The annual Roman Forum on the shores of Lake Garda in Northern Italy is one of the most important institutions in Catholic traditionalism, bringing together some of the best traditionalist minds to reflect on where we are, how we got here, and how to move forward. The chairman, Dr. John Rao, has sent us the following information about this year's symposium as well as the lectures on Church history that he will be giving in New York City. We urge our readers to consider attending the symposium and the lectures.
We also urge our readers to support the Gardone Summer Symposium through donations. The Roman Forum has now collected $25,000 of the $75,000 needed to provide for the attendance of the nineteen speakers and the musical director, as well as for the cost of the hall rental, a donation for the use of the parish church, and assistance for twenty scholarship candidates. $50,000 more is needed. Please do consider giving a tax-deductible donation to support the attendance at the symposium of a speaker, a member of the clergy, a seminarian, or a student. Send all applications, deposit, payments, and donations for the Summer Symposium either through the PayPal link on the Roman Forum Website or directly to: Dr. John C. Rao, The Roman Forum, 11 Carmine Street, # 2C, New York, NY 10014.
“Even if the wounds of this shattered world enmesh you, and the sea in turmoil bears you along in but one surviving ship, it would still befit you to maintain your enthusiasm for studies unimpaired. Why should lasting values tremble if transient things fall?” (Prosper of Aquitaine)
Twenty-Seventh Annual Summer Symposium
Gardone Riviera, Italy
(July 8nd - July 19th, 2019; 11 nights)
Modern Foundation Myths & the Destruction of Church & Civilization.
The twenty-seventh annual Summer Symposium at Gardone Riviera derives its theme from our general frustration---spiritually, intellectually, artistically, politically, and socially---with the mindless, often self-delusional, and frequently overtly manipulative visions of the ideology of modernity. Despite the fact that we have regularly dealt with the problems posed by modernism in a variety of ways in the past, this will be the first time that we have tackled its actual pillars themselves: nominalism and contempt for philosophical and theological thought; the cult of the autonomous individual and his supposed cultural genius; the contradictory themes of the total depravity of man and nature on the one hand and the glory of natural, pragmatic, scientific progress on the other; social contract theories; the concepts of freedom, equality, and democracy; the biological evolution and magical transformation of beast and man; the American foundation myth, as well as those underlying modern materialist economic visions.
Tentative Faculty, Clergy, Musicians
Jonathan Arrington (Denver Catholic Biblical School; St. John Vianney Theological Seminary Lay Division)
Dr. Miguel Ayuso Torres (Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Madrid)
James Bogle, Esq., TD MA Dip Law (Barrister and author of A Heart for Europe)
Clemens Cavallin (Religious Studies, Sweden)
Dr. Danilo Castellano (University of Udine, Emeritus)
Fr. Gabriel Díaz-Patri (Studia Liturgica, United Kingdom)
Bernard Dumont (Editor, Catholica, France)
Christopher A. Ferrara, J.D. (President, ACLA)
David J. Hughes (Director of Musical Program)
Rev. John Hunwicke (Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham)
Dr. Pedro José Izquierdo (Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City)
James Kalb, Esq. (Author of The Tyranny of Liberalism)
Dr. Peter Kwasniewski (Independent Scholar and Author)
Michael J. Matt (Editor, The Remnant)
Sebastian Morello (Formator & Lecturer, Centre for Catholic Formation, London)
Rev. Dr. Richard Munkelt (Chaplain of the Roman Forum)
Dr. Thomas Pink (King’s College, London)
Dr. John C. Rao (St. John’s University)
Dr. Joseph Shaw (Senior Research Fellow at St Benet's Hall, Oxford University)
Dr. Thomas Stark (Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule, Austria)
Fr. Edmund Waldstein (Philosophisch-
Liturgy and Music
The Summer Symposium’s music program involves daily traditional mass and vespers. It is important to note that the Roman Forum is just as happy to receive applications from those whose interest is primarily in Church Music as it is from those focused on other areas of Catholic concern. Our music director, Mr. David Hughes, is eager to attract participants with vocal abilities who are willing to commit themselves to daily rehearsals to ensure a better rendition of Gregorian Chant and the polyphonic pieces to be sung.
