Anscombe on Punishment

November 12, 2007 By Morning's Minion

I remember we had a good discussion a while back on the nature and purposes of punishment. I argued that defense against the criminal is the fundamental (and often only) purpose of punishment, and others pointed to the importance of retribution. I thought it would be useful here to reference the thought of Elizabeth Anscombe, as laid out in her insightful essay from 1978, “On the Source of the Authority of the State” (published in G.E.M. Anscombe, 1981, Ethics, Religion, and Politics: Collected Philosophical Papers Volume III, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.

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The Need for Awareness

November 7, 2007 By voxnovablog

In my blog Civilization of Love, I have included “awareness” as one of the many ways in which we can build this “civilization of love” that the Church talks about. What do I mean by “awareness”?

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Dorothy Day’s Pacifism–The Result of Reason and Praxis

October 26, 2007 By Policraticus

Dorothy Day, who is on the path to sainthood, was an intellectual. But more importantly, she was a manifestation of what deep Catholic faith becomes. Very few have had the courage to live their Catholic faith beyond their front porch like Dorothy Day…the Desert Fathers, the martyrs, St. Francis of Assisi and Bl. Teresa of Calcutta come immediately to mind. These are the ones who hung on every word of Christ, and these are the ones who convict me of my unworthiness to fancy myself a Catholic man. These are the saints of the saints.

One of my philosophy professors was a close friend of Dorothy Day’s. He is not a Catholic, but he contributed to the Catholic Worker in New York for many years. He told me that Dorothy Day was the real thing. He also told me that she was tough as nails, which is surprising given her pacifism. But Dorothy Day was the real thing–unflinching in terms of Liturgy, faith and her hallmark, social justice.

An important component of Dorothy Day’s exemplary faith was pacifism. But her pacifism was not the result of sentimentality or liberalism. It was the product of vivacious faith, strong intellectual formation and experience in hospitality to the poor and forsaken. A truly brilliant and beautiful article on Dorothy Day written by Andrew Hamilton, which extrapolates the foundations of her pacifism, appeared at Eureka Street. I post it here in full:

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A Consistent Ethic of Life

October 23, 2007 By Morning's Minion

As Catholics, we believe that the dignity of the human person is paramount, as each person is made in the image and likeness of God, a God who shared our human form. Every human being is intrinsically valuable. In the public sphere, we are called upon to act on our beliefs and promote the gospel of life, a holistic and encompassing ethic. Things tend to go awry when people try to compartmentalize life issues, and align the gospel of life with various political parties or movements. Nowhere is this more true than with the abortion issue.

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The Concreteness of Spirituality

October 23, 2007 By Gerald L. Campbell

No one in America, or so it seems, can escape the ubiquitous impact of cynicism and distrust, violence and fear, intemperance and injustice, and the isolation and aloneness that ravages so much of our national life. Statistics on homelessness, substance abuse, youth violence, corruption within the family, and the litany of social and economic inequities have long told this tale but only through numbers.

Yet lurking in the shadows lies the specter of the autonomous individual. Anthropological atomism is embedded in American culture, and it acts as the wellspring of a spiritual alienation that rages unabated like a firestorm across the land. Its alluring dynamic fragments and distorts the nation’s institutions. It corrupts the lives of present and future generations. In every respect, its impact constitutes a serious intellectual, moral, and cultural challenge to an integral America.

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Quote of the Week

October 16, 2007 By Henry Karlson

In this situation, what can we do and what ought we to do? Let us begin by noting some basic truths. It is impossible to overcome terrorism, illegal violence detached from morality, by force alone. It is indeed true that the defense of the rule of law against those who seek to destroy it must sometimes employ violence. This element of force must be precisely calculated, and its goal must always be the protection of the law. An absolute pacifism that refused to grant the law any effective means for its enforcement would be a capitulation to injustice. It would sanction the seizure of power by this injustice and would surrender the world to the dictatorship of force; we reflected briefly on this at the beginning of this essay. But in order for force to be employed by law and not itself become unjust, it must submit to strict criteria that are recognizable by all. It must pay heed to the causes of terrorism, which often has it sources in injustices against which no effective action is taken. This is why the system of law must endeavor to use all available means to clear up any situations of injustice. Above all, it is important to contribute a measure of forgiveness, in order to break the cycle of violence. Where the principle of “an eye for an eye” is applied without pity, it is impossible to escape the power of that cycle. Gestures of a humanity that breaks through it by seeking the human person in one’s foe and appealing to his humanity are necessary, even where they seem at first glance to be a waste of time.

