The debates about marriage make clear part of our problem as a society: Weve lost track of the meaning of marriage. Theres lots to be done to clear up this confusion. One way is to think clearly about what marriage means, both in its natural form and in accord with its supernatural symbolism… . Continue Reading»
In his Spirit of Mediaeval Philosophy, Etienne Gilson considers how medieval Catholic philosophers would have regarded an exercise of reason that would be purely philosophical and systematically withdrawn from the influence of faith. According to Gilson, they would have said that it was technically possible, but pointless. Why? … Continue Reading»
At the start of his installation Mass this week, Pope Francis prayed at the tomb of Peter, near the place in the Vatican where the first bishop of Rome was martyred. The small group Francis asked to join him in the crypt under the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica included Iraq’s Patriarch Louis Sako and other heads of the Eastern Catholic Churches… . Continue Reading»
Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) made national headlines last week when he flipped from opposing to supporting same-sex marriage. I found the whole thing disheartening”and not because of Portmans new position; people of good will and heart come down on both sides of that controversy. No, it was the how and why of Portmans switch that bummed me out… . Continue Reading»
Writing in the Wall Street Journal last week, Robert H. Latiff, a retired Major General in the United States Army now teaching at Notre Dame University, and Patrick J. McCloskey, who teaches at Loyola University in Chicago, take up the troubling question of military drones that, in the near future, will be able to deploy lethal force without direct human control… . Continue Reading»
Im tempted to compare homeschooling to a YouTube video gone viral. Defying regulation, thwarting would-be competitors, and multiplying without official sanction, homeschooling just keeps popping up in more homes. Over the past three decades, the number of homeschooled children has grown by at least 7 percent a year… . Continue Reading»
There is much in the Republican National Committees autopsy that has merit. It is about time that the Republicans prioritized winning a larger share of non-white voters. One good thing about the 2012 election is that it killed off the illusion that Republicans can keep winning by just reassembling the 1980s Reagan demographic coalition. Unfortunately, the RNC report introduces another illusion to Republican politics… . Continue Reading»
ROME”When Pope Francis stepped out onto the central loggia of St. Peters on the night of March 13, I thought of the man I had met in his Buenos Aires office ten months before: Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J., who was looking forward to laying down the burden of leadership and devoting himself to prayer, reflection and study. … Continue Reading»
America is under attack in the pages of First Things. In a recent article Notre Dame professor Patrick Deneen tells us that America is founded on a philosophy of unsustainable liberalism. Implicit in the ideas of the American founding, he argues, are certain mistaken philosophical premises about individual choice and mans separation from nature. Moreover, these mistakes are not merely intellectual because, as their logical consequences play out over time, the inexorable results are severe and pervasive social pathologies … Continue Reading»
Wendell Berrys recent self-described general declaration in support of homosexual marriage shocked many, fans and critics alike. Berry, who once wrote that marriage cannot be altered to suit convenience or circumstance and has long argued that marriage is an inherited form premised on the embodiment of men and women, now treats sexual difference in marriage as optional. … Continue Reading»