The Return to Order Moment

A War against the English Language has been going on for years. The Merriam-Webster dictionary says that the word “doublespeak” was first used in 1952 and defines it as “language used to deceive, usually through concealment or misrepresentation of the truth.” The founder of the International TFP Movement, Professor Plinio Correa de Olivera, used the word “talismanic” to describe words that deceive...

The Sexual Revolution began with contraception. Then, it spread as revealing clothing became popular. Later, many people began to accept the idea that men and women could live together without being married. That acceptance added fuel to the idea that procured abortions should be legalized. Then, the idea that homosexuals should be able to express their preferences openly became popular. From ther...

Today’s podcast will be somewhat shorter than usual as we bring to you an important article by author, scholar, and longtime TFP member, Luiz Sérgio Solimeo. Traditional Catholics have viewed with alarm Pope Francis’s habit of confusing the issues surrounding homosexual inclinations and practices. In this essay, Mr. Solimeo examines the entirety of Francis’s pontificate and the confusion that he h...

The set of ideas known as Classical Liberalism took shape between about 1650 and 1800. French, English, and Italian philosophers tried to create a moral system that they saw as natural – as opposed to supernatural. It was a system that rejected God and the Church. For the next three hundred years, that system gained popularity. By the sixties and seventies, it had mutated into cries of freedom, li...

In the modern world, the old title, teacher, has been replaced with the word educator. There are a number of reasons to reject this change. One is that it is applied to so many people who do not teach anyone. Those are the people that WE call educrats and educationists. To be more specific, “educrats” are the people who hang around school board administration buildings as well as the state and fed...

Watch the cable news channels or the television networks’ daily reports and you will often hear the word crisis. Every world event, it seems, is a crisis. A word that once referred to the very worst situations is now used to describe anything unfortunate. As listeners may remember, during the Covid lockdowns, the chance that someone might sneeze in a public place became a crisis. What the news haw...

The Oxford Dictionary defines the word blasphemy as “the act or offense of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things.” By that definition, our world reeks of blasphemy. It is all around us. In fact, it is so common that many people don’t even notice it. This episode of the Return to Order Moment looks at three modern blasphemies - Pope Francis saying that Our Lord was a Communist, the Hum...

One of the primary activities of the American TFP is to warn our society that is destroying itself. We inherited that task from the founder of the international TFP movement, Plinio Correa de Olivera. Professor Plinio was a man of many gifts, including great historical knowledge. His insights were so keen that he could draw lessons that other people, even accomplished scholars, missed. Today, the...

In our last episode, we discussed two major areas of concern for orthodox Catholics – the so-called Synodal Path and the aggression of Vladimir Putin against Ukraine. This week we will look at other issues that are equally urgent. We hope to inspire you, our listeners, to pursue two courses of action. First and foremost, pray for all those involved in or affected by these issues. Especially, we ur...

These are tumultuous times in which to be a Catholic. The threats to our beliefs and our ways of life grow ever larger. These threats come from world capitals, the movement that we refer to as “woke,” and from modernist forces within the Church. It is important, however, not to despair as we hear about the implications of these events. We need to rely on Our Lord and Our Lady to guide us through t...

Genesis 3:14-15 “And the Lord God said to the serpent: Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the earth: upon thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” Anyone who reads that pass...

Welcome to the annual Christmas episode of the Return to Order Moment. This year, we bring you a story from the 1892 book Christmas Stories from the French and Spanish, edited by Annette Ogden. The story that we bring you takes place in Madrid and is titled A BIRD IN THE SNOW by Armando Palacio Valdés. It is a heart-rending story about a blind boy cast adrift in the streets of Madrid at the close...

The idea of private property is under constant attack. That mere fact should convince right-thinking people how important it is. If private property was a mere social construct, as the postmodernists say, they would leave it alone. They could be confident that the whole idea would just pass away. However, that idea will not pass away. We can see this in the remaining Communist economies, in which...

On October 11, 1962, the Second Vatican Council began. Over the next three years, it transformed the way that millions of Catholics worldwide practiced their faith. Now, it is sixty years later, and it is time to determine the effects of the Council. That is the goal of this episode of the Return to Order Moment.

The Catholic Church has always been one of the great patrons of the arts. One need only spend time in any Catholic Church or Cathedral – at least those built before, say, 1900 – to experience that fact. One of the great lies of the modern world is the phrase “Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder.” The goal of this episode of the Return to Order Moment is to expose that lie. To accomplish that task...

Americans have a peculiar love-hate relationship with the idea of tradition. On one hand, the vast majority still thrill to the flags and high school bands of an Independence Day parade. On the other hand, Americans often see themselves as tradition-breakers. The idea that new-is-better is alive and well in modern America – whether the topic is a blockbuster movie or laundry detergent. Over the la...

Historical truth is difficult to determine. There are only two ways to discover what happened in the past. We can either read what they wrote or look at objects that they left behind. Everything else is opinion. The people of the Middle Ages left behind many writings and objects. They left their books and copies of those from the ancient world. They left magnificent buildings, especially cathedral...

Last week, the Return to Order Moment presented Part One of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: Man of Faith and Action. This week, we present the conclusion to this retrospective of a life very well lived, that of TFP founder, Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. While last week’s episode consisted largely of a biographical sketch, this week will focus on his thoughts and philosophy. In all things, Professor Plinio...

Usually, the Return to Order Moment brings its listeners articles written about current events from a traditional Catholic perspective. Occasionally, we discuss historical events. However, our favorite articles come from the pen of the international TFP movement’s founder, Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. He was a man with an active mind, totally devoted to the Catholic Church. Professor Plini...

Around the nation, people of all political persuasions are preparing for the mid-term elections. The media focus on the House of Representatives, Senate, and State Governors. However, some of the most important elections are those choosing members of America’s school boards. Typically, school board elections are seen as routine and unimportant. However, over the past months, many leaders – and wou...

Without question, there are Satanic attacks upon our children. Anyone who doubts this statement need look no further than the presence of “Drag Queen Story Hours” in America’s libraries. Return to Order first heard about these diabolical events in the spring of Two Thousand Nineteen. We instantly began to fight against them. These essays detail the actions that the TFP has taken and the motivation...

Many Catholics who style themselves as traditionalists are calling for sweeping changes to the institution of the papacy. However, as Jose Antonio Ureta explains in this essay, the problem is not with the institution, but rather with Pope Francis, himself. To Read the essay in its original format, please use the following link: https://www.returntoorder.org/2022/09/the-pope-needs-reform-not-the-pa...

Many people are surprised to hear that the Constitution of the United States is the second oldest written constitution in the world – and that the oldest is that of the State of Massachusetts. Others are astonished to find that the most often cited part of the Constitution – the Bill of Rights – was not included in the original document. These first ten Amendments were added two years after the Co...

Have you ever discussed the failures of Socialism with a Socialist? It is a frustrating process. No matter what evidence you bring proving that Socialism creates hardship and poverty, the Socialist always says that your example doesn’t describe “real” Socialism. If someone could just do Socialism in the right way, they explain, then it would work. These Socialists exist in all aspects of life. Thi...

For several years, Pope Francis was a sort of mystery. Often, his statements are unclear. Sometimes, he would write something, and then a few days later would say something that opposed the written statement. That tendency made people scratch their heads and wonder which statement reflected his real opinion. As time has passed, Francis’s actions have answered many such questions. This episode of T...