If that combination—a more socialist economics and a more traditional culture—is possible, then we need more explanation than Chapter 2 gave us, and, not surprisingly, it is with an explanation that Chapter 3 opens. The intellectual problem that Benedict has set himself is a thorny one: . . . . Continue Reading »
Are social encyclicals binding? Not everything in an encyclical—social or otherwise—is equally binding. Catholic teaching itself distinguishes different levels of authoritativeness for different kinds of teaching and different kinds of Church pronouncements. Some teaching is de fide (of . . . . Continue Reading »
I am listening to the Laura Ingraham radio show and PETA alpha wolf Ingrid Newkirk is the guest. Ingraham asked her if having a leather belt or leather shoes meant that one was engaging in cruelty. Newkirk said, and this is close to a quote, “No! That is not what we claim.” Like . . . . Continue Reading »
Unlike Joseph , I think social conservatism and economic leftism (if “leftism” means willingness to significantly restrict trade) are very easy to reconcile on the level of philosophy and, outside the US (a nation whose rather counterintuitive but seemingly immutable political . . . . Continue Reading »
The media everywhere can’t—or won’t—report assisted suicide-related stories accurately. Example: Most stories still report that Jack Kevorkian assisted the suicides of the terminally ill when 70 percent or so of his victims were not terminally ill and five had no . . . . Continue Reading »
I grow very weary of the constant whining by “the scientists,” that if they don’t get everything they want, it is doom time: ”If there are ethical constraints on stem cell research, there will be a brain drain!” “If we don’t get funding increases . . . . Continue Reading »
At least, it should be : About 800 pages of the earliest surviving Christian Bible have been recovered and put on the internet. Visitors to the website www.codexsinaiticus.org can now see images of more than half the 1,600-year-old Codex Sinaiticus manuscript. Fragments of the 4th Century . . . . Continue Reading »
If you had asked me as a young Baptist boy to explain the difference between Protestants and Catholics, I would have said that Catholics were the Christians who “have to do what the Pope tells them to do.” Now I’m an old Baptist and realize how naive I was. (I’m more likely . . . . Continue Reading »
And it is precisely to this question of the prophetic power of Populorum Progressio that Benedict turns in Chapter 2, paragraphs 21 through 33: “After so many years, as we observe with concern the developments and perspectives of the succession of crises that afflict the world today, we ask to . . . . Continue Reading »
The death of Robert McNamara on July 6 has generated some reflections, here and there: a little remembering of the man’s strange place in history. One of the most interesting accounts of his role as secretary of defense appeared in the December 2000 issue of First Things : Adam . . . . Continue Reading »
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