Vox Nova is pleased to welcome a new blogger, Mark Gordon. In fact, we are pleased to welcome back an old blogger: Mark wrote for us in 2011-13 before moving on to work with some other blogs. You can find his earlier work in our archives. For those who do not know him, here is a short biography: Mark Gordon is a businessman, nonprofit leader, and writer. In addition to managing his own web development firm, he is president of... Read more
Nos autem gloriari oportet in cruce Domini nostri Jesu Christi, in quo est salus, vita, et resurrectio nostra, per quem salvati et liberati sumus. We should glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is our salvation, life and resurrection, through whom we are saved and delivered. –Entrance antiphon for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Pope Francis’ preferential option for the peripheries has been reflected, among other things, in his choice of cardinals,... Read more
It’s Labor Day, and I would welcome work. At this time last year I was, by my own choice, in transition from a more conventional full-time job with a single employer to a more nebulous, semi-freelance one with multiple employers that define me variably as a casual employee, per diem employee, or contractor. It seems a strange choice to make for someone with a temperamental preference for structure and regularity, and I still wonder at that aspect of it. Truth... Read more
One of my favorite poems is African-American writer Robert Hayden’s frequently anthologized “Those Winter Sundays.” Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking. When the rooms were warm, he’d call, and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that... Read more
Hearing the eulogies of Senator John McCain given by former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, my foremost thought was, “Oh yeah, this is what normal leaders sound like.” Naturally, I took exception to the exceptionalism in their speeches. When they each mentioned the dignity of all human beings, without exceptions and beyond borders [!], I heard the asterisks as clearly as their words. And still I thought, “Oh yeah, this is what it feels like to take exception... Read more
The awful extent of the Catholic Church’s abuse crisis hit home to me once a few years ago, when I found out that it affected a particular community I dearly love. I remember remarking to someone at that time, “It’s like the whole Church has a cancer, and it’s everywhere.” Now further revelations of how widespread and ugly this horrible cancer is have left the Body reeling. Like many of my fellow Catholics, I have felt sorrow, moral repugnancy, and... Read more
The following post was originally published by Rhonda Miska in Global Sisters Report. This article comes from written reports and interviews with men and women religious on the ground in Nicaragua. For their safety, their names have been changed and their religious communities and ministries are not identified. Last year, another former Jesuit Volunteer and I planned a return trip to Nicaragua. We dreamed of visiting former colleagues, seeing schoolchildren now all grown up, eating gallo pinto and quesillo, and watching the sunset... Read more
Resolved: it is immoral to hold onto great wealth, and a Christian is obligated to give away wealth in excess of a prudential amount required for comfort and safety. From time to time here at Vox Nova, we have quoted various Fathers of the Church on the sinfulness of holding wealth. But recently I found an article by a secular progressive who makes much the same argument in what I think is a very compelling fashion. He does so from... Read more
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a messy person. I distinctly remember being a second grader – my desk, in which we students stored our textbooks and folders, was comparatively more disorderly than that of all my fellow classmates. The same was true in sixth grade, when we graduated to lockers. In high school I lazily used one notebook for several subjects. In college and afterwards I often struggled to negotiate living standards with roommates who believed... Read more
This week I’ve been back home recuperating from a particularly overwhelming conference season packed into the past couple of months: two events at which I tabled for Consistent Life, two I attended out of my own personal interests, and a regional weekend workshop that happened to be on my way back home. All of these events drew very different crowds, and within each one I had the paradoxical feeling of being both at home and somewhat out of place, in... Read more
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