Lew, I am sadly not surprised by the latest egregious photo-op and statements by the Argentine Peronist in the Vatican. The great Catholic author and apologist of the faith, Hilaire Belloc, presciently warned decades ago of the rebirth and rise of a radical Islam besieging the West. Belloc further stated:

“Europe will return to the Faith, or she will perish. The Faith is Europe. And Europe is the Faith.”

These are core concepts Pope Francis has ignored, abandoned, or disdained.

Here are six important books which LRC readers should read (but which won’t be read by Pope Francis, who has abandoned orthodox Catholic Social Thought and Teaching, embracing the key tenets of three destructive secular faiths: “third worldism,” environmentalism, and militant anti-capitalism).

They are The Camp of the Saints, by Jean Raspail; The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization, by Anthony Esolen; The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), by Robert Spencer; The Force of Reason, by Oriana Fallaci; While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destroying the West from Within, by Bruce Bawer; and The Tears of the White Man: Compassion as Contempt, by Pascal Bruckner.

The Best of Charles Burris