Reading Quadragesimo Anno, Part III

Last updated on: July 26, 2020 at 4:53 pm By David Cruz-Uribe

This is the third in my series of ruminations on Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, the second great papal encyclical on Catholic social teaching. Follow these links to find Part I and Part II. This week we read paragraphs 76 to 110, which includes discussions on social organization and the state, and then a brutal denunciation of what I have come to term real existing capitalism–i.e., the global capitalist system that had arisen the in 19th century and by... Read more

Reading Quadragesimo Anno, Part II

Last updated on: July 19, 2020 at 11:55 am By David Cruz-Uribe

In this post I continue my ruminations on Quadragesimo Anno (QA), by Pope Pius XI. You can read the first part here. This past week we read paragraphs 40-75. (Actually, we also read 31-39, but those paragraphs, about workers associations in Rerum Novarum (RN) link more naturally to the material discussed previously.) This is the beginning of a very dense section where Pius XI begins to expand and update the basic argument from RN. He first begins in paragraphs 40-43... Read more

Reading Quadragesimo Anno Part I

Last updated on: July 11, 2020 at 5:29 pm By David Cruz-Uribe

My reading group, having finished Rerum Novarum (see Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV) has moved on to the second great encyclical of Catholic social teaching, Quadragesimo Anno (hereafter QA), written by Pope Pius XI in 1931. Though expressly building on the arguments made by Leo XIII, this is a very different encyclical in many ways. One of the first things we noted is that the world had changed considerably since 1891. The industrial revolution, while having been... Read more

Why was Abby Johnson’s Video Racist?

Last updated on: July 9, 2020 at 10:14 am By David Cruz-Uribe

Two weeks ago Abby Johnson posted a video to YouTube and her Twitter feed in which she defended racial profiling and made an extended argument blaming the problems of the Black community on the breakdown of the Black family and on absent Black fathers. The video was later taken down from Twitter and was made private on YouTube. A copy was posted to YouTube, but was removed because of a copyright complaint from Abby Johnson. However, another copy may be... Read more

Reading Rerum Novarum, Part IV

Last updated on: July 4, 2020 at 11:43 am By David Cruz-Uribe

I want to apologize: I started this earlier in the week, but was unhappy with where it was going. I went to save it, but I apparently published an incomplete draft. The following is a substantially revised version of what appeared on June 26. DCU This is my fourth and final post on Rerum Novarum; you can find the previous posts at Part I, Part II, and Part III. This final discussion was quite lively, as I kicked it off... Read more

Thank You For Your Support

Last updated on: June 23, 2020 at 6:50 pm By David Cruz-Uribe

Just a note to thank all of our readers for their continued presence on Vox Nova blog. We recently received our check from Patheos, and this time we have donated the funds to Catholic Relief Services to support communities affected by the pandemic. Read more

Reading Rerum Novarum, Part III

Last updated on: June 22, 2020 at 1:06 pm By David Cruz-Uribe

This is a continuation of my reflections and ramblings on Rerum Novarum. You can read the previous two posts in Part I and Part II. Our discussion got off to an interesting start. One of the women who belongs to the reading group called attention to a number of references to women and gender roles that sound, frankly, sexist to modern ears. For instance, we have the categorical declaration that Women, again, are not suited for certain occupations; a woman... Read more

Another Thought on the Knights of Columbus

Last updated on: June 21, 2020 at 11:01 am By David Cruz-Uribe

To follow up on my post from last week containing my open letter to Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of Columbus, I want to link to a column by Fr. Peter Daly, a retired priest in Washington DC. He writes for the National Catholic Reporter, and his anger at what the KofC did (or did not do) is palpable, leading to his very public resignation from the Knights. Here is a sampler: I’m done! I’m done with the Knights of Columbus.... Read more