John Couretas

John Couretas is Director of Communications, responsible for print and online communications at the Acton Institute. He has more than 20 years of experience in news and publishing fields. He has worked as a staff writer on newspapers and magazines, covering business and government. John holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in the Humanities from Michigan State University and a Master of Science Degree in Journalism from Northwestern University.

Posts by John Couretas

September 02, 2008

Need to Know?

In a Zenit article titled “What is Good Journalism?,” author Marta Lugo interviews journalist and author Gabriel Galdón. He is professor of journalism and information ethics at Madrid’s CEU St. Paul University, and the director of the Observatory for the Study of Religious Information. Continue Reading...
August 11, 2008

Nannyfornia

Writing in the London-based Times, Chris Ayres in “Welcome to Nannyfornia” looks at the “frenzy of puritanical edicts from California’s politicians” that cover a host of sins, ranging from transfats to the highly objectionable use of the terms “Mom” and “Dad.” Ayres raises a “disturbing” question: Is Nannyfornia providing us with a glimpse of what Obama’s America might look like? Continue Reading...
August 09, 2008

‘Solzhenitsyn, Optimist’

In the Wall Street Journal, Edward E. Ericson Jr. asks whether “this week’s evenhanded obituaries signal merely momentary respect for the newly dead or augur better days ahead for Solzhenitsyn’s reputation.” In “Solzhenitsyn, Optimist,” Ericson observes that the writer “had the last laugh” in his struggle against the Soviets. Continue Reading...
August 08, 2008

Solzhenitsyn and His Critics, Cont.

In this week’s Acton commentary, Solzhenitsyn and His Critics, I point to the criticism that has been leveled for many years at the writer who turned out to be not exactly the sort of dissident that many in the West were waiting for. Continue Reading...
August 07, 2008

Solzhenitsyn, A Great Soul, Laid to Rest

At Solzhenitsyn’s grave. Donskoy Monastery, Moscow. Aug. 6, 2008. The Associated Press has published a moving series of photographs from Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s funeral here. Acathistus By Alexander Solzhenitsyn When, oh when did I scatter so madly All the goodness, the God-given grains? Continue Reading...
August 04, 2008

Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008)

Solzhenitsyn “During all the years until 1961, not only was I convinced that I should never see a single line of mine in print in my lifetime, but, also, I scarcely dared allow any of my close acquaintances to read anything I had written because I feared that this would become known. Continue Reading...
June 19, 2008

A New Advertising Campaign

Beginning this month in Christianity Today, Acton is introducing a new advertising campaign that asks readers to look at the economic implications of policy questions put forward by religious leaders. The first ad looks at the top down planning, command-and-control orientation of many humanitarian aid programs and opens with this: In developing countries, two million children die each year from common diarrhea. Continue Reading...
June 10, 2008

Acton U. This Week in Grand Rapids

“ … what is virtue if not the free choice of what is good?” — Alexis de Tocqueville Acton University, the four-day exploration of the intellectual foundations of a free society, opens today in Grand Rapids. Continue Reading...