Rorate appreciates John Rao's permission to post here part of a letter he recently addressed to friends of the Roman Forum. It is an excellent analysis of our situation.
“The more the panic grows, the more uplifting the image of a man who refuses to bow to the terror”. (Ernst Jünger)
May, 2020
The Month of Mary
Dear Friends of the Roman Forum,
The purpose of the Roman Forum is educational, and it would be a dereliction of duty not to make some comment on what we are witnessing around us and what it means for us as Catholics, as citizens, and as civilized men and women. I do not feel competent to discuss the initial cause of a disease that has affected the entire globe, nor would I in any way wish to minimize the real suffering and loss that this malady has entailed for many people. But what I do believe an educator needs to stress is the way in which a controllable pandemic has been transformed into a totally unnecessary pandaemonium; a horrifying illustration of the diabolical disorientation accompanying all of the ravages of modernity, and one that has allowed a painfully hollow modern society to titillate itself with the “feel” of living through the Bubonic Plague without actually doing so.
