There can be little doubt that rising inequality is one of the defining economic issues of our time. From a fairly fringe concern a few years back, it has now risen to the very top of the agenda. In part, we owe this to the passionate and prophetic voice of Pope Francis. In this short blog post, I want to explore the issue of inequality, and make the economic case for Pope Francis’ claim that inequality lies at the root... Read more
A oft used joke is to respond to a question whose answer is obviously yes by asking, “Is the Pope Catholic?” A variant of this would be to ask, “Is the Pope Pro-Life?”: the answer should be equally obvious. But it appears that this is not, or at least no longer the case. The most recent issue of Columbia, the house magazine of the Knights of Columbus, contains an article entitled The Gospel of Life According to Pope Francis. It... Read more
Resolved: The canonical annulment process should be scrapped and the Catholic response to divorce should be reformed following the model of the Orthodox Churches. Fr. Peter Daly, a pastor in the DC area and a columnist for NCR, argues this point in a very powerful blog post. He is approaching it from a pastoral, not a doctrinal point of view, and he makes clear some of the painful issues he confronts. Some highlights: It is pretty clear from the Gospels... Read more
The Guardian today has an essay by a bemused father whose eight year old daughter is converting to Catholicism. He and his wife, both atheists, are both quite taken aback by this decision. He writes: I was, however, inclined to agree when my wife, who’s a pretty vehement atheist, said that she could cope with just about any life decision our children may make – apart from them wanting to join the military or the clergy. So what happened when... Read more
As I was studying the readings for today, I noticed a translation difference between the Lectionary and the NIV for today’s psalm, Psalm 29. This led me to poke around and I discovered that there were substantial differences between the Lectionary and the translation given in the NAB (revised edition). As given in the Lectionary, it reads (Ps 29, 1-2, 3-4, 9-10) Give to the LORD, you sons of God, give to the LORD glory and praise, Give to the... Read more
Just a quick note to wish everyone a (somewhat belated) happy and blessed New Year. Vox Nova continues to roll along and special thanks goes to our readers and commentators. I want to give a hat tip to our top five commentators this year, according to the the WordPress statistics: Peter Paul Fuchs 209 comments 2 Ronald King 189 comments 3 A Sinner 188 comments 4 Jordan 149 comments 5 trellis smith 135 comments Thank you for your participation, and... Read more
(Note: Somehow this didn’t get published yesterday. Better late than never.) In honor of this solemnity, excerpts from a homily of St. Cyril of Alexandria: Mary, Mother of God, we salute you. Precious vessel, worthy of the whole world’s reverence, you are an ever-shining light, the crown of virginity, the symbol of orthodoxy, an indestructible temple, the place that held him whom no place can contain, mother and virgin. Because of you the holy gospels could say: Blessed is he... Read more
Preface: The following post is adapted from an article I wrote for the quarterly newsletter of the Solanus Casey Region of the Secular Franciscan Order. Last month I was named the regional chair of JPIC: Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation. This is a ministry shared by all branches of the Franciscan family. It is an expression of the incarnational theology of St. Francis of Assisi and for Secular Franciscans, flows naturally out of our rule: Let them individually and... Read more
On this blessed Feast of the Nativity, may the Lord give you every blessing under Heaven. May every gift given and received remind you of the gift of eternal life, which is His Son. Read more
My colleague Morning’s Minion has two recent posts (here and here) about the “heartburn” experienced by conservatives in the US caused by Pope Francis’ recent apostolic exhortation. Among the conservatives he mentions is Michael Novak, a prominent conservative Catholic intellectual. (Here conservative applies to his political and economic beliefs and not necessarily to his Catholicism.) Novak wrote a review of Evangelii Gaudium in the National Review entitled “Agreeing with Pope Francis.” I will leave it to MM and to others (see,... Read more
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