Ambiences, Customs & Civilizations

Articles

All articles
How Catholic Principles shaped Pugin’s Bold Architecture
Ambiences, Customs & Civilizations
25 June 2026

How Catholic Principles shaped Pugin’s Bold Architecture

The following article is the second of a four-part series that features the life of Augustus Pugin, the renown English Catholic architect of the nineteenth…
Read more
Becoming the Apostle of Christian Architecture—Augustus Pugin’s Early Life
Ambiences, Customs & Civilizations
19 June 2026

Becoming the Apostle of Christian Architecture—Augustus Pugin’s Early Life

The following article is one of a four-part series that features the life of Augustus Pugin, the renowned English Catholic architect of the nineteenth…
Read more
Phones don’t have a Place at the Table in some Restaurants
Ambiences, Customs & Civilizations
17 June 2026

Phones don’t have a Place at the Table in some Restaurants

The dinner table was once a sacred space. The dining room was a domestic sanctuary where families and friends gathered to share meals, exchange ideas, and…
Read more
An Appalling Alliance to Disfigure Notre-Dame
Ambiences, Customs & Civilizations
12 June 2026

An Appalling Alliance to Disfigure Notre-Dame

There is something profoundly unacceptable in the Notre-Dame stained-glass window affair: an appalling alliance to impose the ideological mark of modernity on…
Read more
AI for Catholics in the Real World Who Still believe in the Devil
Ambiences, Customs & Civilizations
7 June 2026

AI for Catholics in the Real World Who Still believe in the Devil

One is struck by the great diversity of topics in Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas. Mention of human dignity, dehumanization, just war…
Read more
Why can’t the World’s Best Technologies create Smarter Students?
Ambiences, Customs & Civilizations
5 June 2026

Why can’t the World’s Best Technologies create Smarter Students?

The lure of the perfect teaching machine is great. The reality is always disappointing. Machines simply cannot adapt to students’ needs as rapidly or smoothly…
Read more
What AI can’t do
Ambiences, Customs & Civilizations
4 May 2026

What AI can’t do

For a long time, I have struggled with how to deal with AI. There are some very valid objections circulating about the new medium, especially as it pertains to…
Read more
The Marvellous, the Real and the Horrendous in Children's Literature
Ambiences, Customs & Civilizations
12 January 2026

The Marvellous, the Real and the Horrendous in Children's Literature

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira (ACC) ‘Catholicism’ No. 40 - April 1954  As everyone knows, stories are children's first contact with life. Through…
Read more
The Importance of Tradition Today
Ambiences, Customs & Civilizations
10 September 2025

The Importance of Tradition Today

Folha de S. Paulo, 20th  March 1969While walking downtown I happened to bump into an acquaintance who challenged me by way of a greeting: “In your latest…
Read more
TFP – Tradition
Ambiences, Customs & Civilizations
3 September 2025

TFP – Tradition

Folha de S. Paulo, 12th March 1969 (*)When we speak of tradition, many people think of England, the Queen the House of Lords, Rolls Royces, top hats and…
Read more
Two Ways of looking at Country Life
Ambiences, Customs & Civilizations
27 August 2025

Two Ways of looking at Country Life

Catolicismo, September 1951 (*)It is six o’clock in the evening. The toil of the day has come to an end.The noble tranquility of the atmosphere envelops the…
Read more
Painting the Human Soul
Ambiences, Customs & Civilizations
13 August 2025

Painting the Human Soul

Catolicismo, May 1951 (*)One of the most frequent tendencies in the artists whose work might be considered typical of the twentieth century is the deformation…
Read more
Two Styles, Two Ways of Being
Ambiences, Customs & Civilizations
6 August 2025

Two Styles, Two Ways of Being

"Catolicismo" N. 13 - January 1952In 1951, Princess Elizabeth, heiress of the throne of England, and Eva D. Peron, wife of Gerald Peron, president of the…
Read more
Spiritual Decoration vs. Materialist Decoration
Ambiences, Customs & Civilizations
16 July 2025

Spiritual Decoration vs. Materialist Decoration

“Catolicismo" N. 17 - May  1952In the first picture, 1,500 representatives of the United Nations meet in the Assembly Chamber of the Luxembourg Palace…
Read more
Clothing, Mirror of an Epoch
Ambiences, Customs & Civilizations
13 July 2025

Clothing, Mirror of an Epoch

Catolicismo" N. 20 - August 1952 (*)This article was written in 1952 at a time when fashions were changing to casual workplace styles. Since then, many…
Read more
The Spirit of Hollywood Versus the Spirit of the Cross
Ambiences, Customs & Civilizations
9 June 2025

The Spirit of Hollywood Versus the Spirit of the Cross

Few institutions today inspire more contempt among God-fearing Westeners than Hollywood. Just the name of “Hollywood” conjures up images of glitzy, degenerate…
Read more