William C. MichaelWilliam C. Michael

Mr. William C. Michael, O.P., is the founder and headmaster of the Classical Liberal Arts Academy and a Lay Dominican in the Catholic Church. Mr. Michael received an honors degree in Classics and Ancient History from Rutgers University and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He led the CLAA to accreditation with Cognia in 2024. He has been studying and teaching the classical liberal arts for over 30 years.

Why are Catholics Studying Socrates and Plato?

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It’s common in modern circles to find Catholics talking and writing a great deal about Plato’s dialogues and the “Socratic Method”. The people doing are usually also promoting the “Great Books”–which is always a red flag. For some reason, modern Christian teachers and parents, try to promote “reading” as some kind of intrinsic good. The “love of reading” is seen as some kind of intellectual achievement, but this is like celebrating that a child “loves listening to others talk” or “loves watching videos”. The content of the media being consumed is, apparently, not as important as the fact of reading. … Continue

Misuse of the term “Idolatry”

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In the Baltimore Catechism, we learn this helpful lesson: In speaking of worship, theologians generally distinguish three kinds, namely: latria, or that supreme worship due to God alone, which cannot be transferred to any creature without committing the sin of idolatry; dulia, or that secondary veneration we give to saints and angels as the special friends of God; hyperdulia, or that higher veneration which we give to the Blessed Virgin as the most exalted of all God’s creatures. Baltimore Catechism, Book IV, Question 9 In modern circles, Protestants don’t make these distinctions and falsely accuse Catholics of “worshipping Mary” or … Continue

What is Modesty?

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Many attempt to define amd describe modesty in an effort to enforce personal convictions about clothing and behavior. These efforts are usually lazy and shallow. A sound definition for modesty, drawn from the moral philosophy of Aristotle, would be: Modesty is the fear of infamy. Infamy is the evil of being known for bad quality or deed. Aristotle explains that having no fear of infamy is “impudence”, which is a vice. A good man, on the other hand, fears infamy, and this is the virtue of “modesty”. A good man, then, seeks to avoid infamy by avoiding the appearance of … Continue

Aesop’s Fables. Fable 007. The Peacock’s Complaint

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The Peacock complained to Juno that while every one laughed at his voice, an insignificant creature like the Nightingale had a note that delighted everybody. Juno, angry at the unreasonableness of her favourite bird, scolded him in the following terms: “Envious bird that you are, I am sure you have no cause to complain. On your neck shine all the colours of the rainbow, and your extended tail shows like a mass of gems. No living being has every good thing to its own share. The falcon is endowed with swiftness, the eagle, strength, the parrot, speech, the raven, the … Continue

Aesop’s Fables, Lesson 09. The Dog and His Shadow

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A Dog, bearing in his mouth a piece of meat that he had stolen, was crossing a smooth stream by means of a plank. Looking in, he saw what he took to be another dog carrying another piece of meat. Snapping greedily to get this as well, he let go the meat that he had, and lost it in the stream. Exposition In this fable, we see there’s only one character – the dog. Many students wrongly identify the moral of this fable because they ignore one important detail. We read that a dog is bearing or carrying in his … Continue

HOW TO STUDY A GEOMETRY PROPOSITION

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In Classical Geometry, students must learn how to study Propositions.  To do this, they must understand the parts of propositions and how propositions work.  THE ELEMENTS OF GEOMETRY We see that the title of the classic text on the art of Geometry is Euclid’s “Elements”.  When we begin this study, we find three sets of information provided by Euclid: These are the “elements” from which the art of Geometry is constructed.  Every point we learn about the science of “magnitudes at rest”, will be proven from these definitions, postulates and axioms.  It is recommended that these elements be memorized, but … Continue