Triumph (magazine)
Encyclopedia
Triumph was a monthly American
magazine founded by L. Brent Bozell, Jr. in 1966 and based in Spain
. It commented on religious, philosophical, and cultural issues from the traditionalist Catholic
perspective. It ceased publication in 1975.
conservatives following the Second Vatican Council
. Bozell, previously an editor for National Review
founded by his brother-in-law William F. Buckley, Jr.
, was put off by the insufficient respect the largely Catholic editorial board of the magazine paid to Catholic Social Teaching
. Specifically, he protested the prevailing attitude of "Mater si, magistra no
" towards Pope John XXIII
's papal encyclicals Mater et Magistra
and Pacem in Terris
.
Dismayed by the direction in which American intellectual conservatism was going, Bozell resigned from National Review in 1963 and assembled the first issue of Triumph in September of 1966. With Bozell on the editorial board sat Michael Lawrence, Frederick Wilhelmsen
, and, for a time, Jeffrey Hart
and John Wisner. At first, National Review praised Triumph as a fine manifestation of the "church militant" at a time when much American religion had been debased by the worship of false idols. Later, the strident activism of Triumphs editors led to an estrangement between the two journals.
as Dignitatis Humanae
ushered in a new emphasis on religious pluralism
and brought an end to the "error has no rights" era. Bozell argued that the refusal to seek the conversion of American Jews was a form of contempt rather than respect, a new variety of anti-Semitism
: "By abandoning their most valuable possession... Christians would deny to Jews the fulfillment of the promises made to Israel and awaited anxiously throughout the centuries." The magazine was also strongly opposed to the liturgical reforms, carrying elegies for the Tridentine Mass
and arguing that the abandonment of Latin
, the lingua franca of Christendom
, was a symbolic abandonment of the unity of the Christian West.
The founders of Triumph hoped that the Church could maintain its internal integrity and serve as the foundation for Christian politics. More enamored of Franco's Spain
than of Richard Nixon
's America, they admired Francisco Franco
's preservation of the Catholic Church and his zealous anti-Communism
. Bozell and his family lived in Spain in the 1960's and between 1960 and 1967 Frederick Wilhelmsen worked as a professor of philosophy at the University of Navarre. Wilhelmsen argued that of all the Western nations, Spain held a unique place because "there is only one nation in history that has bested at arms both Islam and Marxism and that one nation is Spain."
In contrast to American conservatives, with whom Christianity and capitalism
did not contradict but complemented each other, Triumph inveighed against capitalism in the tradition of Pope Leo XIII
's watershed encyclical Rerum Novarum
and Pope Pius XI
's Quadragesimo Anno
and identified its economic views most closely with the distributism
of G.K. Chesterton. The magazine also had no sympathy for the alternative of socialism
, against which there was a century of papal opposition. Though it was ardently anti-Communist, Triumph opposed the Vietnam War
on the grounds that the conflict violated the Just War theory. The editors were already soured by U.S. complicity in the assassination of the Catholic President of South Vietnam
Ngo Dinh Diem
, but were further dismayed by rumors of American use of chemical weapons. Triumph then declared itself totally against nuclear deterrence (which Bozell had been a staunch advocate of early in his career) as incompatible with the Catholic faith.
's encyclical Humanae Vitae
which affirmed the traditional Catholic teaching against artificial contraceptives in contrast to the "Sexual Revolution
" of the 1960's. The possibility of abortion law reform was more dismaying to Triumph than the contraception controversy. This was the issue that finally drove the magazine to begin its stark denunciation of America as an enemy of the Catholic faith. In 1970 Brent Bozell led a controversial protest at the George Washington University
Hospital in one of the nation's first anti-abortion protests. So long as America had been guided by some measure of Christian principles, said the editors, it had been possible to live here peacefully while working to construct a Christian social order. But once the killing of the unborn was permitted by law, a Catholic's dissent had to be absolute. According to Triumph, "If she is to protect herself and she is to abide by her divine mandate to teach all peoples, the Catholic Church in America must break the articles of peace, she must forthrightly acknowledge that a state of war exists between herself and the American political order." Following the Roe v. Wade
decision, Triumph published its next issue with an all-black cover and every page edged in black, in funereal acknowledgement of the unborn who would be killed as a result of this decision.
