The topic of ends-vs.-means has been circulating a bunch lately. Are you allowed to do something that’s a little bit bad if it makes it possible to do something very, very good as a result? For example, can you torture your enemies, if you goal isn’t pure brutalism, but your own safety? Others have covered the Catholic response to the recently released torture reports quite thoroughly. Just a couple: Simcha Fisher tells you: No. Aggie Catholic tells you: No. Another... Read more
Now out from CatholicMom.com: As Morning Breaks, Daily Gospel Reflections. It’s available as a Kindle book (very affordable – $2.99), but FYI if you want to get this as a gift for someone, it’s not necessary to own a dedicated device in order to read it. Any PC, tablet, whatever, can read Kindle books, just download the free software from Amazon. What’s in the book? A reflection on the daily Gospel reading for every day of 2015. This is... Read more
In discussions surrounding Notre Dame’s staffing problem, a question was posed: When is an argument part of an honest debate, and when is it more like the intellectual equivalent of something stuck to the bottom of your shoe? Here’s a tutorial. It’s not a philosophical treatise, it’s written for ordinary arguers. Debate We can say that we are debating a question when two criteria are met: We are discussing a matter that is open to discussion. We are in fact trying... Read more
People think, “Oh, you religion bloggers, all you learn at church is things like which hymns to hate, or who has the worst possible interpretation of the miracle of loaves and fishes.” But this is not true. And now is the time of year for dispensing some of the other wisdom we’ve gleaned from our spiritual shepherds. For example, do you have a friend who likes whiskey and homemade salad dressing? Then what you want, thank Fr. E for tipping us... Read more
Tom McDonald pointed me to this article, co-authored by Joel Baden and Candida Moss — the latter being a professor in the Theology Department at Notre Dame University. Who doesn’t know Catholic moral theology. Let’s walk through the article and compare Notre Dame vs. The Catholic Church. In 2011, Emily Herx was teaching English at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She was also having trouble getting pregnant, so she began in vitro fertilization treatments. When she... Read more
The Atlantic reports on the increased use of fertility-awareness methods of family planning, especially among us educated-types. Quick caution if you read the article, take a look at this quote and put on your thinking cap: Every morning when she wakes up, Becca, a college student in Pennsylvania, puts a teardrop-shaped thermometer called the Daysy under her tongue. If it lights up green, she knows that day she and her boyfriend can have sex without a condom. If it’s red or... Read more
(Scroll down to the bottom for updates.) Apparently you can be a professor in the theology department at Notre Dame, and think that: The religious teaching of complementarity holds that men and women have very different roles in life and in marriage, with men outranking women in most areas. No. Just no. To get you started, a few notes from the Catechism on the dignity of the human person: Every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights... Read more
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th, is a holy day of obligation in the United States, which means you need to go Mass. Answering some common questions: Dr. Ed Peters, Canon Lawyer, explains that no, you mustn’t try to kill two birds with one stone by counting a Sunday evening Mass as both your Sunday Mass and your Vigil of the Immaculate Conception Mass. But he adds, any two masses (on the appropriate dates / times) will do,... Read more
In time for the Advent Wreath link-up at CatholicMom.com, my daughter put together this for us: She had to use boiling water to clean out the votive holders of the old crusted-on wax, left over after salvaging the burned-out candles and melting them down with a splash of vanilla extract to make herself a scented candle. Then she painted the inside bottom of each newly-cleaned votive glass either purple or pink, and put in a tea light. She found a... Read more
PEG suggested I share some examples of why I think the old Butler’s Lives is the best thing going. Here’s an excerpt from today, December 5th, from the life of St. Sabas: Among the stories told of St. Sabas is that he once lay down to sleep in a cave that happened to be the den of a lion. When the beast came in it clawed hold of the monk’s clothes and dragged him outside. Nothing perturbed, Sabas returned to... Read more
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