When abused, authority damages bodies. A husband punches his wife and breaks her nose. Abusive day care workers crush the bones, dislocate the limbs, and scar the souls of small children. Tyrants torture bodies into a quivering mess. Even when the results are not so extreme, abusive authority disables bodies. A husband who never lays an aggressive finger on his wife may still silence her with mockery and bullying threats. Children are blinded to reality by the manipulations of a sexual predator. Harsh teachers don’t open ears to instruction, but deafen. . . . Continue Reading »
Wayne Roosa, artist and art historian, will be displaying his 2010 series, In the Slipstream, at the First Things offices beginning February 16, 2012. (For more information on the opening night event, click here.) A professor of art history at Bethel University, St. Paul, Minnesota, and Chair of the New York Center for Art and Media Studies (NYCAMS), Roosa has been a research fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities research grant. His writings deal with contemporary art as well as the role of faith in art. . . . Continue Reading »
In light of recent controversies over Planned Parenthood, it is helpful to have a book that illuminates the organization’s motivating ideology. In the recently released Women, Sex, and the Church: a Case for Catholic Teaching, Angela Franks lays out how self-described “women’s health groups,” view a woman’s fertility fundamentally as a hindrance, a burden, a disease to be eradicated . . . Continue Reading »
There are many good arguments against quickly convening a Third Vatican Council—a notion beloved of Catholics who occupy the portside cabins on the Barque of Peter. The most obvious is that Catholicism has barely begun to digest the teachings of Vatican II on the nature of the Church, the universal call to holiness, and the reform of the episcopate, the priesthood, consecrated life, and the lay vocation in the world. . . . Continue Reading »
At the January 7, 2012 Republican presidential debate, there came a point at which the questioning turned to “social issues.” Moderator George Stephanopoulos asked Mitt Romney whether he thought a state could ban contraception. Stephanopoulos had in mind the 1965 Supreme Court decision Griswold v. Connecticut, which ruled that a state could not ban contraception, and which, by invoking a presumed “right to privacy,” laid the groundwork for the subsequent Roe v. Wade decision overturning bans on abortion. . . . Continue Reading »
Last week’s column on the HHS mandate brought a rash of email from the usual suspects—men and women who feel passionately inclined to inform me that the church is “mysogynistic, women-hating, gay-hating, authoritarian, fetus-idolizing…” well, you get the drift. People who could not begin to accurately articulate the church’s position on most matters are quite sure that her counter-cultural stances are grounded on nothing more than hate. . . . Continue Reading »
Yesterday was the Diamond Anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the thrones of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Christians in these countries and throughout the Commonwealth thanked God for her sixty years of service, remembering St. Paul’s admonition to pray “for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and godly lives in all quietness and holiness.” . . . Continue Reading »
In a previous article, I offered as a possible slogan for hospice, “A good life deserves a good death.” But what is a good death, exactly, and what would have to happen to make it that way? My first wife, Carol, died of a particularly virulent form of stomach cancer. By the time the first symptoms appeared it was too late to save her life. Both her surgeon and her oncologist were deeply religious Christians and compassionate human beings who spoke openly and honestly about Carol’s condition and prognosis. . . . Continue Reading »
In recent years, much work has been done to restore the traditional principles of church design; one principle, however, is still often overlooked: siting. St. Germanus is brief and clear on the subject, as always. In the final section of Ecclesiastical History and Mystical Contemplation, which deals directly with architectural matters, he says . . . Continue Reading »
The greatest commandment, Jesus tells us, is: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Well, of course. But a commandment? I tend to empathize with the Danish Philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, who writes, in Works of Love . . . Continue Reading »
