Can the Pope rewrite doctrine?

Last updated on: August 2, 2018 at 4:02 pm By Jane the Actuary

In today’s news, the dramatic announcement that, as the New York Times phrases it in its headline, “Pope Declares Death Penalty Unacceptable in All Cases.” Pope Francis has declared that the death penalty is wrong in all cases, a definitive change in church teaching that is likely to challenge faithful Catholic politicians, judges and officials in the United States and other countries who have argued that their church was not entirely opposed to capital punishment. Francis added the change to the... Read more

Will the “Rent Relief Act” relieve renters?

Last updated on: August 1, 2018 at 2:26 pm By Jane the Actuary

In mid-July, Senator Kamala Harris of California introduced the “Rent Relief Act” and was immediately ridiculed by countless skeptics who observed that her proposed solution to increasing rents would inevitably send more money to landlords by means of increasing rent costs, for instance, at “Forbes: Democrats Proposed Rent Subsidy Would Enrich Landlords And Fleece Taxpayers.” Quite reasonably, these articles propose undertaking efforts to increase housing supply instead, primarily by eliminating the tight zoning restrictions against multifamily/dense housing in many of these... Read more

What can the laity actually do, post-McCarrick?

Last updated on: July 30, 2018 at 7:43 am By Jane the Actuary

So now Cardinal McCarrick is now just, well, I guess, Mr. McCarrick. The Washington Post, among others, reports a widely-acknowledged need to clean house. He will be given a trial according to canon law but the eventual punishment is unclear except for the sort of “life of penitence” that occurs in such cases. The Post speaks of McCarrick also being de-frocked, and I’m not entirely sure what that means, that is, what the consequences are — the Post reports this... Read more

Cardinal McCarrick and the future of the church

Last updated on: July 25, 2018 at 8:39 pm By Jane the Actuary

Not long ago, Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C., was accused of child sexual abuse, and gave one of those sorts of apology/non-apologies: “I’m sorry, and, also, I didn’t do anything.” As skeevy as I thought the pseudo-apology was, I hesitated to jump into the reports headlong, recalling that Chicago’s Cardinal Bernardin was accused of abuse, and his accuser eventually retracted (this being at a time when “recovered memories” were still considered credible) and there was a... Read more

Does God maybe not care so much whether we strive to be holy?

Last updated on: July 19, 2018 at 9:59 pm By Jane the Actuary

So I was doing some digging around on what our archbishop is up to, being annoyed, again, that he seems to prioritize social justice issues over providing spiritual care for his (still-dwindling) flock, and I came across a talk that he gave on Amoris Laetitia back a couple months ago. As summarized at National Catholic Review, and also incorporating an interview, he again returns to his theme that what matters is “accompanying” people: Cupich said he does not think the... Read more

Is a life sentence for child sexual abuse just?

Last updated on: July 19, 2018 at 2:33 pm By Jane the Actuary

From the Chicago Tribune, “Defrocked priest committed indefinitely to state facility for sex offenders.” Arguably Chicago’s most notorious figure in the national Roman Catholic priest sex abuse scandal was committed indefinitely Wednesday to a state facility for sex offenders. In refusing to release Daniel McCormack under strict monitoring, Cook County Judge Dennis Porter noted that the defrocked priest had never cooperated with treatment or even admitted to a problem. “I can’t disregard the fact that he has never been of... Read more

Do you want to talk about Trump?

Last updated on: July 17, 2018 at 11:30 am By Jane the Actuary

Personally, I just want the whole thing to go away. Does Trump’s refusal to condemn Russian meddling in yesterday’s press conference mean that he is secretly a Russian agent, doing their bidding? Some big-name twitter accounts have been suggesting this, with theories even suggesting that he was recruited decades ago by the KGB playing a very, very long game. Is he a stooge, who has been suckered into Putin’s orbit by flattery, and his inability to see Russia’s actions as... Read more

Tennessee “free pre-K” update: from no effects to worse effects

Last updated on: July 16, 2018 at 8:52 pm By Jane the Actuary

Some time ago, back in 2013, in fact, I linked to a report on a free preschool program in Tennessee. The program was targeted at low-income families and had waiting lists, and children were admitted on a randomized basis, rather than first-come, first-served, so that a comparison of participating vs. not-participating families made for a good way of measuring the effectiveness of preschool without any confounding variables. The study was a disappointment to pro-free-preschool advocates, because it did not show the... Read more

From the library, “To Change the Church,” by Ross Douthat

Last updated on: July 15, 2018 at 9:41 am By Jane the Actuary

One thing is clear: Ross Douthat does not like Pope Francis. He believes that his actions regarding the question of remarriage among Catholics, and his “my way or the highway” attitude mocking traditional Catholics and reassigning/demoting conservative/traditionalists (or nonliberals), have already caused and will cause further conflicts and confusion, and are leading the Catholic church into an unknown, but potentially much less small-c catholic future. It is also clear that I’ve blown past the library renewals and grace period and... Read more

Vacation Church Prizewinner: St. Cecilia’s, Wisconsin Dells

Last updated on: July 12, 2018 at 12:01 pm By Jane the Actuary

So per my last post, we spent a long weekend/short week up in Wisconsin, including Sunday morning at the Wisconsin Dells, the Waterpark Capital of the World, as it bills itself, claiming the title with America’s largest outdoor waterpark and largest indoor/outdoor waterpark, and with the original Dells boat tours as well as a bunch of ticky-tacky tourist attractions (plus legit attractions like the Circus World museum) for rainy or cold days (if your plan is outdoor waterparks) or just... Read more