In trenches of political warfare, it is hard to see past the defensive and offensive things going on right in front of me. Too much of the time, I live my life in ways that are not unlike the bitter, tired, and fairly stupid polemics we find littered across the internet, radio, and television. I dig out my position and defend it as best I can from all comers. To do this well, I need to focus. I need to... Read more
(Cross-Posted on The Well At The World’s End.) Humanity is created in the image and likeness of God. This allows us to understand something about God by understanding ourselves. “The rational man who has prepared himself to be set free through the advent of Jesus, knows himself in his intellectual substance. For he who knows himself knows the dispensations of the Creator and all that He does among His creatures.”[1] But we must not take what comes out of such... Read more
I have a shocking and surprising announcement to make: Vox Nova has not seen and does not see itself as a tool for promotion of the Republican Party or the “conservative values” of both those within that party and those formerly affiliated with the Republican Party but who are disaffected by that party and still think the Democrats are worse. From reading around the blogosphere, this seems to have been revelatory to some people. Yes, we recognize that some of... Read more
Some readers of this blog are probably aware of my interest in El Salvador. It’s an interest that is quite personal, as an uncle of mine is a priest who has been living and working there since the 1980s. This “personal connection” is indeed what sparked my interest in Latin America and, eventually, in liberation theologies, especially the work of Salvadoran theologians Ignacio Ellacuria and Jon Sobrino. So I’m always interested when new documentaries about El Salvador are made. And... Read more
The Great Fast gives is a sense of responsibility for our life, a vision of ourselves before God in the light of eternity, together with an acute consciousness of our sins, as if a last judgment upon ourselves. The light of the Great Fast penetrates the darkness of our souls. The joy of the spiritual knowledge gives birth to a ‘sorrow in relation to God’ and calls us to the labor of repentance, arduous and enervating but also healing and... Read more
In discussions about various intrinsic evils, some people suggest that the quantity of evil has a role in defining its significance to the debate. They use the great quantity of one evil to suggest concerns about other evils are out of place. Thus, torture should not be a concern because abortion happens far more frequently. Of course, the Catholic understands all concerns are valid concerns, and one must not follow the path of the heretic to take one truth and... Read more
Several Catholic blogs have made comments that those opposed to torture are too shrill. We are claimed to be divisive. And the plain truth is that after at least a half decade of having our country commit torture, including to the point of having tortured people to death (obviously denied or otherwise attempted to be excused), many of us have difficulty seeing the good will of those who defend our country’s practices. Further, our country has clearly not limited its... Read more
RealCatholicTV continues to present itself as judge and jury to the Bishops. Michael Voris continues to use the same fallacious argumentation over and over again: guilt by association. Is anyone really surprised? So we are to judge people by their friends? I can only imagine the kind of videos which would have been made about G.K. Chesterton. (more…) Read more
I have recently been asked to write a short chapter on “Benedict and Youth” for a book celebrating the fifth anniversary of his election as Pope. As part of my preparation for this endeavor, I am hoping to hear from some of the young people in our audience. I would very much appreciate if those readers who consider themselves youth would take a minute to share their ideas about our current Holy Father. (If you want to share your ideas with... Read more
Though I have absolutely no desire to rehash all of the arguments that inevitably arise about the Church’s position on condoms and the AIDS crisis in Africa, I thought this article makes some important distinctions that many of our readers would appreciate: http://www.thetablet.co.uk/article/2284 Please restrict your comments to the interesting distinctions in Father Rhonheimer’s article. Of related interest is this post over at America Magazine’s “In All Things”: http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2&id=27944603-3048-741E-6720211751000482 Again, it is interesting to talk about the dilemma raised by... Read more
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