Christianity and Paganism:
Old and New

“The Old Paganism was of a sort that would be open, when due time came, to the authority of the Catholic Church. It had ears that at least would hear… Men do not live long without gods; but when the gods of the New Paganism come they will not be merely insufficient, as were the gods of Greece, nor merely false; they will be evil. One might put it in a sentence and say that the New Paganism, foolishly expecting satisfaction, will fall, before it knows where it is, into Satanism.” (Hilaire Belloc, Essays of a Catholic, 1931).

“There will not be any more different places or climates, nor will there be any curiosity anywhere. Man will find everywhere the same moderate temperature, the same customs, the same administrative rules, and infallibly the same police taking the same care of him. Everywhere the same language will be spoken, the ballerinas will everywhere dance the same ballet. The old diversity will be a memory of the old liberty, an outrage to the new equality, a greater outrage to the bureaucratic machine that would be suspected of not being able to establish uniformity everywhere. Its pride will not suffer that. Everything will be done in the image of the main city of the Empire and of the world.” (Louis Veuillot, Le canon rayé, 1859)

Faculty, Clergy, Musicians

Jonathan Arrington (Professor for the Discalced Hermits of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel)
Dr. Miguel Ayuso Torres (Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Madrid)
James Bogle, Esq., TD MA Dip Law (Barrister and author of A Heart for Europe)
Dr. Thomas Cattoi (Santa Clara University; Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley)
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; Thomas More Society)
Dr. Rudolf Hilfer (University of Stuttgart)
David J. Hughes (Director of Musical Program)
Rev. John Hunwicke (Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham)
James Kalb, Esq. (Author of The Tyranny of Liberalism)
Dr. Brian McCall (University of Oklahoma)
Michael J. Matt (Editor, The Remnant)
Sebastian Morello (Essays Editor and Columnist, The European Conservative)
Rev. Dr. Richard Munkelt (Chaplain of the Roman Forum)
Dr. Peter Kwasniewski (Independent writer)
Dr. Thomas Pink (King’s College, London)
Dr. John C. Rao (Chairman, The Roman Forum)
Dr. Joseph Shaw (Chairman, Latin Mass Society of England & Wales)
Dr. Thomas Stark (Professor of Philosophy and Politics, Austria)
James Vogel (Editor, The Angelus Press)
Fr. Edmund Waldstein (Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule, Austria)

Introduction

It is our misfortune actually to live in the wicked, global desert which Hilaire Belloc and Louis Veuillot could only perceptively imagine that modern, secularist developments were constructing for mankind to inhabit. Our contemporary Global Motherland, whose agents are rapidly seeking to seal their grip upon us, is not just utterly anti-Catholic; it is entirely pagan as well — pagan in a new and infinitely more perilous manner.

Clement of Alexandria and St. Augustine perhaps most vividly depict for us the dangers of the ancient pagan world for the budding Christian “City of God”. Missionaries from the earliest days have added their warnings of the perils emerging from other, non-classical forms of paganism. But “traditional” paganism, even when it sought to propitiate the demons involved in shaping it, often also recognized them for the horror that they were, and actually sheltered many contrary “Seeds of the Logos” alongside them. These natural guides to the True, Good, and Beautiful were then supernaturally enlightened, perfected, far expanded upon, and placed in the proper hierarchy of values through Christian Revelation.

The pagan threat we face today is different. Despite the many obvious points of contact between its modern and earlier manifestations, contemporary paganism, emerging from all those forces coming to fruition in modern Enlightenment naturalism, is unquestioningly more destructive than both its historic ancestors as well as those of its forms that still today continue to share its “traditional” nature. Modern, Enlightenment, naturalist inspired paganism openly revels and exults in the anti-human Satanic spirit that Belloc identifies, seeing in it the engine for construction of a world-wide future brighter than any past. And yet the ravages that it wreaks are so blatantly inhuman and unnatural that an acute social critic such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn could wonder what the overwhelming joy of the pluralist culture promoting them could possible be all about — other than an illustration of an incurable madness brought on through possession by the Evil One.

Through the varied fields of expertise of our intercontinental faculty, we will explore a great number of essential topics: the nature and manifold expressions of “traditional” paganism; Catholicism’s work in separating out the Seeds of the Logos from its unacceptable spirit; modern naturalist paganism’s efforts to coopt Christian themes and language for its own twisted ends; and the persons, groups, and institutions, as well as the innumerable social, economic, sexual, artistic, and popular cultural tools used to promote the contemporary pagan project.

Themes

1) Ancient Paganism and Modern Naturalism: Similarities and Differences
2) The Pagan State and Social Establishment
3) Pagan Warfare: Ancient and Modern
4) Pagan Slavery: Ancient and Modern
5) Pagan Child Sacrifice: Ancient and Modern
6) Paganism and the Sexual Realm: Ancient and Modern
7) Gnosticism and Paganism: Ancient and Modern
8) Sophism and Paganism: Ancient and Modern
9) Mystery Religions and Paganism: Ancient and Modern
10) Ancient Paganism, Magic, Astrology, Alchemy, and the Kabbala
11) St. Justin Martyr, St. Clement of Alexandria, St. Augustine and the Ancient Pagan World
12) Christian Missionaries and Global Paganism
13) The Renaissance and the Return and Transformation of Paganism
14) The Magical-Alchemical-Kabbala–Gnostic Vision, Francis Bacon, and the Modern Scientific/Science Fiction Project
15) The Pagan State, Social Establishment, Warfare, Slavery, Sexual Outlook Reborn and Transformed
16) Rock Culture, Modern Theater, Liturgy, and Paganism
17) Satanism, the Contemporary Elite, the Posthumanist Dream, and Living Hell

Liturgy and Music

The Summer Symposium’s music program involves daily 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 in 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, Setting, and Daily Program

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 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. Holy 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.

Application, Cost, and Payment

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 $1.10 to the Euro). This includes tuition, room and board (very ample breakfast and dinner with cocktails, wine, beer, and other beverages at will; all gratuities also), 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 are 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. Please consider giving a tax-deductible donation to support the attendance of a speaker, a member of the clergy, a seminarian, or a student.

Send all applications, deposits, payments, and donations either through PayPal or directly to: