Here’s the trailer for a new film from the San Damiano Foundation entitled The Narrow Path, which features the inspiring Jesuit priest and author, Fr. John Dear. The film looks excellent, and I am eager to see it. “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8) “NO TO WAR”! War is not always inevitable. It is always a defeat for humanity.” (Pope John Paul II, 2003 Address to the Diplomatic Corps, no. 4) Read more
Much of the animosity in US Catholic circles in the US stems from the fact that neither of the two big parties provides a comfortable home for Catholics. And maybe this is the problem. There are too few choices. Here’s a radical suggestion. Should we get rid of the antiquated first-past-the-post electoral system and embrace a form of proportional representation? There are many forms of proportional representation, but they all try to align the percent of votes cast for a... Read more
Should gun control be seen as part of the culture of life in the US? Consider the following international gun violence statistics, from a 1998 study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Gun-related deaths per 100,000 people: U.S.A. 14.24Brazil 12.95Mexico 12.69Argentina 8.93Finland 6.46Switzerland 5.31France 5.15Canada 4.31Norway 3.82Austria 3.70Portugal 3.20Israel 2.91Belgium 2.90Australia 2.65Italy 2.44New Zealand 2.38Denmark 2.09Sweden 1.92Greece 1.29Germany 1.24Ireland 0.97Spain 0.78Netherlands 0.70Scotland 0.54England and Wales 0.41Taiwan 0.37Singapore 0.21Hong Kong 0.14South Korea 0.12Japan 0.05 The US is off... Read more
Gerald Augustinus of The Cafeteria is Closed has turned to his wife for support against the barrage of “left-wing Catholic” criticism that is aimed at his views on immigration. Why do I bring this up? After all, some of Vox Nova’s own contributors have stated their views on immigration and have refuted many times the “law of the land/national sovereignty” approach that Gerald and others embrace, consistently ignoring or disregarding the consistent and holistic teachings of the Catholic Church on... Read more
This is a (brief) follow up to my (not so brief) argument in favor of single payer health care systems (see here and here for the gory details). As I noted, the most common argument made by those who defend the current American system is that the waiting lists are interminably long in other countries. Now, Businessweek sheds some light on this question (via Kevin Drum). The bottom line: “American people are already waiting as long or longer than patients... Read more
The Catholic League is highlighting the behavior of an anti-immigrant group called the San Diego Minutemen. After a local priest decided to help workers seek employment, this group of hyper-nationalists began protesting outside the church– by displaying an effigy of a priest in a devil mask, harassing a First Communion Mass, demanding that the Catholic Church be taxed, and denouncing priests as pedophiles. Is Donohue finally waking up? For years now, Donohue has aligned himself with the Republican-linked political evangelical... Read more
So, Senator David Vitter used escort services. Larry Flynt, in a fit of shameless glee, rushes to expose him. This “gotcha” culture has become far too commonplace. As Catholics, we should always be aware that detraction may well be a mortal sin. Detraction is defined as “the unjust damaging of another’s good name by the revelation of some fault or crime of which that other is really guilty or at any rate is seriously believed to be guilty by the... Read more
Source: Zenit Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said at the end of a symposium on Trinitarian theology that “[d]emocracy is an instrument at the service of communion among people and, to be able to exercise this role, it must relate to something other than itself.” The bishop considered two elements that characterize democracies: “access to free elections” and “public debate.” He did not think these were sufficient because “non-manipulated public dialogue and participation... Read more
And what a better way to remember and to be challenged in our daily lives by this great saint than to read what Pope Benedict XVI had to say about him even before he became pope in one of his socio-political essays: We need men who keep their eyes fixed on God, learning from him what true humanity means.We need men whose intellect is enlightened by the light of God, men whose hearts are opened by God, so that their... Read more
What would you do if were met by someone who, as the ruler of a nation, led a campaign of terror against their neighbors? Someone whose brutality knew no bounds? Someone who would use the pretense of hospitality as a means of getting close to the people they hate and then kill them? Someone who would suggest a truce with their enemy, invite them to a feast with plenty of alcohol, only to betray that truce and slaughter their enemy... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In