In all these cases, it is important to prevent one single power from presenting itself as the guardian of the law, for it is all too easy for one-sided interests to come into play, making it harder to keep justice in view. An urgent requirement is a real ius gentium, a “law of nations,” without disproportionate hegemonies and the actions to which these lead. Only so can it remain clear that the cause at state is the protection of the rule of law on behalf of everyone, even of those who are fighting on the other side, so to speak. It was this that made the Second World War a convincing enterprise, and it was this that created a genuine peace between former enemies.

–Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), “Searching for Peace: Tensions and Dangers” in Values in a Time of Upheaval. Trans. Brian McNeil (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006), 106-107.

The Principle of the Antichrist in Balthasar’s Theo-Drama

October 15, 2007 By Henry Karlson

If the Good, the Truth, and the Beautiful are One through self-sacrificial love, then an explicit rejection of one is an implicit rejection of all. Of course, this implicit connection is most often not understood by the one who says No to one. Indeed, this implicit No to all of them is hardly apparent to most Christians. But if that No is lived out to its final conclusion, the explicit No to one will become an explicit No to all. In this fashion, Hans Urs Von Balthasar understands the ramifications of the post-Christian No to Christ as leading to the “anti-Trinitarian” standard of the powers of evil, a standard which will be fully revealed and released upon the face of the earth once they have culminated in the production of the Antichrist. (more…)

Ford, Reagan – Sponsors of State Terrorism

October 14, 2007 By Policraticus

At the request of one reader, I am providing some online material with information on U.S. presidents Gerald Ford’s and Ronald Reagan’s records of sponsoring state terrorism in Latin America. (more…)

Bolivia will cut ties to the School of the Americas

October 11, 2007 By Iafrate Michael

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From the School of the Americas Watch email list:

We are very excited to announce that President Evo Morales announced Tuesday that Bolivia will gradually withdraw its military from the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly known as the School for the Americas (SOA). Bolivia is now the fifth country after Costa Rica, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela to formally announce a withdrawal from the school!

“We will gradually withdraw until there are no Bolivian officers attending the School of the Americas,” said Morales. Questioning the U.S. government’s foreign policy he noted that “they are teaching high ranking officers to confront their own people, to identify social movements as their enemies.”

This is a great victory for torture survivors, social movement leaders and human rights activists of Bolivia and the Americas. The SOA/WHINSEC has played a significant role in Bolivia’s recent political history, Hugo Banzer Suarez, who ruled Bolivia from 1971-1978 under a brutal military dictatorship attended the school in 1956 and was later inducted into the school’s “hall of fame” in 1988. The SOA has trained tens of thousands of Bolivian military officers in the past fifty years. In October of 2006, two former graduates of the SOA/WHINSEC, Generals Juan Veliz Herrera and Gonzalo Rocabado Mercado were arrested on charges of torture, murder, and violation of the constitution for their responsibility in the death of 67 civilians in El Alto Bolivia during the “Gas Wars” of September-October 2003.

In March 2006 a School of the Americas Watch (SOAW) delegation led by Lisa Sullivan-Rodriguez, Salvadoran torture survivor Carlos Mauricio, and SOA Watch founder Father Roy Bourgeois met with President Evo Morales to request that Bolivia cease to send troops for training at the SOA/WHINSEC.

Venezuela was the first Latin American country to stop sending its soldiers for training at SOA/WHINSEC (more on Argentina, Uruguay and Costa Rica’s withdrawal here and here), the so-called “School of Assassins” which has for decades had clear ties to the teaching of torture and assassination in Latin America. In addition to high profile victims of SOA violence such as Archbishop Oscar Romero, thousands upon thousands of members of the Body of Christ have been, and continue to be, victimized as a result of United States policy in Latin America through this institution. If the countless voices crying for the school’s closure (including the voices of of the martyrs) do not move the United States government to act, let’s hope that more Latin American countries follow suit and put the SOA/WHINSEC out of business by withdrawing their customers.

Evil In The World

October 11, 2007 By Henry Karlson

Hans Urs von Balthasar noted several times that true, demonic evil can only be understood in relation to the Incarnation of the Word of God. Before the light of Christ, demonic influences upon humanity, while it existed, was not properly understood; they lived in the darkness, and they were able to cover themselves and hide themselves from our vision, because the radiant light of Christ had yet to bring them out into the open. This explains, he suggested, why it was only at the time of Christ, and not before, that Satan and the powers of evil were exposed for what they were. It is why, before Christ, there was at best only a vague knowledge of their existence. Moreover, it is only because of Christ and his offer of grace to humanity that a truly demonic response to Christ can rise up from humanity to provide a diabolic No to Christ. (more…)