Welcome to a new episode of “Speaking about Chesterton” – the podcast of the G.K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture at Seton Hall University.

Today’s episode “Elizabeth Ann Seton meets G.K. Chesterton,” was presented a part of Seton Hall University’s 2025 Charter Day celebrations  by the  G.K. Chesterton Institute for Faith and Culture  and the Center for Catholic Studies.

A thought-provoking discussion on the state of Catholic higher education today, viewed through the perspectives of two monumental figures in Catholic theology and education: G.K. Chesterton and Elizabeth Ann Seton. We invite you to listen to the engaging dialogue on the enduring impact of these two figures and their relevance to Catholic higher education today.

Today’s guests are:

And professor Dermot Quinn, D.Phil., a historian at Seton Hall University, will offer insights into the thought and influence of G.K. Chesterton. 

Today’s conversation will be moderated by Professor Patrick Manning, Director of the Center for Catholic Studies at Seton Hall University.

Welcome to a new episode of “Speaking about Chesterton” – the podcast of the G.K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture at Seton Hall University.

Today’s episode “Elizabeth Ann Seton meets G.K. Chesterton,” was presented a part of Seton Hall University’s 2025 Charter Day celebrations  by the  G.K. Chesterton Institute for Faith and Culture  and the Center for Catholic Studies.

A thought-provoking discussion on the state of Catholic higher education today, viewed through the perspectives of two monumental figures in Catholic theology and education: G.K. Chesterton and Elizabeth Ann Seton. We invite you to listen to the engaging dialogue on the enduring impact of these two figures and their relevance to Catholic higher education today.

Today’s guests are:

And professor Dermot Quinn, D.Phil., a historian at Seton Hall University, will offer insights into the thought and influence of G.K. Chesterton. 

Today’s conversation will be moderated by Professor Patrick Manning, Director of the Center for Catholic Studies at Seton Hall University.

In 1929, G.K. Chesterton traveled to Rome to attend the beatification of the English Martyrs, while there he had private audiences with both Mussolini and Pope Pius XI. 

From the Hotel Hassler at the top of the Spanish Steps, he had one of the best views of the city. For a man who never was at a loss of words, it seems it was hard for him to describe the Eternal City, however, he wrote and reflected on his time in room in his book “The Resurrection of Rome.”  In it he writes about: the outline of the city; the story of the status, the pillar of Lateran; the return of the Gods, and the return of the romans, finishing with a chapter about the Holy Land 

 He remarked: “Rome is too small for its greatness, or too great for its smallness.”   

"Roman civilization is at the heart of G.K. Chesterton’s historical imagination. Nowhere is this more evident than in his 1925 book "The Everlasting Man," which challenged a materialist, evolutionary perspective on history and highlighted the distinctive place of the Christian Church in the development of civilization."--Susan Hanssen, Dept. of History, U. of Dallas, Texas

Welcome to Speaking About Chesterton. In this episode of our Series Chesterton around the world, Dr. Dermot Quinn and I will speak about Chesterton and France. We will discuss Chesterton’s writings and thoughts of France and the French people.

France was the first country he visited as a young man in 1892 with his father at the age of 18. After this first trip, he writes that he was “grateful for seeing France as a young man as a traveler and not as a tourist.” 

He visited again in 1908, and in 1935 with his wife Frances and with Dorothy Collins

Welcome to Speaking About Chesterton. In this episode of our Series Chesterton around the world, Dr. Dermot Quinn and I will speak about Chesterton and Poland.

Chesterton visited Poland in 1927.

In 1976, almost half-a-century after the visit, Father Ian Boyd at his lecture at the Catholic University in Lublin remarks: “Chesterton’s admiration for Poland scarcely requires and explanation. Like Ireland, Poland possessed all the qualities Chesterton most valued: it was Catholic, it was agrarian, and it was small. In a sense, it was a living proof that the ideal state for which he longed could be an actual reality. An ideal which he believed had almost been realized in mediaeval times had been actually achieved in his own age.

Welcome to Episode 2 of our series: Chesterton around the World.

In today’s episode we will speak with Professor Dermot Quinn about “Chesterton and Ireland”.

Chesterton travelled to Ireland for the first time in 1918, while there he wrote a series of articles for the New Witness that were then published in his 1919 book entitled Irish Impressions. In the book he writes,

“I went to Ireland at the request of Irish friends who were working warmly for the Allied cause, and who conceived (I fear in far too flattering a spirit), that I might at least be useful as an Englishman who had always sympathized as warmly with the Irish cause.”

He goes on to say:

“I need not explain the motives that made me do the little I could do; they were the same that at the moment made millions of better men do masses of better work.”

As we can read his reason for visiting Ireland the first time, in the first paragraph of the book he writes about his first impressions,

                  When I had for the first time crossed St. George’s Channel, and for the

                  first time stepped out of a Dublin hotel on to St Stephen’s Green,

                  the first of all my impressions was that of a particular statue, or

rather portion of a statue. I left many traditional mysteries already

in my track, but they did not trouble me as did this random glimpse or

vision. I have never understood why the Channel is called St George’s

Channel; it would seem more natural to call it St. Patrick’s Channel

since the great missionary did almost certainly cross that unquiet

sea and look up at those mysterious mountains.

We invite you now to listen to our conversation about Chesterton and Ireland, a country he visited in 1918 and in 1932.

Welcome to our new series “Chesterton Around the World.”  For the next 5 episodes, Gloria Garafulich-Grabois, director of the G.K. Chesterton Institute and professor Dermot Quinn, editor of The Chesterton Review will speak about Chesterton and various countries—starting with England, the country of his birth. In later episodes we will explore Chesterton and Ireland, Chesterton and Poland, Chesterton and France and Chesterton and Italy.

We begin with “England,” – the country of his birth, the country he loved and that he extensively wrote about including his very well-known, or perhaps better said, popular book “A short history of England.” As he states in the first paragraph of the Introduction of the book as to why he would write he would write this book, he states: “The answer is that I know just enough to know one thing: that a history from the standpoint of a member of the public has not been written.”

The dramatic reading tells the story of the fastidious friendship of two remarkable men, G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc. We encounter their youthful and engaging good humor, their personal devotion to their wives, the fighting tone of their journalistic and political conflicts, their hesitant thoughtfulness about the state of their own souls, and the gallant stance both took in the face of overwhelming odds

"The adventure of being born" --the G.K. Chesterton Institute the celebration of the 150th anniversary of G.K. Chesterton's Birth-- a conversation with Dermot Quinn and Gloria Garafulich-Grabois

In this episode we will discuss:

The House of Christmas, Anti-Christ, or the Reunion of Christendom: an Ode and The Secret People