The Catholic mind

America, October, 2004

IN A FAMOUS ESSAY published in Thought in 1955, Msgr. John Tracy Ellis lamented the lack of intellectual achievement on the part of second- and third-generation American Catholics. Conditions have changed markedly since Ellis wrote. Today Catholics can be found on the faculties of the best American universities; they rank among our public intellectuals and our most respected journalists. Despite such advances, however, Catholic intellectual life in the United States is once again in trouble.

The magisterial contributions of emigre professors like Jacques Maritain, Dietrich von Hildebrand and Etienne Gilson (in Canada) are long past. The ferment produced by the Second Vatican Council has been stilled. Perhaps the last great Catholic contribution to American culture...