They say the three topics you should avoid in polite conversation are sex, politics and money, but those are the only interesting things to talk about! In fact it’s difficult to have much of a conversation without talking about sex, politics and money, and it’s pretty hard to preach a sermon worth anything at all without talking about sex, politics and money. Why is that? Because sex, politics and money are code for three topics that are actually vitally important... Read more
Here’s a moving pro life story about a 21 year old college senior who got pregnant after a drunken college hook up, but found God’s love and changed her life. Read more
A debate has been cooking amongst various bloggers who are atheists about whether there is such a thing as objective morality. I was interested in the observations that animals behave in a ‘moral’ way–elephants grieve their dead herd members, dogs stand loyally beside the grave of their dead master, monkeys share and gorillas are tender toward their young. Is nature red in tooth and claw? I wrote about it here. It’s an interesting question. If animals are ‘moral’ then does... Read more
A reader has sent the following quotation which sums up the question when Anglicans who like to dress up chortle, “Oh, we’re much more Catholic than the Catholics!” Reed, an Episcopalian who teaches at the University of North Carolina, sums up the irony of Anglo-Catholicism: “A movement that originally championed orthodoxy had come to defend freedom; begun in opposition to religious liberalism, the movement now appealed to liberal values for its survival. Cardinal Manning, once an Anglo-Catholic clergyman himself, saw the irony, and maintained... Read more
The guiding principle of Darwinism is the survival of the fittest, and there’s no argument here that this can be seen within the natural order. As this is so, I have yet to understand how atheists argue that morality is also part of the evolutionary process. I believe the argument goes something like this: “Human beings, like other primates, are communal animals. We observe communal ‘caring and compassionate’ behavior among groups of gorillas and chimps. This communal, caring behavior has... Read more
Atheist blogger Bob Seidensticker claims that there is no such thing as an objective morality. He’s picking a fight with C.S.Lewis who argued in Mere Christianity that the idea of natural law is the cornerstone argument for the existence of God. “If there’s a law there’s a lawgiver”. Lewis said that there are some basic rights and wrongs that everybody everywhere accepts. “If you step on my toe on purpose. That’s wrong.” Everybody agrees. Except Bob. He writes: To the... Read more
Did you know that Ignatius of Antioch was not only appointed to the see of Antioch by Peter himself, but tradition has it that he was one of the children that the Lord took up in his arms and blessed? Ignatius of Antioch was martyred in the Roman Coliseum by being devoured by beasts. On the way from Antioch to Rome he wrote seven letters to the various Christian churches. This early church father helped me come into the Catholic... Read more
There. That headline got your attention didn’t it? As usual, I’m trying to stand things on their head. This is what I mean: Be self centered. Look after the good of your own soul first and foremost. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. There are several advantages to this. First, it will stop you being a busybody. Mind your own business. As Thomas a Kempis writes, “Why do you want to change the world when you cannot... Read more
Here’s an excerpt from today’s gospel, and there is something there I had never noticed before: The Lord said to him, “Oh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil. You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside? But as to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you.” Before this was the famous “camel through the... Read more
Guest blogger Caitlin O’Rourke is a member of St Bridget’s, Church, High Dudgeon, New Jersey. Caitlin is ten years old. See when Grandma died she had this very old Infant of Prague which she said I could have because she knew I liked it and nobody else wanted it and so after the funeral when Mommy and Aunt Anne went in to clear out Grandma’s house they were going to give the Infant to the nuns, but I told them... Read more
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Fr. Dwight Longenecker
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