Michael Sean Winters, author of “Left At the Altar: How the Democrats Lost the Catholics and How the Catholics Can Save the Democrats,” will be speaking at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington DC this Tuesday. The talk, including a book signing, will take place in the North Conference Room (enter through the garage) at 7pm on Tuesday, July 1. I know nothing about the book, but it–and the talk– promise to be fascinating. Winters blogs over at America magazine. See... Read more
The widely noted problems Barack Obama faces with “white working class” voters is not simply another example of the stubborn ethnic, cultural, and religious loyalty among subsets of voters that has been present since the American founding. In the aftermath of the break-up of Roosevelt’s wildly successful New Deal coalition, Catholics voters (or, perhaps more accurately, Catholics who vote) have fled the Democratic Party. Why? Mark Stricherz’s Why the Democrats Are Blue: Secular Liberalism and the Decline of the People’s... Read more
When I was in high-school, my favorite book was Catcher in the Rye. My favorite TV show was My So-Called Life. My favorite film was Rebel Without a Cause. Notice a pattern? Teen angst, baby! No doubt if they had been around at the time and I had known about them my favorite band would have been Belle and Sebastian. Jonathan David, for example, is a near perfect distillation of all too common scenario (for my teenage self, at least).... Read more
Glad we got this settled. I was losing sleep. Read more
The Feast of Sts Peter and Paul is one of the most important, and yet most glossed over, feasts of the Church Year. Yet, it should be easy to see its value. Sts Peter and Paul are the two most significant Apostles in the New Testament, and their ecclesial ministries end together with their martyrdoms in Rome. Despite previous conflicts against each other, they die united for Christ, embracing each other in love, recognizing each other as providing an authentic voice of Christ’s desires for the Church. They merge... Read more
If I had a magic wand that could magically get rid of all the handguns in the United States, and prevent people from getting any more of them, I would use it. But I don’t have such a wand, and if my plan for dealing with the social problems associated with handguns was to search high and low for such a wand, most people would, I think, conclude that I was wasting my time. A national gun ban, in my... Read more
Confused over the national presidential polls? I am. We have a number of updated poll data amounting to some disparate information. Real Clear Politics has some of the major poll resuts up. The June 23-25 Gallup Poll shows Barack Obama and John McCain at a tie. Yet, the Newsweek and L.A. Times/Bloomberg polls show Obama with a 15% and 12% lead, respectively. 0%-15% is a large margin. Real Clear Politics, taking the average of eight national polls, puts Obama ahead... Read more
One issue in yesterday’s post on gun control that provoked a vigorous response was my contention that Roe and Heller were decided with the same underlying philosophy that emphasizes the right to individual liberty as long as it does not impinge upon the equally valid rights of another citizen. This is a very different philosophy of from that of Aquinas, where law is deemed an ordinance of reason for the common good made by him who has care of the community.... Read more
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 The Infallibility Debates The subsidiary committees had anticipated the question of papal infallibility despite their intention to exclude it from the Council agenda. Therefore, they drafted a short schema on papal infallibility which could be made available to the Council. It was subsequently added as a fourth chapter to the schema on the primacy of the Bishop of Rome and distributed to the Council Fathers on March 6 when the announcement was... Read more
“[I]f you have a death penalty, why not apply it to child rapists ?“ As if it were that simple. Let us see why victims’ rights groups like the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault that have a much better understanding of the issue actually disagree with Gerald and support the Supreme Court’s decision on Kennedy v. Louisiana (emphasis mine) : “The Texas Association Against Sexual Assault (TAASA) supports the Supreme Court’s decision, released this morning to overturn the death penalty... Read more
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