How low can Thomas Peters go?

Last updated on: October 15, 2010 at 5:46 pm By Morning's Minion

Extremely low. Bottom-of-the-barrel low. As noted by Michael Sean Winters, Peters was caught red-handed peddling lies about the Affordable Care Act causing Catholic hospitals to close down in Pennsylvania. He picked this up from that paragon of truth, the American Spectator. But this is not just some harmless curmudgeonly blogger shaking his fist in the air. This little whippersnapper is trying to stir up outrage to raise money for an outfit called Catholic Vote – which has no right to use that name – so that... Read more

On The Culture of Busy

Last updated on: October 15, 2010 at 12:39 pm By Radical Catholic Mom

A group of girlfriends and I were discussing the other day how busy our evenings are for moms. There are dinners to make, children and husbands to please, babies to bathe, get dressed, read before bed, and then bed time. Then we began to consider that–well–the whole day is crazy busy. A friend of mine on Facebook the other day–a mother of three children–was trying to figure out how she and her husband can actually spend time together because their... Read more

Tony Judt on Inequality

Last updated on: October 14, 2010 at 1:33 pm By Morning's Minion

From Ill Fares the Land: “Inequality, then, is not just unattractive in itself; it clearly corresponds to pathological social problems that we cannot hope to address unless we attend to their underlying cause. There is a reason why infant mortality, life expectancy, criminality, the prison population, mental illness, unemployment, obesity, malnutrition, teenage pregnancy, illegal drug use, economic insecurity, personal indebtedness and anxiety are so much more marked in the US and the UK than they are in continental Europe. The wider... Read more

Critiquing Christopher West

Last updated on: May 3, 2017 at 7:08 pm By Brett Salkeld

As a long time “chastity speaker” and recent author (How Far Can We Go? A Catholic Guide to Sex and Dating, Novalis 2009, Paulist Press 2011), I am often asked my view of other, better known, workers in this corner of the Lord’s vineyard. Christopher West is inevitably at the top of the list. In the sorts of forums this question gets asked, there is rarely time for any kind of in-depth analysis and so my response generally looks something... Read more

Matt’s Politics

Last updated on: October 12, 2010 at 5:07 pm By Matt Talbot

It occurs to me that I’ve never explicitly spelled out my politics in a post here at Vox Nova so, here goes: 1. I observe that the more toward pure Laissez-faire an economic environment is, the more wealth tends to concentrate at the top of the income scale and stay there. 2. Wealth concentration at the top tends, eventually, to destabilize the economy, and thus society. 3. The wealthy don’t have a history of selflessly surrendering power and wealth on... Read more

Wisdom’s Fire, Radiant and Unfading. Part III

Last updated on: October 12, 2010 at 3:08 pm By Henry Karlson

Part I. Part II. The Divinity, eternal being, makes created being From Wisdom, ever simple and yet sublime. The spark from God enters into the realm of becoming: Establishing what is in eternity as now manifest in time. God’s nature is discerned in humanity: Sophia is seen in Sophia. Our Lover from all eternity, Has revealed that love in Judea. The doctrine of the Trinity teaches us that there are three persons who share one divine nature. That nature, as... Read more

Authentic Tolerance

Last updated on: October 11, 2010 at 10:46 am By M.Z.

There is a presumed virtue of exclusivity in American culture. I have likely been plagued by this worse than others. To elaborate a little bit, we tend to treat the ability to discriminate as supreme. As the Catholic Fascist has put it, the pursuit of truth is the only good. Tolerance is the virtue often posited as opposing this tendency, although tolerance has gotten a bad name for itself. In as much as people have used tolerance to mean that... Read more

Federico Borromeo on Depiction of the Crucifixion

Last updated on: October 11, 2010 at 8:28 am By Henry Karlson

I read Borromeo’s Sacred Painting and Museum over the weekend, and I found the following quote interesting: Some have thought that the Savior was not nailed through the palms of the hands but through the wrists, for otherwise they could not have supported his weight. Nevertheless, the common custom and tradition of the Catholic Church must be maintained, and nothing new should be introduced. After all, the Gospel says that Christ showed his pierced hands and his pierced side. Federico... Read more

Fearful Parents

Last updated on: October 7, 2010 at 10:30 pm By Matt Talbot

There seems to be a common idea that children are a means of reflecting prestige or shame on the parents – if little Timmy gets into Harvard, that means that you are the parents of the year; if he becomes a grocery bagger, assembly line worker or filling station counter guy, then you’ve “failed.” Something is out of balance there; not every kid has the smarts to get into Harvard, and as long as your kid grows up to be... Read more

Who Speaks for the Poor?

Last updated on: October 7, 2010 at 1:54 pm By Morning's Minion

When I first studied Catholic social teaching, I wondered why the preferential option for the poor was elevated to the level of a core principle. My naive reaction was that this concept was well captured by more general principles like solidarity. The older I get, the more I appreciate this principle, because everything in our culture says the opposite – ignore the poor, ignore those who have no voice, pretend they don’t exist. America thinks of itself as a modern dynamic country, where... Read more