Last year, I wrote a piece on lying to avoid mask mandates. I think it applies to two situations about vaccines. It is immoral to create fake vaccine cards and it is immoral to claim one reason for a vaccine exemption when you really want it for another reason. I will briefly note these two issues then refer you to that article to apply these principles. New Issues with Honesty I have seen people promoting both of these. Obviously fraudulent... Read more
Israel recently killed a top Iranian nuclear scientist. On its own, that might be news, but wouldn’t be a focus of what I talk about. However, the AI-assisted smart gun using facial recognition brings up a whole bunch of moral issues. Let’s look at the story then briefly discuss both the privacy issue with facial recognition and the issues of autonomous warfare. Iranian Scientist Killed Futurism reports: Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated by an AI-assisted sniper rifle... Read more
Summer Kinard, Of Such Is the Kingdom: A Practical Theology of Disability (Chesterton, IN: Ancient Faith, 2019). Summer Kinard offers a great selection of thoughts on disability theology and ministry in Of Such Is the Kingdom. I think they will contribute to the wider discussion of disability among Christians. I would recommend her book. Protestants have developed a bit of a theology of disability, but among Churches with sacramental realism (i.e. Catholic and Orthodox), this is the first attempt at... Read more
My piece from January, If Any Drug Tested on HEK-293 Is Immoral, Goodbye Modern Medicine, continues to be widely viewed, averaging over 1000 views a day in the past month. This has lead to several people writing critiques of the piece. However, most of the critiques miss the point. Two recent pieces (that came out while I was in meetings then on retreat earlier this month) repeated arguments I had already dealt with and miss the point. The authors also... Read more
Luca Badetti, the director of community life at L’Arche in Chicago, recently wrote a book talking about how disabled and non-disabled people can learn love from each other. New City Press published I Believe in You: Wisdom from community with persons with disabilities on believing in ourselves and the other. I think this book is helpful for those who work in disability ministry but likely also helpful for others. Most of this book is about relationships, and as such, hard... Read more
Various dioceses have issued statements about vaccine mandates that seem contradictory. I think many of the others have missed one side or the other of a two-part reality. First, the Church thinks vaccines should be voluntary and supports conscience exemptions. Second, there is no reason for a Catholic religious exemption and great good to be obtained from vaccination. I think Bridgeport captures both in their statement on vaccines mandates. Catholics Should Vaccinate Bishop Frank Caggiano got the second part: Catholics... Read more
As I started getting big online years ago, a bunch of people recommended How to Defend the Faith Without Raising Your Voice by Austen Ivereigh. It provided a kind of how-to manual for both discussing the kerygma and hot button issues where many object to Catholic teaching. As I was recently sent What to Say and How to Say It: Discuss Your Catholic Faith with Clarity and Confidence by Brandon Vogt, I saw the books as filling a similar niche.... Read more
Simple answer: no! The Pope did not say the Ten Commandments are relative. Complicated answer: let’s look at how an issue in translation and assuming the worst might lead someone to that idea. To do so, we’ll examine the Pope’s words, look at the differences in meaning between Italian and English, and finish with a point on charity. Pope Francis: Jesus is Absolute This tweet of a video from yesterday’s Wednesday audience has been going around: At General Audience, Pope... Read more
Charles Camosy recently wrote a work analyzing the world of bioethics, comparing and contrasting different views of bioethics. Losing Our Dignity: How Secularized Medicine is Undermining Fundamental Human Equality rightly points out issues where modern medicine and secular bioethics are going astray. Camosy points out a number of issues contrary to true human dignity in modern medicine. In this review, I will summarize the book, look at his take on Neurodegenerative disease as an example of what to expect in... Read more
Ron Sandison for The Art of Autism blog contacted me a few months ago about doing a story on me. He wanted to cover both my younger life and now as an autistic priest. I accidentally forgot about it and he needed to remind me but eventually, I found time to answer his questions. He used these answers and other info you can find online to write a profile of me for his site. The Art of Autism is a... Read more
