John Keown spoke recently about the ethics of nuclear weapons. In his lecture, “The Pope and the Bomb: The Ethics of Nuclear Deterrence,” Keown argued that the aiming of nuclear weapons at cities and intending to use them in order to deter enemy attacks is immoral. Keown’s moral reasoning . . . . Continue Reading »
Jealousy is often confused with envy. Envy is coveting something someone else possesses. It is one of the deadliest corrosives on the human soul, as it suggests that we should not be content with what we have. Jealousy, in contrast, bespeaks a desire to hold on to what one has. Though often . . . . Continue Reading »
To see what the Church understands marriage to be, we must look not to headlines, but to divine revelation in Holy Scripture and the Apostolic Tradition. Continue Reading »
Patricia Snow (“Hawthorne’s Daughter,” January) may perhaps be unaware of St. Jerome’s error in countering Jovinian’s heresy, namely, his denigration of marriage in order to uphold the superiority of the virgin state. Snow makes Jerome’s mistake in her attempt to rationalize Rose . . . . Continue Reading »
In 1891, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, daughter of the novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, was received into the Catholic Church. She was forty years old. Within a few years of her conversion she conceived a heroic ministry to destitute cancer patients at a time when cancer was believed to be contagious. She . . . . Continue Reading »
Americans increasingly live alone. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the single-person household is now the second-most-common living arrangement in the country, encompassing more than a quarter of Americans. Living alone is among the risk factors for loneliness and premature mortality. . . . . Continue Reading »
Children are gifts. In them, we respond to Moses’s urgent imperative: Choose life! (Deut. 30:19) Men and women have always brought children into the world. To be a parent is the most natural of things. It is fundamental to what it means to be human. Yet the birth of a child is also an . . . . Continue Reading »