Catholic Justices Vote the Wrong Way…. Again

June 10, 2007 By voxnovablog

Michael Perry over at Mirror of Justice notes that a recent Supreme Court decision made it easier for prosecutors to exclude people who express reservations about the death penalty from capital juries. The appeals court judge (whose decision was overthrown) granted a new trial on the grounds that a certain juror was excluded simply because “he did not perhaps show the kind of bloodthirsty eagerness” to impose the death penalty. The five Catholic justices had no problem with this. The... Read more

Is THAT Your Only Comment?

June 9, 2007 By voxnovablog

This blog has been consistently accused of and attacked for being “liberal.” Frankly, I have little uses for such labels because I am not sure exactly what they mean. I assure you that I am more liberal than the liberals, and more conservative than the conservatives depending on what the issues are. I can only speak for myself. I cannot speak for my fellow Vox-Novan contributors, but I DO know that all of us here are trying to live our... Read more

The Lesson of Franz Jägerstätter

June 9, 2007 By voxnovablog

As noted by the Catholic Peace Fellowship, the Church has recognized Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter as a martyr for the faith, clearing the way for his beatification, and ultimately, his canonization. Jägerstätter was an Austrian farmer who refused to be drafted by the Nazis. He was advised to cooperate by his parish priest and his local bishop, on the grounds that he needed to support his family and that he had a responsibility to obey legitimate secular authority. But Jägerstätter... Read more

Should Catholics Follow the Utopian Vision of Modern Democracies? III-2 A Brief Discussion On the Current Situation and Its Development

June 8, 2007 By voxnovablog

We have seen that the framers of American democracy, for the most part, did not suffer any illusions so as to think it would possible to produce paradise on earth. Their views were highly utilitarian, but then again, so were the views of many of their critics. Most political theorists shared in common the belief that the best government is the one which produced the greatest happiness for the longest amount of time. Here John Adams and Joseph de Maistre... Read more

Abstention: Food for Thought

June 8, 2007 By voxnovablog

After reading MZ Forrest’s post on political apathy I remembered something of days past. If you are thinking of abstaining in the upcoming presidential elections (if you live in the U.S.) or any election at a local, state, or national level, think again. Think about Venezuela. Think about what has become of “The small Venice” (from which the name Venezuela comes from) in the past few years. Hugo Chávez has won the presidential elections twice (or more? I lost count... Read more

Political Apathy

June 8, 2007 By voxnovablog

The political season is fast coming upon us. Some us openly question whether it ever left. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, we will be treated to endless apocalyptic commentary speculating the end of the world if Candidate X is elected. Priests and other preachers of the word will be looking upon this time with absolute dread or great anticipation. Since priests are human beings, they tend to span the spectrum of society. You will find a number of... Read more

Resolution of the Paradox of Self-Giving in the Mystery of the Trinity: The Analogy of Revelation

June 8, 2007 By voxnovablog

In my last posting I had suggested that I would tie together my previous post regarding Wojtyła and self-giving with my post on personhood and individuality. I know now that was too ambitious, and so presently I shall only bring the former to a conclusion. In my posting about self-giving we saw how one’s being is constituted through his act of self-giving. In turn, I supplied a brief survey of Wojtyła’s philosophical anthropology as a means of offering an account... Read more

On the Economics of Global Warming

June 8, 2007 By voxnovablog

Many thanks to Katerina for her excellent post on the science underpinning global warming. What really bothers me about global warming denial is that people feel free to simply ignore the overwhelming consensus of experts, and instead take comfort in the arguments a few contrarians. Would people be so willing to reject the received medical wisdom and embrace some peddler of “alternative healing techniques” on the grounds that the doctors are lying? Hardly, and when one’s health (or the health... Read more