Theory must rule practice, and yet it cannot. Thinking is called to assume and to represent Being, but thinking is always preceded and exceeded by Being. This very excess of Being with respect to thinking – transcendence —- reason necessarily configures along two axes of significance or . . . . Continue Reading »
A friend writes to note the line in paragraph 29 of Caritas in Veritate : “Violence puts the brakes on authentic development and impedes the evolution of peoples towards greater socio-economic and spiritual well-being.” Does this mark, he asks, an advance in the neo-Latin of the Vatican? . . . . Continue Reading »
The surprise of the encyclical is the praise of Paul VI, whose “ Populorum Progressio deserves to be considered ‘the Rerum Novarum of the present age,’ shedding light upon humanity’s journey towards unity.” Love in truth, says Benedict, “is a great challenge for the . . . . Continue Reading »
Three encyclicals already with Caritas in their title. It looks like the Pope is bidding fair to become “the Pope of Caritapolis,” who sees the whole world—in all its cultural, political, and cultural dimensions—as to be best grasped within the long history of “The City . . . . Continue Reading »
In paragraphs 5 and 6 comes the turn: “Development, social well-being, the search for a satisfactory solution to the grave socio-economic problems besetting humanity, all need this truth. What they need even more is that this truth should be loved and demonstrated.” We need to see the . . . . Continue Reading »
George Weigel writes : “Those with eyes to see and ears to hear will concentrate their attention, in reading Caritas in Veritate, on those parts of the encyclical that are clearly Benedictine, including the Pope’s trademark defense of the necessary conjunction of faith and reason and his . . . . Continue Reading »
You gotta love the political lobbying arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Their 2009 legislative round-up provides an insight into the priorities of Catholic officialdom. One item is particularly interesting. The report sums up Barney Frank’s bill, H.R. 3685, The . . . . Continue Reading »
The role of reason remains central through the opening of the encyclical: Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective . . . . Continue Reading »
There is much advocacy around the issue of cost containment as we enter the great debate over health care “reform.” Here is the gig that seems to be developing: We have to cut costs. People having their lives extended when they can’t be “healed” cost too much. . . . . Continue Reading »
Now, I really, really, really hadn’t intended to post anything on Palin. I have nothing to add that hasn’t already been said. And most of what has been said would have been better unsaid: the delight in speculation without the slightest basis in evidence is among the worst tendencies of . . . . Continue Reading »
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