Jeffrey Hart observed that his own sympathy with the initial objectives of the journal was lost when it began to treat the United States as a force of evil comparable in magnitude to the Soviet Union
. The journal shrank from its twenty four-page glossy format into a newsletter in 1975 and ceased publication completely with the farewell edition of January 1976, in which the editors reprinted many of the most notable articles from the journal's earlier days.
in Spain. The entirety of the original faculty of and many of the donors to Christendom College
had attended the program in Spain and were subscribers to Triumph, so much so that Carroll remarked in his obituary for Bozell that "In a very fundamental sense, Christendom College was a Triumph enterprise."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
magazine founded by L. Brent Bozell, Jr. in 1966 and based in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. It commented on religious, philosophical, and cultural issues from the traditionalist Catholic
Traditionalist Catholic
Traditionalist Catholics are Roman Catholics who believe that there should be a restoration of many or all of the liturgical forms, public and private devotions and presentations of Catholic teachings which prevailed in the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council...
perspective. It ceased publication in 1975.
Origin
L. Brent Bozell, Jr. founded Triumph in 1966 as a magazine for American CatholicCatholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
conservatives following the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
. Bozell, previously an editor for National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
founded by his brother-in-law William F. Buckley, Jr.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
William Frank Buckley, Jr. was an American conservative author and commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted 1,429 episodes of the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and was a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. His writing was noted for...
, was put off by the insufficient respect the largely Catholic editorial board of the magazine paid to Catholic Social Teaching
Catholic social teaching
Catholic social teaching is a body of doctrine developed by the Catholic Church on matters of poverty and wealth, economics, social organization and the role of the state...
. Specifically, he protested the prevailing attitude of "Mater si, magistra no
Mater si, magistra no
Mater si, magistra no is a macaronic phrase that means Catholics need not follow all the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, particularly in regard to economic justice or the rights of workers...
" towards Pope John XXIII
Pope John XXIII
-Papal election:Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop...
's papal encyclicals Mater et Magistra
Mater et Magistra
"Mater et Magistra" is the encyclical written by Pope John XXIII on the topic of "Christianity and Social Progress". It was promulgated on May 15, 1961. The title means "mother and teacher", referring to the role of the church. It describes a necessity to work towards authentic community in order...
and Pacem in Terris
Pacem in Terris
Pacem in Terris was a papal encyclical issued by Pope John XXIII on 11 April 1963. It was the last encyclical drafted by John XXIII, who died from cancer two months after its completion ....
.
Dismayed by the direction in which American intellectual conservatism was going, Bozell resigned from National Review in 1963 and assembled the first issue of Triumph in September of 1966. With Bozell on the editorial board sat Michael Lawrence, Frederick Wilhelmsen
Frederick Wilhelmsen
Frederick Daniel Wilhelmsen was an American philosopher and professor in the Thomist tradition. He also helped found Christendom College and taught at the University of Dallas for many years. He was a founding editor of Triumph magazine. He also taught at Santa Clara University for many years...
, and, for a time, Jeffrey Hart
Jeffrey Hart
Jeffrey Peter Hart and raised in New York, New York, is a cultural critic, professor emeritus of English at Dartmouth College, essayist, and columnist who lives in New Hampshire, United States. After two years as an undergraduate at Dartmouth, he transferred to Columbia University, where he...
and John Wisner. At first, National Review praised Triumph as a fine manifestation of the "church militant" at a time when much American religion had been debased by the worship of false idols. Later, the strident activism of Triumphs editors led to an estrangement between the two journals.
