While it is somewhat well known that Cardinal Ratzinger, before he became Pope Benedict XVI, did not see himself as being on the track to become pope, it may be lesser known that he personally requested to retire as Vatican librarian : When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger turned 70 in 1997, he asked Pope . . . . Continue Reading »
There is no denying the evidence that euthanasia consciousness leads to a broader culture of death that eventually accepts all comers. Latest examples from the Netherlands, which probably has the most liberal legalized euthanasia law in the world: Dutch doctors creating a how-to-commit-suicide . . . . Continue Reading »
There’s always been a sense of dueling antithesis between the Catholic media’s two NCRs—the National Catholic Reporter and the National Catholic Register . But readers’ gripes normally center on questions of orthodoxy rather than good faith. Trust in good faith, however, can . . . . Continue Reading »
First Things ’ senior editor David Goldman will be on CNBC’s Kudlow Report tonight around 7:35 p.m. EST . . . . Continue Reading »
Women should never “settle” with a man in order to have a child. Granted, women are created by God to have longings for procreating and nurturing, and I believe this is evidenced in the fact that women will go to all kinds of technological extremes to have their own biological children. . . . . Continue Reading »
Somehow when there’s discussion of the conflict between science and religion, the blame seems to get laid at the feet of religion. Science is (supposedly) pure and spotless; religion is unthinking, unwilling to face facts and evidence, and of course highly self-interested. Science is based on . . . . Continue Reading »
On the 65th anniversary of the second and last time a nuclear weapon was used in warfare, we would do well to remind ourselves of the criteria traditionally used in evaluating whether or not a given conflict conforms to the principles of just warfare. These principles are generally divided into ad . . . . Continue Reading »
Joseph Bottum’s On the Square column (which, by the way, now appears every Monday) considers the problem of freeloaders and the church : Lately, however, I’ve become interested in the question of much freeloading on the churches has cultural consequences. It’s a simple proposition . . . . Continue Reading »
At the Catholic literary journal Dappled Things, Eleanor Bourg Donlon wonders why they don’t make vampires like they used to : The real problem with so many of these [new vampyre] films is actually they are both too serious and yet not serious enough. In the midst of taking themselves so . . . . Continue Reading »
The great physicist Stephen Hawking, unlike some of the more radical environmental types who scourge us as the AIDS virus afflicting the planet, believes that it is crucial and worth spending untold resources to save human beings from extinction—simply because we are human. From the . . . . Continue Reading »
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