I thought I would post an Oldie But a Goodie as an offering to her: The final Marian dogma—the Assumption—was promulgated in 1950. But like all doctrinal developments throughout the history of the Church, it is rooted in apostolic teaching and reflected in Scripture. Pope Pius XII defined the dogma this way: “The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” What evidence is... Read more
… you can go here and listen to my Catholic and Enjoying Live! interviews with Destiny Herndon-de la Rosa of New Wave Feminists and Mike Lewis of Where Peter Is. The latter is getting a bunch of hate from the guy who runs Canon212, so that’s a hopeful sign. Read more
She writes: I know you are busy, and there is no need to reply to me on this, but I would like to share with you some thoughts – or questions – about venial sin. Thinking back over some of the sometimes heated discussions about Amoris Laetitia, it seems to me that there was something missing from the discussion. Some, mostly conservative, people seemed to have difficulty understanding the distinction between actions that are grave matter in themselves, and the... Read more
The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats is about the judgment of “the nations” (or “goyim” to use the Hebraism that lies behind that translation. It is a term that refers to those “outside the covenant people”. For Jews, it meant Gentiles. For Christians, its meanng shifts to “those outside the household of faith”. The hopeful implication of the story is that salvation does not extend merely to those in visible communion with the Church. None of the saved... Read more
Catholic and Enjoying It Live! is on the air at 7 PM Pacific (10 PM Eastern) every Monday night. Tonight, we will be discussing how healthy Catholics live in fidelity to the Magisterium of Pope Francis and stop running after every conspiracy theorist declaring him a heretic. You can listen here and you can call into the show at 1-866-333-6279 while we are on the air to chat with us yourself. My guest, Mike Lewis, is one of the founders of Where... Read more
He writes: I’ve had a question that I’ve been struggling with that I wanted to run by you, in all seriousness do you think you can have the economic liberalism of the Democrats without the cultural liberalism? Doubtful. But since I don’t think we can fix cultural liberalism by laws and force–and I’m not at all convinced that cultural liberalism is an unalloyed evil–I don’t think that it’s all that important a question. On matters pertaining to sin, I see... Read more
…is that the Catholic intellectual tradition savors and does not fear the sciences. Of course, here in the US, a lot of Christianist Catholics get their ideas about the sciences neither from the Tradition nor from the sciences but from the Right Wing Freak Show. So you still have a certain percentage of Catholics who waste time fighting with evolution, or worrying about chem trails, or consulting kooks about climate change or repeating what they are told to parrot by... Read more
Last time, in this space, we noted that the Church speaks of solidarity as both a “social principle” and a “moral virtue.” Further, the Church doesn’t hesitate to teach that the state has a role to play in helping to reform “structures of sin” into “structures of solidarity” — since such a task is simply more than an aggregate of individuals can achieve. At this point, it is common for some to complain that the state intervening with the force... Read more
The great Roman playwright Terence said, “I am a man. Nothing human is alien to me.” It’s significant Terence was known for his comedies, since comedy is the art form that focuses most strongly on our weaknesses and our need for help from both divine and human grace and mercy. In tragedies, the protagonists die isolated in their grandeur: great men and women left in splendid ruins, while lesser beings look on in awe and say, “Now cracks a noble... Read more
As we saw last time, the principle of subsidiarity means that, as a general rule, the people closest to a particular need or problem should generally respond to it first. We don’t, as we noted, phone the White House demanding that the library parking-lot pothole be fixed. Work done by ordinary people close to the situation is preferred, not intrusions by large, fat-fingered bureaucracies 3,000 miles away. Therefore, says the Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching, the principle of subsidiarity is... Read more
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