History
The editors of the new magazine were caught in the awkward position of attempting to preserve traditional Catholicism just when the Church was transforming itself. Triumph sought to emphasize Catholicism as the one true faithOne true faith
The concept of a one true faith, one true religion, or one true church, stem from the concept of the One True God asserted by believers in a monotheistic view of God...
as Dignitatis Humanae
Dignitatis Humanae
Dignitatis Humanae is the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on Religious Freedom. In the context of the Council's stated intention “to develop the doctrine of recent popes on the inviolable rights of the human person and the constitutional order of society”, Dignitatis Humanae spells out the...
ushered in a new emphasis on religious pluralism
Religious pluralism
Religious pluralism is a loosely defined expression concerning acceptance of various religions, and is used in a number of related ways:* As the name of the worldview according to which one's religion is not the sole and exclusive source of truth, and thus that at least some truths and true values...
and brought an end to the "error has no rights" era. Bozell argued that the refusal to seek the conversion of American Jews was a form of contempt rather than respect, a new variety of anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
: "By abandoning their most valuable possession... Christians would deny to Jews the fulfillment of the promises made to Israel and awaited anxiously throughout the centuries." The magazine was also strongly opposed to the liturgical reforms, carrying elegies for the Tridentine Mass
Tridentine Mass
The Tridentine Mass is the form of the Roman Rite Mass contained in the typical editions of the Roman Missal that were published from 1570 to 1962. It was the most widely celebrated Mass liturgy in the world until the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI in December 1969...
and arguing that the abandonment of Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, the lingua franca of Christendom
Christendom
Christendom, or the Christian world, has several meanings. In a cultural sense it refers to the worldwide community of Christians, adherents of Christianity...
, was a symbolic abandonment of the unity of the Christian West.
The founders of Triumph hoped that the Church could maintain its internal integrity and serve as the foundation for Christian politics. More enamored of Franco's Spain
Spanish State
Francoist Spain refers to a period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975 when Spain was under the authoritarian dictatorship of Francisco Franco....
than of Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
's America, they admired Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
's preservation of the Catholic Church and his zealous anti-Communism
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
. Bozell and his family lived in Spain in the 1960's and between 1960 and 1967 Frederick Wilhelmsen worked as a professor of philosophy at the University of Navarre. Wilhelmsen argued that of all the Western nations, Spain held a unique place because "there is only one nation in history that has bested at arms both Islam and Marxism and that one nation is Spain."
In contrast to American conservatives, with whom Christianity and capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
did not contradict but complemented each other, Triumph inveighed against capitalism in the tradition of Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...
's watershed encyclical Rerum Novarum
Rerum Novarum
Rerum Novarum is an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on May 15, 1891. It was an open letter, passed to all Catholic bishops, that addressed the condition of the working classes. The encyclical is entitled: “Rights and Duties of Capital and Labour”...
and Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...
's Quadragesimo Anno
Quadragesimo Anno
Quadragesimo Anno is an encyclical written by Pope Pius XI, issued 15 May 1931, 40 years after Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum. Unlike Leo XIII, who addressed the condition of workers, Pius XI discusses the ethical implications of the social and economic order...
and identified its economic views most closely with the distributism
Distributism
Distributism is a third-way economic philosophy formulated by such Catholic thinkers as G. K...
of G.K. Chesterton. The magazine also had no sympathy for the alternative of socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, against which there was a century of papal opposition. Though it was ardently anti-Communist, Triumph opposed the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
on the grounds that the conflict violated the Just War theory. The editors were already soured by U.S. complicity in the assassination of the Catholic President of South Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngô Đình Diệm was the first president of South Vietnam . In the wake of the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords, Diệm led the effort to create the Republic of Vietnam. Accruing considerable U.S. support due to his staunch anti-Communism, he achieved victory in a...
, but were further dismayed by rumors of American use of chemical weapons. Triumph then declared itself totally against nuclear deterrence (which Bozell had been a staunch advocate of early in his career) as incompatible with the Catholic faith.
