A capacity crowd of professors, students, and opinion makers attends the April 20 2016 Acton Conference in Rome “Freedom with Justice: Rerum Novarum and the New Things of our Time”. In an article published Fridayby Zenit’s Rome correspondent, Deborah Lubov,we find an excellent summary of Acton’s recently concluded Rome conference: “Freedom with Justice: Rerum Novarum and the New Things of Our Time.” Lubov writes in here roundup article: Pope Leo’s encyclical on ‘revolutionary things,’ many [speakers] noted, also had much...

We all need help thinking more clearly — you, me, U.S. Senators like Barbara Boxer, says John Stonestreet. And denying it sometimes proves the opposite. A hearing that was held last week of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works consisted of Senator Barbara Boxer of California, Alex Epstein, the President for the Center for Industrial Progress, and Father Robert Sirico, a priest and president of the Acton Institute, among others. The topic was how the president’s climate policies...

Alvino-Mario Fantini, editor-in-chief of theThe European Conservative,and Michael Severance, operations manager of Istituto Acton, co-wrote an op-ed for The Catholic World ReportAre Pope Leo XIII and Pope Saint John Paul II “feeling the Bern”?The article was published yesterday as a concluding reflectionon Acton’s April 20 Rome conference “Freedom with Justice: Rerum Novarum and the New Things of Our Time“. The op-ed summarizes some of the main moral theological and anthropological points expressed last Wednesday — especially those made by the...

Rev. Robert A. Sirico, second from left, takes time to chat with participants at the April 20 Rome conference “Freedom with Justice: Rerum Novarum and the New Things of Our Time” French journalist Solène Tadiépublished an exclusive interview today with Rev. Robert A. Sirico: “Entretien avec le père Robert Sirico pour le 125e anniversaire de l’encyclique Rerum Novarum“. Rev. Sirico was in Rome as thefinal speaker at Acton’s April 20 Rome conference “Freedom with Justice: Rerum Novarum and the New...

Although Earth Day 2016 has officially ended, the call for Christians to care for the Earth continues. For us, every day is Earth day. Too often, though, we Christians don’t have a robust enough understanding of how to care for the environment or how that duty is connected to economics. A decade ago, Acton research fellow Jordan Ballor wrote the best, brief explanation you’ll ever find on the connection between economics and environmental stewardship. As Ballor says, economics can be...

In 1998, the U.S. took an important step in promoting religious freedom as a foreign policy objective with the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRF Act). Designed to “strengthen United States advocacy on behalf of, individuals persecuted in foreign countries on account of religion,” the law authorized “actions in response to violations of religious freedom in foreign countries.” The act also requires that that Secretary of State identify “countries of particular concern,” a designation reserved for...

On the short list of the most enduring Christian books of the twentieth century is C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. The book originated from a series of radio lectures that aired on the BBC during World War II. A YouTube channel called CSLewisDoodle contains a number of videos that illustrate some of Lewis’s selected essays to make them easier to understand. In this video, Lewis talks about the reality of the universal natural law. ...

During the drought that struck the United States from 1934 to 1937, the soil became so badly eroded that static electricity built up on the farmlands of the Great Plains, pulling dust into the sky like a magnet. Massive clouds of dust rose up to 10,000 feet and, powered by high-altitude winds, was pushed as far east as New York City. When the “black blizzard” hit Washington, D.C. in May 1934, Hugh Hammond Bennett — the “father of soil conservation”...

Raymond Arroyo of EWTN speaks at the 2016 Acton Lecture Series It was a pleasure to host Raymond Arroyo, host of EWTN’s The World Over, as part of the Acton Lecture Series on April 14th, and on today’s edition of Radio Free Acton, we’re pleased to bring you a conversation between Raymond Arroyo and Acton Institute President Rev. Robert A. Sirico. Over the course of their wide-ranging discussion, they talk about the life and legacy of EWTN Founder Mother Angelica,...

A distinctive of neo-Calvinism, that movement associated with a late-nineteenth century Dutch revival of Reformational Christianity in the Netherlands, is its focus in emphasis if not also in substance not only on individuals but also on institutions. As Richard Mouw puts it, “At the heart of the neo-Calvinist perspective on cultural multiformity is an insistence that the redemption plished by Christ is not only about the salvation of individuals—it is the reclaiming of the whole creation.” This holistic perspective has...