Saint Francis de Sales is the patron saint of writers and journalists, but should Catholic philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand ever attain canonization — not unlikely, but also a process not yet begun — he will have to merit consideration as co-protector of scribblers, especially polemicists willing to take on very strong and ruthless adversaries on behalf of the weak and the despised.

Read the new edition and translation of von Hildebrand’s memoir My Battle Against Hitler by John Henry Crosby with John F. Crosby and you will be persuaded that Hildebrand is easily among the most courageous of the journalists of the past 100 years. And that is saying something.