Virtue, in its Greek root arete, means excellence. It is a perfection, especially a perfection of the human soul. It indicates a refinement of something that was previously of lesser quality. But now, through a process of overcoming difficulty through effort and struggle, the soul takes on a higher quality. It is elevated and excels others. It take...

People genuinely ask, “do we live in the worst time in human history?” The typical response, to diminish this thought, is summed up well by Bl. John Henry Newman, in his sermon, “The Infidelity of the Future”: “I know that all times are perilous, and that in every time serious and anxious minds, alive to the honour of God and the needs of...