Rod Dreher's Diary

1 day ago | roddreher.substack.com | Rod Dreher

The new book by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson reports that as president, Joe Biden was out of it, barely functional most of the time — and that his staff protected him from scrutiny, even by his own cabinet. This New Yorker story is taken from the book, Original Sin.

2 days ago | roddreher.substack.com | Rod Dreher

Here is a clip of the newly consecrated Pope Leo XIV chanting, beautifully, the ancient Marian hymn of the Western church,“Regina Caeli”. He chants in Latin; here are the words of the antiphon, and their English translation:The Washington Post’s reporters on the scene heard it a bit differently:Here’s a link to the story from which this is taken. The authors are the Washington Post’s Rome bureau chief and one of his reporters, an Italian.

3 days ago | roddreher.substack.com | Rod Dreher

One of my favorite Substacks is “Graphs About Religion,” written by the political scientist Ryan Burge. In a couple of recent posts, he analyzed the 2024 election results, comparing them to past results, and came up with a conclusion that will unsettle liberal Christians: To be a Christian in America today means you are more likely to vote Republican. In this post, Burge uses the data to point out that it’s simply wrong to call the Mainline Protestants “liberal,” at least politically.

4 days ago | roddreher.substack.com | Rod Dreher

It seems that every day brings more news about Great Britain’s descent towards totalitarianism. It has been soft there for some time, but the state is hardening. Late last week it emerged that a retired policeman had been arrested for, get this, tweeting against anti-Semitism:

1 week ago | roddreher.substack.com | Rod Dreher

Well, ain’t that somethin’! We got us a pope named Bob, from Chicago. And he’s got roots, through his mama, in New Orleans! Look:Our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, has Creole of color roots from New Orleans on his mother's side! What a great connection for our local population! They left New Orleans and went to Chicago between 1910 and 1912. His grandparents were married in 1887 at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart on Annette Street.