Accommodation and lectures are at the Locanda agli Angeli and the Hotel Villa Sofia in Gardone Sopra, on Lake Garda, in the foothills of the Alps in northern Italy. Both hotels, with Internet access and swimming pools of their own, are only a ten-minute walk from the lakefront, where free, clean beaches with a number of amenities can be found. Meals are taken at the Angeli and at other trattorie several minutes walk away. Mass is in the parish church, also within walking distance. Gardone is within easy traveling distance of the opera season in Verona, Venice, Trent, Brescia, Milan, Ravenna, Pavia and Padua. The region offers opportunities not only for swimming, but for hiking, biking, boating, and scenic walks as well. Each day involves two lectures with discussion (morning and pre-dinner), and Sung Mass in the Extraordinary Rite (Tridentine Mass) at noon. Other traditional masses are offered throughout the day. There are no lectures on Sundays. Musical and theatrical entertainments take place in the garden of the Angeli and in the Piazza dei Caduti in the evenings after dinner.
First time applicants only must include name, address, telephone number, e-mail, date of birth, occupation, academic degrees attained or pending, and the names and phone numbers of two references. Application should be made as soon as possible as there are only sixty places available. The full cost of the Gardone program in a double occupancy room is $2,900 (based on an exchange rate between $1.13--$1.25 to the Euro). This includes tuition, room and board (very ample breakfast and dinner with cocktails, wine, beer, and other beverages at will), transportation to and from Malpensa Airport in Milan, and a boat excursion on the lake. Single rooms are extra, their price depending upon the room concerned. A number of full and partial scholarships will, hopefully, be available. Preference for scholarships will be given to professors, students, clergy, and seminarians. Nevertheless, anyone who genuinely cannot afford the full tuition and believes himself to be a worthy candidate for assistance may apply.
The Roman Forum
The Roman Forum
27th Annual New York City Church History Program
2018-2019
The Pontificate of Blessed Pio Nono (1846-1878):
Catholic Renewal and the Discovery of the Frauds of Modernity
Lecturer: John C. Rao, D. Phil. (Oxford University)
Associate Professor of History, St. John's University
September 9: The Last Days of the Restoration Era & the Election of Pio Nono
September 16: 1848: A “Spring Time of the Peoples”?
September 30: The Revolutionary Reality & Catholic Retrenchment
October 7: France, the Party of Order, & the Catholic “Civil War”
October 21: Germania Doceat!
November 11: A Second Spring in England & the Netherlands
November 18: La Civiltà Cattolica, L’Univers, Der Katholik & the Critique of Liberalism
December 2: The Risorgimento & the Liberal & Nationalist Assault on the Church & Italy
December 16: Quanta cura & the Syllabus of Errors
January 13: Vatican Council: The Theological and Political Background
January 27: Vatican Council: The Debates & the Decrees
February 10: The Franco-Prussian War, the Breach of Porta Pia, & Bismarck's New Europe
February 24: Liberalism, Protestantism, & Catholicism after Vatican Council
March 10: Kulturkampf & Catholic Response: Germany, Austria, Belgium, & the Netherlands
March 24: France: From “National Repentance” to “the Republic of the Republicans”
March 31: Anti-Liberalism & the Catholic Social Movement
April 14: Progress & Confrontation in the Americas
April 28: An Ever More Missionary Church
May 12: Russia and the Religious “Eastern Question”
All Sessions Meet on Sundays, at 2:30 P.M.
Wine & Cheese Reception. Entrance Fee at door of $15.00
Our Lady of Pompeii Church, Rectory Entrance, on Carmine Street
A, B, C, D, E, F, M trains to West 4th Street Station; 1 to Christopher Street
