In setting forth his objections to Socialism in Quadragesimo anno [1], Pope Pius XI touched upon another political economic idea that was gaining currency in his day, but was not at that time being called “Socialism.” It ought to be considered in this series, however, because it would be recognized as a form of Socialism today. There was extant then, as now, the misanthropic doctrine that “all accumulation of capital falls by an absolutely insuperable economic law to the rich,... Read more
“Rape is the forcible violation of the sexual intimacy of another person. It does injury to justice and charity. Rape deeply wounds the respect, freedom, and physical and moral integrity to which every person has a right. It causes grave damage that can mark the victim for life. It is always an intrinsically evil act.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, §2356) [1] Christine Blasey Ford says that Supreme Court nominee Brett Michael Kavanaugh tried to do that to her in... Read more
In the last offering in this series [1], your humble servant related how by 1931 Socialism had become divided into two main camps. One was Communism, and Pope Pius XI both observed and predicted its atrocities in his encyclical Quadragesimo anno. [2] The other version, which had “kept the name Socialism,” the pope recognized as “surely more moderate,” saying this about it: “It not only professes the rejection of violence but modifies and tempers to some degree, if it does... Read more
I hope you’re sitting down, because I have some earth shattering news about the pope. It seems that he had been engaging in some serious sensuality himself. He kept a number of mistresses. He fornicated with widows, and even with his own niece. He dealt with his opponents among the clergy with extreme severity; chopping off the hand of one cardinal, and killing another. He blinded his confessor. Moreover, he toasted the devil with wine, and invoked pagan deities when... Read more
With the convictions of Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen topping the news, it may have slipped past many of us that the “Trump administration has moved to formally replace the Clean Power Plan, an environmental regulation that former President Barack Obama once lauded as the single-most important step America has ever taken to fight climate change.” [1] According to NPR, this “proposal, called the Affordable Clean Energy Rule, would give individual states more authority to make their own plans for... Read more
Sometimes your humble servant says that politics is the religion of Satan. That’s hyperbole, of course. But hyperbole, properly administered, should jar the hearer or reader to an underlying sober reality. Our Lord is the greatest hyperbolist of all, telling us such things as: “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna. And... Read more
When Pope Pius XI wrote his encyclical Quadragesimo anno [1] in 1931, forty years after the publication of Rerum novarum, the Socialism confronted by Pope Leo XIII in the late 19th century had split into two sections. One section was Communism, which Pope Pius XI described this way: “Communism teaches and seeks two objectives: Unrelenting class warfare and absolute extermination of private ownership. Not secretly or by hidden methods does it do this, but publicly, openly, and by employing every... Read more
In the last offering in this series [1] your humble servant promised to explore Pope Leo XIII’s objection to socialism on natural law grounds, and this I will now endeavor to do. For those of you following along, we are in the midst of Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum novarum [2], wherein he, among other things, explained why socialism was not an adequate remedy for the serious plight of the working class in his day. The natural law rationale that he... Read more
Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the new Section 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good. “Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a... Read more
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