The Magi

On this day:

1688
As part of the Glorious Revolution, King James II of England flees England to Paris after being deposed in favour of his nephew, William of Orange and his daughter Mary.
1783
George Washington resigns as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland.
1793
The Battle of Savenay, decisive defeat of the royalist counter-revolutionaries in Revolt in the Vendée during the French Revolution.
1948
Seven Japanese convicted of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East are executed at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo.
1968
The 82 sailors from the USS Pueblo are released after eleven months of internment in North Korea.
1972
A 6.5 magnitude earthquake strikes the Nicaraguan capital of Managua killing more than 10,000.
1972
The 16 survivors of the Andes flight disaster are rescued after 73 days, having survived by cannibalism.

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Pope Leo XIV has decided to name St. John Henry Newman a Doctor of the Church, more than one hundred and forty years after his predecessor, Pope Leo XIII, named Newman a Cardinal in 1879.
Newman stated, as the most important point of his speech and apologia, that there was “one great mischief,” which he had from the “first opposed – the spirit of liberalism in religion.”

The word liberalism, in the century since Newman’s death, has taken on various meanings which it might not have had then, or at least with a different emphasis. Simply put, and simply needed, Newman defined the concept as “liberalism in religion is the doctrine that there is no positive truth in religion, but that one creed is as good as another.”

From that starting point, the saintly Englishman continued, flow some very ‘modern’ concepts: the false notion of ‘tolerance,’ the privatization of religion, “personal and peculiar,” and, most profoundly, as the Western world attempts to build a society without Christian foundation, the destruction of that society.

Newman called this whole movement the “great apostasia,” the same everywhere, but in each country differing in detail.--Fr. Benedict Kiely on John Henry Newman and his ‘Biglietto speech.’

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In mid-December, liberal commentator Rachel Maddow publicly claimed that she has “returned to the Catholic faith,” a declaration first circulated via a Substack post by self-described progressive Catholic Christopher Hale and later confirmed through audio released by MSNBC NOW.

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A new private equity investment:
Senator Mike Lee has a new bill that encourages the President to authorize letters of marque and reprisal against drug cartels: During the War of 1812, roughly 500 privateers operated alongside a tiny U.S. Navy. The market responded swiftly—privateers like the Comet were commissioned within days of the war’s declaration and began capturing prizes within weeks. Sophisticated institutional design combined profit incentives with regulatory constraints.

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Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman was confirmed as the new head of NASA.
Isaacman dropped out of high school to pursue his business, but later earned his GED and a bachelor's degree in aeronautics from Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University.

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And, if possible, a more complex view of Christmas:

The Magi

Now as at all times I can see in the mind's eye,
In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones
Appear and disappear in the blue depths of the sky
With all their ancient faces like rain-beaten stones,
And all their helms of silver hovering side by side,
And all their eyes still fixed, hoping to find once more,
Being by Calvary's turbulence unsatisfied,
The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.
--Yeats