Somewhere I read a plea that we not say “they sexually abused” or “they molested” or “they are pedophiles.” These are “sanitary” words of many syllables. “No! They fucked, they raped, they groped, they grabbed, they snatched.” Even in my title, “sexual assault” is sanitary. Can we stipulate that what went on is rape, or at least the list of verbs that approach it? The Grand Jury Report describes a wide range of them: Most of the victims were boys;... Read more
Pavone, who spends a great deal of time congratulating himself, does not specify what specific actions he has in mind when says “what people like me did.” Can I assume that he includes among them his despicable, canonically illicit act of putting a dead fetus on a Catholic altar and filming a sensationalist campaign commercial for Donald Trump? Because abortion, abortion, abortion. Certainly Pavone thinks this something he did, for which we ought to be grateful, resulted in Trump’s... Read more
John Zmirak, who denies that there is such a thing as Catholic social teaching (this though the Vatican published a whole Compendium of it), is worried that Pope Francis is “falsifying Catholic teaching.” The lack of irony is astonishing. Perhaps the only way out is if Mr. Zmirak will just admit that by “Catholic teaching” he means “my opinions.” There’s no social teaching in Zmirak’s opinions; the pope is falsifying Zmirak’s opinions. Sound better? You Told Me Something Wrong... Read more
On Mr. Arroyo’s anti-Francis propaganda show The World Over, Fr. Murray said he had no idea, none, why the pope would think the death penalty violates the dignity of the human person. Death Site News tells the tale of his woe. Possibly Pope Francis might think so because Pope St. John Paul II had already said it himself. It’s in Evangelium Vitae. Perhaps Fr. Murray has read it; though, I begin to wonder whether he merely skimmed it for the... Read more
Pope Francis has said that the death penalty is "inadmissible." He has put this into the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Read more
A weird discussion broke out on Facebook today, as they have a way of doing. It was in a friends-only post; so I won’t reveal names, or too many details. It involved a priest’s change to the reading of Matt. 13:44. The NAB translation reads: The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. The... Read more
Where is infant baptism in the Bible? You could, if you like, turn the question around; you might ask: “Where in the Bible does it say it must be in the Bible?” The doctrine of sola scriptura is not in the Bible, and so the objection that such-and-such a practice is not found in the Bible is really a moot point. If one is going to object, it must be on some other basis; unless, that is, one can find... Read more
On March 26, 1967, Pope Paul VI published an encyclical entitled Populorum Progressio. It is about the right to a just wage, employment, safe working conditions, to join a union, and the universal destination of goods. Correct me if I am wrong, but last year did I miss it when Catholics threw a 50th birthday party for Populorum Progressio? I mean, Pope St. John Paul II thought that PP merited birthday celebrations. In 1987, when it was twenty years old,... Read more
Odd it is that the same person who insists that “This is my body” is just a metaphor also insists that “Call no man father” must be utterly literal. But no one really thinks that I can not call my dad “father.” No one really thinks I can not call George Washington “the father of his country.” (Well, maybe there are a few oddballs who do say such things, but the real objection is not to calling dads “father” or... Read more
Recently Leila Miller, a Catholic writer with a certain following, complained, yet again, about what she calls the “kitchen sinking” of the term “pro-life.” She worries—given the existence of that pesky New Pro Life Movement—that the term must now include everything, I mean everything, even the wery kitchen sink. Her post was in response to this article at the right-wing Catholic Vote, by Eric Sammons. “Why I’m Through Being Pro-Life”: that’s the title. In it Mr. Sammons bewails the New... Read more
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