is up at The Catholic Weekly: To be sure, there are those who painstakingly make their way to belief in one God via the route of philosophical argument. Indeed, we meet some of these people in the pages of the New Testament, where they are known by the technical title of ‘God-fearer’ (cf. Acts 10:2; 22; 13:16; 26). These were formerly polytheistic Gentiles who had come to believe in the one God of Israel and who were in various stages... Read more
So there has been a lot of hysteria about the development of the Church’s teaching concerning a hoary and venerable institution that, up until practically yesterday, the Church had treated with tolerance and even spoken of favorably. I speak, of course, of slavery. Who has not heard the hue and cry from advocates of slavery demanding the Pope repent his arrogant declaration that slavery is gravely and intrinsically immoral? Here is the dirty deed this Dictator Pope has shamelessly promulgated: overturning... Read more
Over on Facebook, David Mills remarks: ON HIROSHIMA AND EASY ANSWERS From a reflection on the twin questions of abortion and the bombing Hiroshima, whose 73rd anniversary we observe today. It illustrates the great challenge of living as Christians in a fallen world. The options are to face the challenge, to deny it, or to talk crap. [[[ Almost everyone says “There are no easy answers” when they address questions like the bombing of Hiroshima. Many say it when talking... Read more
A guy named Jon Crane writes: I handle PR for Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (CCATDP). The nationwide trend of conservative Republicans re-thinking capital punishment continues and conservative Catholics are very involved. The most recent example comes from New Hampshire where both houses of the Republican-controlled state legislature passed a death penalty repeal bill during this year’s legislative session. Conservative Catholic lawmakers were at the forefront of that historic vote. The latest annual Gallup Poll showed a 10-point drop... Read more
He writes: It is already happening, and it gives us a bad name. Hearing of the widespread denunciation among our bishops of President Trump’s (now discarded) policy to separate children from their migrant parents at the Mexican border, a certain number of Catholics who read CatholicCulture.org are demanding to know where the bishops were when it came time to condemn abortion. Indeed, it seems this is the knee-jerk response of some people whenever their partisan feathers are ruffled. Please. The... Read more
2267. Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good. Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state.... Read more
This will be a challenge to Communists, Islamic despots, and white conservative “prolife” American Catholics at war with the Church’s social teaching. It is, of course, the visible-from-space right thing to do and an obvious development of the Church’s teaching on the dignity of the human person. It will be interesting to see how Catholic death penalty zealots will cope with this challenge and what ingenious ways they will concoct to defy Holy Church on this. I expect most of... Read more
…and being sexually abused by their captors, the Christian makes war on this in the name of Jesus Christ with the weapons of the Spirit: prayer, fasting, and such works of mercy and justice as he has at his or her disposal to rescue them from this satanic system, because human life is sacred from conception to natural death. The Christianist diabolist, a worshipper of a dimestore antichrist and an enemy of human life, savors the cruelty and wags his... Read more
A reader writes: Do our bishops get it yet? The evidence so far is not encouraging. A couple of weeks ago a certain bishop brightly wrote on Twitter: “Despite the egregious offenses of a few, and despite the faults and sins we all have, I’m very proud of my brother bishops and I admire and applaud the great work they do every day for Christ and His Church.” The fallout from this seemingly anodyne comment — similar in tone to... Read more
Over at First Things he writes: My Fellow Catholics, On July 28, I sent the letter below to my bishop, the Most Reverend Robert E. Guglielmone of the Diocese of Charleston. In it, I explain that I will no longer contribute to diocesan appeals for financial contributions until I am convinced by his public actions and witness that he is zealously seeking the creation of an independent investigation into the failings of the American hierarchy in regard to Theodore McCarrick’s... Read more
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