The other day, a friend noted on Twitter that his wife was not granted paid maternity leave by her employer, the Catholic Church. He noted that he made enough for her to take unpaid maternity. This led me to look into what the US Bishops have proposed regarding maternity leave. Now, I want to share a little of that investigation. Current USCCB Policy The USCCB site currently has: Following the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA), all... Read more
I am surprised how adamantly some Catholics deny that life’s necessities are human rights. However, the overwhelming evidence from the Magisterium is that things like food, water, clothing, and shelter are basic human rights. We cannot deny these from anyone. We cannot leave the poor without these things. I want to go over a few magisterial teachings then give some explanation. Magisterium on Food, Shelter, and Clothing as Human Rights The Church through her leaders has repeatedly explained that these... Read more
This week, the CBS News Program, 60 Minutes featured a report on George Church, a cutting edge genetic scientist. Some of the things he mentioned seemed good but others seemed to be eugenic and only obtainable by unethical means. Let me cite that section of the report and give some reflection. 60 Minutes on Eugenic Dating Here’s the important dialogue (the article seems to be a transcript from the show): Church is a role model for the next generation. He... Read more
Yesterday, Pope Francis gave a message for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. He exhorted the Christian faithful to better accept those of us who struggle with such realities. He wants us to be recognized, to be accompanied, to not be discriminated against, and to be involved as ministers, not just those ministered too. Here is part of Pope Francis’s text. I will comment briefly after each paragraph. We renew our gaze of faith, which sees in each brother and... Read more
I am an autistic priest. When I was first diagnosed with autism as a priest, my superiors gave me a choice regarding how public I wanted to be about being diagnosed. One point always resonates with me when I think about being autistic. Not long after I told my local religious community, one of the priests pointed out that now I found cross while many others struggle to recognize what their cross is. One autistic active on blogging and social... Read more
In the past few days, it has been reported that the Pennsylvania House and Senate have both approved a bill to make abortion due to a Down Syndrome diagnosis illegal. However, the Governor, Tom Wolf vetoed the bill rather quickly. Thus, in Pennsylvania, you can still abort due to disability. I want to give the news then offer some analysis The Down Syndrome Abortion Bill On Wednesday, PennLive reported on the bill’s passage: The Pennsylvania Senate passed a bill Wednesday... Read more
Today, it’s scary how anti-Semitism sometimes reawakens. I really don’t understand it. What is the problem that someone else’s ancestors were worshiping the true God back when my German, Scottish, and Irish ancestors were worshiping trees or ancient warriors as if they were gods? In such an environment, I’ve had to defend a fellow Catholic writer, Dawn Eden Goldstein, from attacks. She converted from Judaism to secular none-religion and then to Catholicism. Dawn recently wrote a moving testimony of her... Read more
Fr. Dominic Valanmanal is at it again. This priest compared us autistics to animals and blamed our existence on our parents’ sins. This priest is back at it offering counseling to families with autistics in them. This is problematic as he clearly misunderstands autism. I already covered why sin does not cause autism in relation to Fr. Valanmanal, so I won’t repeat that. I will instead note his recent actions, his non-apology, and what you can do. Fr. Dominic’s Recent... Read more
Recently, the pornographic actress Jessica Redding was found dead at 43. It made me reflect as I remembered hearing that “rock star” was the job with the lowest life expectancy. I remember when we were in middle school rebellion and thought Kurt Cobain was the greatest musician ever, only to find out a few months later that he stuck a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. That was a bit of a wakeup call for my generation. Maybe... Read more
Some people might be confused about church teaching on the morality of homosexual acts. We need charity towards persons with such tendencies but we also need to note that certain behaviors are immoral. The National Catholic Register published this piece where I go over the Catholic teaching on homosexuality from tradition: Recently, a citation from Walter Wink has been quoted with approval by two well-known Catholic priests, Franciscan Father Richard Rohr and Jesuit Father James Martin. This is problematic as... Read more
Through Catholic Lenses
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