Chris Check stands at the Peloponnese,
the site of the great battle in what is now called
the Gulf of Corinth in southern Greece.
Praise of Christopher Check’s Talk on Lepanto:
It was a great pleasure to be present at your outstanding lecture. It was a superb presentation of one of the greatest victories in the history of the Church: a supernatural victory achieved by faith and prayers, and illustrating the truth that “boasting of chariots and of horses” does not guarantee success. Victory comes to those who “boast in the name of the Lord” (Psalm 20,7). Your talk is also a clarion call for the West to go back to the Faith: for, as Belloc wrote, “Europe is the Faith, and the Faith is Europe.” I highly recommend your presentation.
Alice Von Hildebrand
Christopher Check’s talk on Lepanto will transport you across time and space and you will suddenly find yourself on galley in the midst of the most important sea battle in the history of Western Civilization. Even better, he recites from memory Chesterton’s poem about it!
Dale Ahlquist
President, American Chesterton Society
Editor, The Annotated Lepanto
Christopher Check delivers his lecture on Lepanto with the punch and passion that such a subject demands. The combination of scholarship and rambunctiousness with which he tells the story of Don John’s victory over Christendom’s ancient foe reminded me of Belloc and Chesterton combined. His lecture is nothing less than a Chesterbellocian feast and is not to be missed.
Joseph Pearce
Ave Maria University
Author of Wisdom and Innocence: A Life of G.K. Chesterton
It really was quite extraordinary; and I mean to use that term in exactly the way it was intended to be used.
You’re providing a great service to all those who hear this presentation. My only lament is that every student in every high school classroom all over the United States and Europe isn’t hearing it, or at least every Catholic student. Imagine the vibrancy of the Church if she returned to feeding its people this intellectual and cultural fare to go along with the supernatural food it is blessed to give; and imagine then that effect on our world.
Thank you for keeping this piece of it alive in such a dynamic way, and for sharing it with our students.
Col David Petrillo, USAF, Ret
President, The Montfort Academy
Katonah, NY
The talk by Chris Check on the Battle of Lepanto was one of the most interesting and literary-flavored that I have ever heard. When you take the magnificent historical research done by Chris Check together with his passion for the Church and co-mingle it with the genius of Chesterton you have a combination of excellence that is hard to match much less surpass.
Thomas Roeser
Chairman, Chicago Legatus
Chris Check's presentation to our lunch forum on the Battle of Lepanto was one of the most exciting events we have hosted, including Chris' recitation, from memory, of Chesterton's famous poem about Lepanto. This is a rare treat. Get a baby sitter and check this out.Catholic Citizens of Illinois
Mr.Check's presentation would have delighted Chesterton himself for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that his declamation stunned, enthralled, and edified a whole roomful of young men in their teens. Top-drawer.
Father Hugh Barbour, O. Praem.
Saint Michael’s Abbey and Preparatory School
Orange County California
CHRISTOPHER CHECKChristopher Check is the Executive Vice President of the Rockford Institute, publisher of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture. The Institute is a band of scholars, which promotes and defends the personal virtues and cultural principles without which Christian Civilization cannot thrive.
From 1995-1997 he served as the Editor of THE FAMILY IN AMERICA, a monthly publication that affirms, through scholarly research, the traditional family as the origin of civilization, and defends and promotes the virtues that strengthen family life. Among other duties at the Institute, he directs the operation of the Center for the Restoration of Humane Learning, the Institute’s continuing education program of conferences, schools, and distance-learning courses.
Graduating in 1987 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Rice University, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corps. Following combat officer training at Quantico, Virginia, and field artillery training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, he joined the Eleventh Marine Regiment and served in exercises, deployments, and expeditions in Okinawa, Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and the Persian Gulf filling the billets of Forward Observer, Fire Direction Officer, and Guns Platoon Commander. After three years in the Fleet Marine Force, he supervised screening and induction of Armed Forces enlistees at the Military Entrance Processing Station, Milwaukee. He was promoted to Captain in March, 1992. He resigned his Commission in December 1993 to join the Rockford Institute. His decorations include the Joint Service Commendation Medal, The Joint Service Achievement Medal, the Navy Unit Commendation, the Southwest Asia Service Medal, and The National Defense Medal.
His writings have appeared in Rockford Institute publications: CHRONICLES and THE FAMILY IN AMERICA, as well as ANGELUS, CATHOLIC MEN’S QUARTERLY, CULTURE WARS, THIS ROCK, TOUCHSTONE, NATIONAL REVIEW, THE WANDERER, THE AMERICAN ENTERPRISE, DEFENSE MEDIA REVIEW, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE WASHINGTON TIMES and various newspapers across the country.
His television and radio appearances include programs on National Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television, Illinois Public Television, the BBC, Radio Free Europe, and the Business Radio Network. He is an award-winning fortnightly commentator for Northern Illinois Public Radio.
He lectures on life and family issues, defense, the dangers of modern communication technology, military and Church history, and lives of saints. His interests include the early Christian Martyrs, the Army of the Roman Republic, Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Joan of Arc, Henry VIII’s Divorce, the Battle of Lepanto, the Cristeros, and the effect of empire building on the soldier’s soul.
He has addressed audiences at such august locations as the Irish Rose Saloon, Rockford Illinois, as well as the University of London, the Pontifical Augustinian University in Rome, The Serbian Writers Union in Belgrade, the National Press Club, Catholic Answers, the American Chesterton Society, Catholic Citizens of Illinois, Legatus, Ave Maria University, the College of Saint Thomas More in Fort Worth, and various parishes and schools across the republic, including Saint Thomas More in Chicago, Saint Mary the Virgin, Arlington, Texas, and Saint Michael’s Abbey, Orange County, California, Saint John the Beloved, McClean, VA, St. Gregory's Academy, Moscow, PA, and Saint Mary's, Norwalk, CT.
He and his wife of 17 years, Jacqueline, have four sons, Nicholas, Alexander, John Paul, and Nathanael.
© 2008 Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation