America can only be made great again if it first seeks to make its citizens virtuous again.
By Joseph Pearce
Crisis Magazine
February 2, 2026
Earlier this month, in his State of the World address to ambassadors, Pope Leo XIV warned that "a new Orwellian-style language is developing." He added that "freedom of speech and expression is guaranteed precisely by the certainty of language and the fact that every term is anchored in the truth." The pope's placing of the "state of the world" in an Orwellian light, or perhaps an Orwellian shadow, prompted the following musings on the state of the world, the state of America, and the relationship between being great, being good, and being beautiful.