On my previous offering on these pages, your humble servant opined on the Alfie Evans case [1], and it is a testament to my lack of social skills that I did not anticipate some of the hue and cry that it caused on social media. Two objections will be addressed here. The first was that Catholic teaching does not require futile medical efforts, and that every medical opinion that had been rendered made the determination that Alfie’s case was hopeless.... Read more

As of this writing, 23-month-old Alfie Evans is still alive. Let’s review where we are to this point. Alfie was “admitted to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital after suffering seizures” on December 14, 2016. [1] He has what is called “a rare undiagnosed degenerative neurological condition….” [2] Alfie remained in the hospital for a year, at which point a dispute arose between Alfie’s parents and the hospital regarding Alfie’s treatment. The hospital wanted to remove Alfie from life support and the... Read more

The Denver Post reports that two “Republican state lawmakers have introduced a bill seeking to prohibit Colorado teachers from striking and make it so they would face firing, fines or even jail time if they do so anyway.” [1] This wouldn’t be the only example of a law like this. In North Carolina, all public employees are prohibited from striking [2], and those who do are guilty of a misdemeanor. [3]  While the “measure’s chances of becoming law are minuscule,”... Read more

In the last installment on this blog, your humble servant said that he would make an attempt to apply the Just War criteria of St. Thomas Aquinas to the latest American strike on Syria. [1] This he will now proceed to do, beginning with the pertinent quotation from Summa Theologiae, wherein St. Thomas lays out the three things that are necessary in order for a war to be just: “First, the authority of the sovereign by whose command the war... Read more

The recent events involving yet another U.S. military action abroad makes it incumbent upon us to evaluate this latest attack on Syria in light of the Just War Doctrine, which has been developed by the Catholic Church to assess the moral legitimacy of a nation’s use of its armed forces. The Catechism lays it out this way: “The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration. The gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous... Read more

Pope Francis has offered us a profound reflection on holiness, and its connection to living out the Beatitudes in his latest Apostolic Exhortation, Gaudete et exsultate. [1] Unfortunately, the grandeur of the whole is likely to be swallowed up in the controversy over one section, and its pertinence to an ongoing dispute in American politics. Not that this is a pope who shuns controversy in the interests of proclaiming the Gospel. But there are indications that there are political partisans... Read more

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) filed an amicus brief [1] in Mark Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31, a Supreme Court Case in which oral arguments were heard on the 26th of February. The USCCB is not a party to the case, but the Supreme Court permits non-parties to file briefs under certain circumstances. [2]  Mark Janus is asking the Court to invalidate public sector “agency shop” arrangements under the First... Read more