An excellent summary of the principles laid out in “Faithful Citizenship” and their application to issues, not candidates. From Busted Halo, an apostolate of the Paulists. Hat tip to Fr. James Martin, SJ. Read more
An excellent summary of the principles laid out in “Faithful Citizenship” and their application to issues, not candidates. From Busted Halo, an apostolate of the Paulists. Hat tip to Fr. James Martin, SJ. Read more
Over the past two weeks, Pope Benedict XVI has made reference to the Second Vatican Council in various addresses and written documents.. A number of these were collected by Sandro Magister, the Italian Vaticanista, in his blog. One of these caught my eye for the interesting turn of phrase quoted in the title of this post. Writing about the decree Nostra Aetate, the Pope wrote The task that it involves and the efforts that are still necessary in order to distinguish,... Read more
Having been touched by cancer too often in the past couple years, I recently picked up Siddhartha Mukherjee’s remarkable Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. The book is a tour de force and must reading for anyone who actually wants to read about cancer (admittedly not everyone). Mukherjee is a highly literate and sensitive writer and does justice to a an extremely difficult topic. In another realm of life, in preparation to teach Christian Anthropology, I have recently... Read more
With the Al Smith Dinner at hand and the election quickly approaching, I am sometimes left searching for the truly prophetic voice of the Church in the midst of all the white noise and meaningless (or at least truthless) rhetoric. Perhaps St. Francis can serve as a prophetic voice from a time long past and help us to imagine and discover our own prophetic voices in times such as these: To all mayors and consuls, magistrates and rulers throughout the... Read more
Is the Holy Spirit speaking about the American election, using the still, small voice of the Divine Office? He is to me. On October 3, the day of the first “debate” between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, Evening Prayer included a psalm that seemed to address the debate’s subject matter directly. Today’s Evening Prayer includes a psalm-prayer and intercessions that speak to me about this evening’s presidential “debate.” Again, the Spirit seems to have something to say to both of... Read more
Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. We can expect all the various factions in the Church to offer their perspectives on the Council and its legacy: what went wrong, what went right, what opportunities were seized, what opportunities were missed, what this or that document “really” said or meant, or didn’t say or mean. Rather than jump into that endless and often self-serving debate, I think the best way to mark this anniversary... Read more
One of the disturbing legacies of the past two decades is that war has become something of a national pastime, a spectator sport in which the United States deploys its wealth and power, not to mention the bodies and futures of its soldiers, in order to establish the principle enunciated by neocon Brett Decker that “Evil advances when America isn’t feared or respected.” Neocon theorist Michael Ledeen once bluntly suggested the means by which such fear and/or respect is to... Read more
Today Pope Benedict has formally declared my beloved patroness Hildegard of Bingen, along with John of Avila, the newest Doctors of the Church – a rare honorific title (the two bring the total to 35) given to those who have made significant contributions to the Church’s tradition. After making it official, the pope offered this tribute in his homily at today’s opening of the Synod of Bishops: Saint Hildegard of Bingen, an important female figure of the twelfth century, offered her... Read more
1. The Church has no expertise in economics, which is a technical area best left to experts. In fact, Church teaching on economics, and Catholic social teaching in general, is firmly rooted in moral theology. As Pius XI put it in Quadragesimo Anno, it is “an error to say that the economic and moral orders are so distinct from each other that the former depends in no way on the latter”. That error is rather common in today. John Paul... Read more
In honor of the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the poor man of God, here are some extracts from his final Testament, thanks to the Friars Minor. (See the link for the complete text.) And the Lord gave me such faith in churches that I would simply pray and speak in this way: “We adore You, Lord Jesus Christ, in all Your churches throughout the world, and we bless You, for through Your holy cross You have redeemed the... Read more
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