Decline
The editors of Triumph were staunch supporters of Pope Paul VIPope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
's encyclical Humanae Vitae
Humanae Vitae
Humanae Vitae is an encyclical written by Pope Paul VI and issued on 25 July 1968. Subtitled On the Regulation of Birth, it re-affirms the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church regarding married love, responsible parenthood, and the continuing proscription of most forms of birth...
which affirmed the traditional Catholic teaching against artificial contraceptives in contrast to the "Sexual Revolution
Sexual revolution
The sexual revolution was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the Western world from the 1960s into the 1980s...
" of the 1960's. The possibility of abortion law reform was more dismaying to Triumph than the contraception controversy. This was the issue that finally drove the magazine to begin its stark denunciation of America as an enemy of the Catholic faith. In 1970 Brent Bozell led a controversial protest at the George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
Hospital in one of the nation's first anti-abortion protests. So long as America had been guided by some measure of Christian principles, said the editors, it had been possible to live here peacefully while working to construct a Christian social order. But once the killing of the unborn was permitted by law, a Catholic's dissent had to be absolute. According to Triumph, "If she is to protect herself and she is to abide by her divine mandate to teach all peoples, the Catholic Church in America must break the articles of peace, she must forthrightly acknowledge that a state of war exists between herself and the American political order." Following the Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade, , was a controversial landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. The Court decided that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution extends to a woman's decision to have an abortion,...
decision, Triumph published its next issue with an all-black cover and every page edged in black, in funereal acknowledgement of the unborn who would be killed as a result of this decision.
Jeffrey Hart observed that his own sympathy with the initial objectives of the journal was lost when it began to treat the United States as a force of evil comparable in magnitude to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. The journal shrank from its twenty four-page glossy format into a newsletter in 1975 and ceased publication completely with the farewell edition of January 1976, in which the editors reprinted many of the most notable articles from the journal's earlier days.
Christendom College
After founding Triumph Bozell also founded the Society of the Christian Commonwealth whose educational arm, the Christian Commonwealth Institute headed by Dr. Warren Carroll, conducted annual classes, lectures, and seminars at the El EscorialEl Escorial
The Royal Seat of San Lorenzo de El Escorial is a historical residence of the king of Spain, in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, about 45 kilometres northwest of the capital, Madrid, in Spain. It is one of the Spanish royal sites and functions as a monastery, royal palace, museum, and...
in Spain. The entirety of the original faculty of and many of the donors to Christendom College
Christendom College
Christendom College is a small Catholic liberal arts college in Front Royal, Virginia, United States, which is located in the Shenandoah Valley.-Educational Mission:...
had attended the program in Spain and were subscribers to Triumph, so much so that Carroll remarked in his obituary for Bozell that "In a very fundamental sense, Christendom College was a Triumph enterprise."
Contributors
- Lorenzo AlbaceteLorenzo AlbaceteMonsignor Lorenzo Albacete , a Roman Catholic priest, is an American theologian, scientist and author. A New York Times Magazine contributor, Albacete is one of the leaders in the United States for the international Catholic movement Communion and Liberation...
- Robert Beum
- L. Brent Bozell, Jr., founder and editor-in-chief
- Patricia Buckley BozellPatricia Buckley BozellPatricia Buckley Bozell was an American writer. She helped start Triumph, a Catholic opinion journal that lasted for almost a decade. She had also been a freelance editor at Regnery Publishing, National Review, The American Spectator, and Communio: International Catholic Review.The daughter of...
- Mel BradfordMel BradfordMelvin E. "Mel" Bradford was a conservative political commentator and professor of literature at the University of Dallas....
- Fergus Reid Buckley
- Francis Canavan
- Warren Carroll
- Farley Clinton
- John Crosby
- Christopher DawsonChristopher DawsonChristopher Henry Dawson was a British independent scholar, who wrote many books on cultural history and Christendom. Christopher H. Dawson has been called "the greatest English-speaking Catholic historian of the twentieth century".-Life:...
- Donald De Marco
- Christopher DerrickChristopher DerrickThis article is about Christopher Derrick the author. If you are looking for Christopher Derrick the runner please see Chris DerrickChristopher Hugh Derrick was an author, reviewer, publisher's reader and lecturer...
