I could not suppress my amusement when I ran across Kenneth L. Woodward’s reactions to the papal visit in my Facebook feed. Each one is differently amusing and hilarious than the other. He seems to have posted them from his smart phone. This explains the ellipses, plus the creative grammar and spelling. I considered going through these writings and editing them for my audience. However, I decided that their original form is essential for preserving the somewhat impish nature of... Read more
Like the man who slays a son in his father’s presence is he who offers sacrifice from the possessions of the poor. –Sirach 34:20 Keith Michael Estrada is the founder of Students for a Fair Society at Franciscan University of Steubenville and is a member of the International Observatory of Young Catholics (Rome). Finishing his MA in philosophy at the aforementioned institution, he writes from Seattle-land, Washington. He can be reached at keithmichaelestrada.com. This is a guest post. ============== Some days ago, Mark Perry decided... Read more
The coverage of the Pre-Synod coming out party of Monsignor Charamsa is amusingly chaotic. The Western press continues to erroneously think he was fired for being gay. No such thing happened. As anyone knows there is no shortage of gay men working in the Curia. Charamsa was fired for not keeping his commitment to celibacy, which applies for both “straight” and “gay” priests. I put those in parentheses since they’re somewhat out of play for people whose identity is supposed... Read more
This blog has enough hits to scientifically determine each week’s objectively best posts. Here are the ten finest things to emerge from my laptop onto the swamp of the internet. I noticed that 3 out of the 10 posts are related to Minding the Modern. Anyway, here’s what’s not weak this week: 1. 15 Books I’d Ban for Banned Books Week 2. Newton’s Apple and Other Myths About Science 3. Why is THIS Pope Francis’s Hardest American Saying? 4. A Book to Pick Up,... Read more
The intersection of science and religion is a frequent topic on this blog. The relationship between these regions of human life are both more and less troubling than what we suppose. First, they are much less troubling than what we might suppose because there is an immense space of complex intellectual dialogue between science and religion. Second, they are much more troubling than we might suppose because certain strains of scientific-based belief have their own superstitions such as crazy creation... Read more
Matthew Schmitz came up with a peculiar way of celebrating Banned Books Week. He devised a list of seven books that he thinks should be banned: Free speech is not absolute. Our attempts to deregulate our public culture have only led to new and more bizarre restrictions on speech. Shedding restrictions on obscenity has only led to the more tyrannical notion of “triggering.” Abandoning standards for public decency has hastened the embrace of political correctness—a category even more susceptible to... Read more
The roundups of the papal visit are making the rounds everywhere. There’s much to celebrate, it seems much more to criticize (if you come from some Catholic circles), and too much material to read (most folks will TL;DR punt on this). However the calculus comes out on the final analysis of the visit to America–and I’ll let someone else crunch the numbers–I’d like to stick, following Adorno, to the negative, the condemnatory, the judgmental, and harsh. Don’t worry, it’s all... Read more
Justin Tse writes about reading as a survival tactic: Let me finish, then, on a final personal note. Artur Rosman, a writer of no small notoriety in the Catholic blogosphere, is running a lengthy Patheos interview with Pfau on Minding the Modern concurrently with our forum. Although he is my friend, I am not trying to plug his blog here; that would, after all, be a form of utilitarianism that Pfau would condemn. Rosman’s loyal readership will already know of his openness, even of... Read more
The big news yesterday was the House Speaker resigning after setting up the first ever papal address to the US Congress. He was understandably very emotional about his achievement, and the pope’s message. Then lightning struck twice as legendary Kenny Rogers also decided to fold’em. The pope is really shaking up America’s icons. I wonder . . . who’s next? Maybe Pope Francis could shut down Pharma Bro with his papal message of economic egalitarianism? Maybe the three Catholic justices–Scalia, Thomas, and... Read more
It’s difficult to find the right tone for a post like this. I come as a bearer of bad news. Yet, I am convinced that the good news is that the bad news can see the light of day. When we say the light shines in darkness, are we ready to face the real implications of that saying? As Americans we all secretly hope the Pope Francis wave will sweep everything away in a flood of positivity. Terry Eagleton diagnoses... Read more
Cosmos The In Lost
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