5 Leads for Celebrating Dependence Day (An Alternative Holiday)

5 Leads for Celebrating Dependence Day (An Alternative Holiday) July 4, 2015

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Children aren’t the only dependents in this world (Giovanni Bellini, Sacred Conversation, 1500; Source: Wikimedia Commons, PD-Old-100).

Independence Day is the quintessential holiday for lovers of liberty. But what if negative liberty is not really your thing? Some time ago reading atheist  Julia Kristeva on John Paul II got me thinking about an alternative holiday: Dependence Day. Then Holly Taylor Coolman’s reading of the treasury of merit reminded me of it.

And so, if you’re Catholic, and you feel like the news cycle has really kicked your butt, consider reading the following posts for ideas on celebrating the marginally American value of dependence:

1. MacIntyre’s Revelatory Argument About Disability

2. Polish Poetry: Milosz, Herbert, & Kamienska on Suffering & Insight

3. Pope Francis and Kristeva Celebrate JP2′s Suffering With Joy

4. What We Need is a Spirituality of Wiping Bottoms and Breastfeeding

5. Holly Taylor Coolman on Remaining a (Non-Polarized & Super-Sexy) Catholic

Do all of these seem too un-American? Maybe there’s something wrong with America then? The Murray Project of making peace with American values is dead for Catholics who take their Tradition seriously. One might hope America is flexible enough to accept new values.


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