As many readers will already be aware, my wife and I experience some difficulty in our practice of Natural Family Planning. Because of our erratic charts, our NFP instructor recently recommended that we ask my wife’s doctor to do some tests on her vitamin D, iron, prolactin and testosterone levels. Now, our family doctor is not supportive of our choice to use NFP. She asks what we use for birth control and, when we say NFP, she writes “none” in... Read more
Just wanted to let you all know that I had lunch yesterday with Austin Ruse of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. As you might know, some of us on Vox Nova got into a little back-and-forth with him not so long ago. As often happens in the blogosphere, it became testy. I am therefore delighted to report that we had a very pleasant lunch together. We still have fundamental disagreements – we did not paper over these differences, and we tried... Read more
I’ve been a fan from the first season. This show embodies story-telling at it best, is deeply character-driven, and is infused with religious themes. For those unfamiliar with the show, the details described in this clip will make no sense to you. Suffice it to say that Ben Linus has done some very evil things, and Illana was about to kill him to get revenge for one of them. But you cannot miss the sheer power of forgiveness and redemption... Read more
Life is messy. Archbishop Chaput has made a federal case, to use an expression, out of a situation in a parish school. Supporters of the Archbishop have argued that scandal has been created by the school accepting the children of a lesbian couple as students. Critics have noted the real and publicly knowledgeable sins of other parents such as invalid marriages, at least in the abstract although neither I nor you as the reader should have doubt over their representation, and they have... Read more
Based upon a Dostoevsky short story. (more…) Read more
The Democratic House managed to pass a healthcare reform bill with more stringent restrictions on the ability of private insurance companies to cover abortion than ever before. One Republican supported it. The Democratic Senate managed to pass a healthcare reform bill with more stringent restrictions on the ability of private insurance companies to cover abortion than ever before. No Republicans supported it. And yet the Republicans supported Medicare Advantage a few years ago, where the pro-life protections were laughably weak,... Read more
I am very pleased to introduce our newest addition to Vox Nova: Nathan O’Halloran, SJ. I have known Nathan since we were classmates at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He bested me in just about everything: academics; athletics; and being Catholic. He was an exemplary student; a standout rugby-player; founder of the campus publication, The Gadfly; and a spiritual leader in campus worship, evangelization, and missionary outreach. After being out of touch for several years, we met again at our alma... Read more
In the debates over the Iraq War, one of the things I have noted time and time again is that Catholic defenders of that war have often said that it was the sovereign of the state who determines when the standards for when the requirements for a just war have been met. This is because it is the sovereign who decides when to go to war. The assumption, of course, is that if a sovereign decides when to go to... Read more
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnlWxa15vQ8&feature=player_embedded In the above video, U.S. Catholic Magazine asks Fordham professor Michael Lee five questions on liberation theology. The full interview with Lee on liberation theology today can be found here. Lee’s recent book, Bearing the Weight of Salvation, is a revision of his very good dissertation on the themes of soteriology and discipleship in the theology of Ignacio Ellacuría, SJ, one of the Jesuits martyred in El Salvador in 1989. Read more
Let’s nail this one down. This time, I won’t point out past hypocrisies by those who oppose this healthcare bill because of abortion and yet supported far more lenient language in the past (I’m looking at you, NRLC…). This time, let’s look at what’s actually in the bill. And to do this, I will lean heavily on a detailed analysis by leading health lawyer Timothy Jost, courtesy of our friends at Faith in Public Life – I’m going to take the... Read more
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