- Paul A. FisherPaul A. FisherPaul A. Fisher was an American author and journalist.-Early life:On March 12, 1921 Fisher was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1943 and later attended Georgetown University School of Foreign Service as well as the American University in Washington,...
, editor - Germain GrisezGermain GrisezGermain Gabriel Grisez is a Catholic moral theologian. Grisez is the author of the three-volume Way of the Lord Jesus. Grisez moves between the spheres of philosophy and theology, articulating a new form of natural law thinking, consonant with the teachings of the Roman Catholic magisterium.Grisez...
- Jeffrey HartJeffrey HartJeffrey Peter Hart and raised in New York, New York, is a cultural critic, professor emeritus of English at Dartmouth College, essayist, and columnist who lives in New Hampshire, United States. After two years as an undergraduate at Dartmouth, he transferred to Columbia University, where he...
, editor - Robert Herrera
- Frank L. Hicks, Jr.
- Dietrich von HildebrandDietrich von HildebrandDietrich von Hildebrand was a German Catholic philosopher and theologian who was called by Pope Pius XII "the 20th Century Doctor of the Church."...
- Charles JournetCharles JournetCharles Journet was a Swiss Catholic theologian and cardinal.Born in Geneva, Charles Journet studied at the seminary in Fribourg before being ordained to the priesthood on July 15, 1917. He then did pastoral work in the Diocese of Fribourg until 1924, and there taught at the seminary from 1924 to...
- Hugh KennerHugh KennerWilliam Hugh Kenner , was a Canadian literary scholar, critic and professor.Kenner was born in Peterborough, Ontario on January 7, 1923; his father taught classics...
- Russell KirkRussell KirkRussell Kirk was an American political theorist, moralist, historian, social critic, literary critic, and fiction author known for his influence on 20th century American conservatism. His 1953 book, The Conservative Mind, gave shape to the amorphous post–World War II conservative movement...
- Michael Lawrence, editor
- Erik von Kuehnelt-LeddihnErik von Kuehnelt-LeddihnErik Maria Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn was an Austrian Catholic nobleman and socio-political theorist...
- Marcel LefebvreMarcel LefebvreMarcel François Marie Joseph Lefebvre was a French Roman Catholic archbishop. Following a career as an Apostolic Delegate for West Africa and Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers, he took the lead in opposing the changes within the Church associated with the Second Vatican Council.In 1970,...
- John LukacsJohn LukacsJohn Adalbert Lukacs is a Hungarian-born American historian who has written more than thirty books, including Five Days in London, May 1940 and A New Republic...
- Sir Arnold Lunn
- William MarshnerWilliam MarshnerWilliam Harry Marshner, S.T.D., is a prominent convert to Catholicism, an eminent Thomistic theologian, ethicist, and a founding professor at Christendom College in Front Royal, VA where he was chairman of the theology department in the early days of the college.-Biography:Born in Baltimore in...
- Robert Miller
- Thomas MolnarThomas MolnarMolnár Tamás, Thomas Molnar or Molnar, Thomas Steven was a Catholic philosopher, historian and political theorist.- Life :...
- Mark Pilon
- Gary Potter
- Rousas John RushdoonyRousas John RushdoonyRousas John Rushdoony was a Calvinist philosopher, historian, and theologian and is widely credited as the father of Christian Reconstructionism and an inspiration for the modern Christian homeschool movement...
- Michael Schwartz
- Frederick WilhelmsenFrederick WilhelmsenFrederick Daniel Wilhelmsen was an American philosopher and professor in the Thomist tradition. He also helped found Christendom College and taught at the University of Dallas for many years. He was a founding editor of Triumph magazine. He also taught at Santa Clara University for many years...
, editor - John Wisner, editor
Sources
- Bozell, L. Brent, Jr.
- Judis, John B. William F. Buckley Jr.: Patron Saint of the Conservatives
- Longton, William Henry; Lora, Ronald The Conservative Press in Twentieth-Century America