Dear Readers,

“The world we live in is the best one to run away from!” This quip would have sounded like a witticism decades ago but, today, it has taken a serious tone.

The war is being waged all the way to the very citadel, and God knows how long its walls will hold against the powerful allies of darkness. Confusion sets in and it is hard to discern friend from foe. Yet defend the walls one must with all talent and might before it is too late. Most of us are not called to leave the world and settle things walled up inside the convent sitting up on the hill while troubles and sounds of war reign in the valley.

And yet, these secluded souls, whose office is prayer and penance, have also a major part in the titanic struggle taking place. They are, no doubt, those whose humble prayers pierce the heavens and allow the soldiers to wield their swords without fainting in the thick of action. Among this long standing Army of contemplative souls, there stands out Saint Teresa the Great, whose 500th anniversary of her birth we celebrate this year.

This is the reason why this Angelus issue offers an ‘un-convent-ional’ tour—pun intended—of the traditional religious in the U.S. District. This should be an occasion for all of us to thank God for these spiritual powerhouses which sustain the courage and the charity of less contemplative Christians. It gives us another reason for praising the foresight of Archbishop Lefebvre, who encouraged the multiplication of these religious communities wherever he went to keep the religious flame alive in the midst of civil ruins around us.

Fr. Jürgen Wegner

Publisher