Fr. Longenecker writes here on the brain research relating to religious experiences. When I first came across this line of scientific inquiry some years ago, it was a great help to me. I’m prone to doubt about all kinds of things, and this sort of research affirms the reality of the existence of God. Why? Because all our other senses correspond to real things. I’d never propose that because brain damage can alter what we see that therefore “vision” is... Read more
Two links, unrelated, that deserve your attention: 1. The Associated Press issued a correction on its shoddy reporting on the scandal at Tuam. I will forebear from making comments about reputable journalists vs. upstart bloggers, and say only that America magazine deserves what credit it’s earned. 2. Rebecca Frech tells her gun story. Since Rebecca goes head to head with he-who-must-not-be-named, I should say right now that I’m on the record as a certified Mark P. Shea fangirl. I don’t... Read more
Over at the Catholic Writers Guild, there’s an open thread for posting your existing body of work on the topic of religious liberty: The Fortnight for Freedom begins tomorrow! We’ll be hosting several columns on that theme over the next several weeks. If you’ve written on religious liberty, please post a link here so everyone can enjoy your work! Feel free to head over to CWG and share your links. Doesn’t need to be Catholic, by the way, this is a... Read more
Follow-up to yesterday’s post, in which I did not really answer Frank Weather’s argument against priests packing heat. His case is a strong one, and I didn’t think I had a firm opinion about it. All I thought I had to bring to the table was a set of cultural biases. On further reflection, let those cultural biases form themselves into an argument. (Whatever the Church says, that’s what I accept. But for the moment I believe this question is... Read more
The death of Fr. Kenneth Walker has opened back up the discussion about whether priests ought to carry firearms for self-defense. Fr. Z addressed the question back in 2013 with a firm, “I don’t have a formed opinion on this,” observing only that canon law does not prohibit and civil law ought to permit. As a resident of gunlandia, I plead inability to think objectively about these things. If I lived in a time and place where the prevailing form... Read more
Rebecca Frech writes about the shopping-around method for saving on health care costs here. We tend to imagine that because healthcare is a need costs must be immutable — the company wouldn’t bill more than necessary, and what they bill must be what it costs, right? Not so. Without devolving into “they’re just out to fleece us” ranting and raving, one can certainly observe that any endeavor can be run more or less efficiently. Competitive pricing isn’t a cure-all, but... Read more
Christianity, I remind myself, is an aspirational religion. I usually get to pray the daily Mass readings in the morning (preferred location: outdoors), or at daily Mass, or both. Today was one of those special days when a confluence of laziness, fatigue, and good fortune conspired to make me miss out on both go-rounds. But all was not lost! 16th of the month means I’d already read and reflected on the Gospel for your CatholicMom.com meditational pleasure. It’s like prepaid... Read more
Congratulations, Manny, who went the extra mile to join the Patheos drawing after Disqus died. I added him and the other readers who contacted me and asked to be drawn, and did the random-number drawing from the whole combined list. Why, oh, why, did the combox break on only the post that I needed a working combox for? I dunno. Manny, e-mail me at [email protected] and I’ll put you in touch with the publisher. Might I remind you, good sports, that the... Read more
Thanks to Sean Alderman for the link to this 2004 article at First Things about the clinical case against gender-reassignment. In it, Paul McHugh of John Hopkins outlines his experience both with adult patients asking for male-to-female sex-change surgery, and with the long-term outcomes of infant boys with ambiguous genitalia who are surgically castrated, given female-like outward genitalia, and raised as girls. The paper is long but eminently readable, and I encourage you to read the whole thing, because he... Read more
UPDATE: Congratulations to Manny (whose comment you don’t see because he had disqus troubles and so was added manually to the list). Tuscany Press is hosting a book giveaway today, here at my place and over at the Catholic Writers Guild blog. Enter both places, there’s a different book being given away at each blog. Here at Patheos, the lucky winner will receive The Cana Mystery by David Becket. You can read the Amazon reviews here. How to enter: We’re doing... Read more
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