I’m losing my patience with the sudden anti-Confederate Flag hysteria that seems to be infecting everyone, everywhere. Some of us who live in South Carolina and were glad to see the flag come down from in front of the State House would like to remind you: We didn’t think up that resolution two minutes ago. This has been a long and peaceful democratic process that has unfurled in stages. The late unpleasantness was a catalyst for something we’ve been thinking... Read more
UPDATE: For a detailed treatment of the question of intersex persons and the possibility of sex change, see Christopher Tollefsen writing at Public Discourse, “Sex Identity.” *** A friend shared two articles about genetically XY women who conceived via IVF. She wonders what we are to make of such cases. A few thoughts: 1. The real scandal in these particular stories (here and here) is the use of IVF, which is gravely immoral. 2. I’m not aware of any particular... Read more
What I’m doing this weekend is hanging out at the Edel Gathering (read and weep on Twitter at #Edel15). Going to parties is not the kind of thing that I do. But I live in the general neighborhood, and my friend was going and she asked if I’d meet her for lunch, and then new tickets opened up, and next thing I knew, wow, party! Coming here was the best decision ever. I have a great network of faithful Catholic... Read more
An acquaintance lamented privately about a particular difficulty her family had faced, and the senselessness of it all. She had endured any number of trials past and present, but those had all had meaning. She could see in those other cases how the sacrifices and hardships were oriented towards a greater good. Now she faced a situation that was nothing but purposeless torment. Adding to the insult, she was aware of ways to possibly relieve her family’s suffering, but every... Read more
It is, of course, a sin against the virtue of justice to spend your Mass singing songs about yourself, since it is to God that we owe our worship. But just in case fear of the Almighty wasn’t enough for you, a story about why this is also a sin against your fellow man: So I have this friend, Eastern Orthodox, who expressed interest in visiting a Catholic parish near her home. I told her I’d watch for some mutually-convenient... Read more
H/T to Deacon Greg Kandra for pointing out the most recent case of a Catholic school teacher being fired after parents found out about her same-sex civil wedding. Let me remind you right now that I hold 100% with the teachings of the Catholic faith. I succeed at following them about 2% of the time, but that’s a problem with getting me to behave, not a problem with the ideals themselves. The details reported at Philly.com are sparse, but raise a... Read more
Suffering is called “suffering” because it’s horrible. The amount of horror can vary from low-grade misery to unspeakable darkness, and furthermore some types of suffering are harder on a given marriage than others. In addition to objective differences — a week with a bad cold is less suffering than years of intractable scream-out-loud pain — each couple is composed of two people with their own strengths, weaknesses, and quirks, as well as their own distinct resources. Thus, for example, not... Read more
NFP Awareness Week is around the corner, and in certain quarters bloggers are already expressing painful awareness. The topic is abstinence, lots of abstinence, and just how miserable that can make a pair of persons. Big question: Do extended periods of abstinence harm a marriage? To a certain extent it’s a moot point, and we’ll come back to that in several ways. As a recap, here’s Church teaching on sex, marriage, and abstinence in a nutshell: Sex is for making... Read more
I was surprised the other day to learn that the Episcopal church had just voted to allow same-sex weddings. The surprising part wasn’t the “Episcopal” the “same-sex” or even the “voted.” I was surprised that this was news. I thought the Episcopalians had decided to go this route ages ago. I had no idea — I mean seriously, no idea — that such questions were still being debated as recently as a week ago. The reason I was surprised... Read more
When I wrote on evangelization and discipleship yesterday, an old question came to my attention: How do we justify this behavior? Very specifically, I want to talk about something that bothered me my from my tour through Protestant Evangelical world, and that I think is a reason many Catholics view “evangelization” with skepticism. Think, for example, of this illustration I gave in my previous post: And then, get this: After the mature Catholic hits “play” on the DVD, he or... Read more
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