✣ Highlights from the week online
Solzhenitsyn’s call for courageous voices At First Things, Robert George recalled the moment in 1978 when he attended the annual Harvard commencement address. “A man with a craggy face and a beard,” a Christian novelist speaking in Russian with simultaneous translation, delivered the speech. His name was Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. He was known as a critic of the Soviet Union which had put him in the Gulag. But at Harvard he criticised the West for “its abandonment of its own moral and, especially, spiritual ideals and identity”. Solzhenitsyn, wrote George, “viewed the West’s weakness, including its weakness in truly standing up to Soviet aggression, as the fruit of the materialism, consumerism, self-indulgent individualism, emotivism, and narcissism – in a word, the immorality – into which we had allowed ourselves to sink.” Notably, Solzhenitsyn. observed that “A decline in courage may be the most striking feature, which an outside observer notices in the West in our days.” This was true today, George reflected, when courage is needed to stand up for the unborn, for migrants and refugees, or for the true definition of marriage. But those who speak out face “abuse and defamation. And these days it goes well beyond unpleasantness. To speak moral truth to cultural power is to put at risk one’s social standing, one’s educational and employment opportunities, one’s professional advancement”. However, “the more people, in reaction to these threats, acquiesce or go silent, the more dangerous and therefore more difficult it becomes for anyone to speak the truth out loud, even if they know it in their hearts”. The stone which takes us into Pilate’s time At Aleteia, J-P Mauro summed up what we known of Pontius Pilate – a field of knowledge which was improved by the 1971 discovery of the “Pilate Stone” at the site of an ancient Roman theatre. The limestone was “weathered by time”, but was still identifiable as a dedication stone. It “corroborates Pilate’s position as prefect of Judea, as well as the era in which he held office”. Although several ancient historians mention Pilate, “The ‘Pilate Stone’ remains the only first-hand evidence of Pilate, which, quite literally, has set his historical relevance in stone.” The Vatican: not yet a World Cup contender At EpicPew, Melissa Guerrero observed that the Church has a long connection with football. “The first reported match played in the Vatican occurred on January 7, 1521. Pope Leo X was a spectator.” This wasn’t quite like modern football, however. But since the formation of the modern game, the Vatican has established its own league, founded in 1973. It also has its own team of “Vatican employees (like members of the Swiss guards, police officers, and postal workers)”. Since its first match in 2002, it has taken on teams including “Monaco, San Marino, Palestine, and league teams Borussia Mönchengladbach (Germany) and SV Vollmond (Switzerland).”
