unstoppable marketing. One is made to feel so powerless when confronted by such vast corporations as Monsanto…’ Later that year, Charles would link his opposition to genetic modification to his deep faith, arguing that ‘genetic modification takes mankind into realms that belong to God, and to God alone’. Poplak, who famously refurbished the interiors at Highgrove House as a wedding gift to Charles and Princess Diana, died in 2005. His treasure trove of royal correspondence was recently auct...

Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the Vatican cardinal who is appealing his embezzlement conviction last year, has pushed back against recent claims made by the Vatican’s chief editorial director, criticizing his “vaguely moralistic tone” and saying “we are dealing with a criminal trial, not a trial aimed at teaching lessons.”  In a commentary published in L’Osservatore Romano and Vatican News Nov. 11, the former deputy Vatican secretary of state said an Oct. 30 editorial by Andrea Tornielli “surprised” him as he had appreciated the “balance and accuracy” of Vatican News during the trial.  Tornielli, a top official in the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, had penned his reaction, published in L’Osservatore Romano and Vatican News, to a Vatican Tribunal’s publication of its reasons for...

The Romans, as any first-year Latin student can tell you, were in the practice of ending their sentences with verbs. Regina agricolam amat, for example—literally, “The queen the farmer loves.” Unless you are Yoda, however, you would speak this sentence in English this way: “The queen loves the farmer.” (Something tells me this relationship is not going to work out.) In any case, Latin word order often (not always) proceeds this way: subject, object, verb. In English, word order often (not always) proceeds this way: subject, verb, object. Because Latin nouns are declined—that is, they are assigned distinct endings for how they function in a sentence—it is easy to identify the subject and the object. The Church preserves the practice of ending sentences and clauses with the predicate. I...

By Clement Harrold November 8, 2024 We know remarkably little about who the Antichrist will be and what his arrival on the earth will look like. The very word antichrist only appears in four verses of Scripture, all of them in the Johannine epistles: 1 John 2:18, 1 John 2:22, 1 John 4:3, and 2 John 7. The author of these epistles clearly expects his readers to already have some background knowledge of what kind of creature the Antichrist is supposed to be, since he presents the concept without introduction: “Children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come; therefore we know that it is the last hour” (1 Jn 2:18). This fits with what we know about ancient Jewish theology more generally, which included an anti-messianic figure ...

Two blood covered hands were raised up in the dim light as Macbeth walked unsteadily from the chambers of Duncan. “This is a sorry sight,” he says to his wife. A few minutes later, after discussion and debate, Lady Macbeth goes into the chamber and then also emerges, having placed the bloody daggers in the hands of King Duncan’s guards. “My hands are of your colour; but I shame, To wear a heart so white” (2.2). Lady Macbeth, it seems, is ashamed to not have participated more fully in the murder of Duncan; in fact, she had said previously that she only failed to kill him because he reminded her of her own father. Nevertheless, she is co-guilty of this murder. She and her husband have pursued the inverse of what man and woman are called to in marriage. Rather than co-create, as man and woman...