Why so few seminarians? While Vatican II is a popular target, we perhaps should hesitate before assigning blame, a practice that rarely leads to truth. Historically, vocations have ebbed and flowed within a given century, and to look at the period of increase from 1945-1960 is misleading, without a . . . . Continue Reading »
So, a Dutch priest has refused to conduct the funeral of a person who died by euthanasia. His choice, right? No. An uproar has ensued. From the story:A priest in the parish of Liempde in North Brabant refused to conduct the funeral of a man who had chosen euthanasia, news agency . . . . Continue Reading »
Bioethicist Joel Marks comments on his loss of religious belief and how it led to his eschewing the very concept of “right” and “wrong. It is an interesting read for me because it seems his “anti epiphany” flowed directly both from his rejection of God, but more . . . . Continue Reading »
Some years ago, Ross Douthat wrote a wonderful and timely piece for FT, responding to the feverish concerns on the part of some folks on the secular Left that George W. Bush was either a theocrat or a theocratic fellow traveler. Well, Michelle Goldberg , one of those who feared for our country back . . . . Continue Reading »
Overton Cultural Shift of the Day* : An English economist proposes that all young women, and in particular those who are without other benefits—financial, intellectual, situational—should be able to engage in legal prostitution: Hakim, a senior lecturer at the London School of Economics, . . . . Continue Reading »
Last week, Secondhand Smokette and I had a very nice vacation in Eastern Wyoming and Western South Dakota. Quite wonderful. Not as spectacular as our usual haunt in the Tetons, but far less crowded. Here are a few photos I took.Total kitsch in Deadwood, SD, where Wild Bill Hickok . . . . Continue Reading »
My academic training is in poetry but I love stout fiction, the kind Faulkner and Joyce wrote. The kind that clothes life-like characters with carefully interwoven abstraction and emotional chaos. Nothing emulates reality quite like these kinds of stories. About a year ago I read . . . . Continue Reading »
In her latest On the Square Column, Elizabeth Scalia reflects on feeling the presence of God : Just about two years ago, I had occasion to make a monastic retreat that included the gift and privilege of perpetual adoration. The community of Dominican nuns kept constant vigil, one-by-one with our . . . . Continue Reading »
Richard A. Epstein says both the Bishop of Rome and the Oracle of Omaha are dead wrong on economic policy : Denouncing those who put ‘profits before people’ may stir the masses, but it is a wickedly deformed foundation for social policy. Profits, like losses, do not exist in the abstract. . . . . Continue Reading »
We generally provide the best health care in the world in the USA. Our primary failing is opening access to insurance for the working middle class whose employers don’t provide it, and to people with preexisting conditions that don’t qualify for Medicaid or Medicare (which, like . . . . Continue Reading »
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