Throughout the post-Vatican II years, the U.S. bishops’ conference has typically defended the welfare state and not infrequently urged its expansion. Everyone familiar with the situation knows that this has had far more to do with the political predilections of certain conference staff members than with the settled judgment of the American episcopate”or with a careful application of the principles of Catholic social doctrine. But things are changing … Continue Reading»
The venerable Durham Cathedral in England houses a manuscript containing a collection of eleventh-century Old English proverbs known as the Durham Proverbs. One of these proverbs states, “Man does as he is when he can do what he wants.” The proverb’s author clearly understood that, with our fallen nature, humanity has a propensity to turn liberty into license. But often, those who get to do as they wish end up disliking the consequences… . Continue Reading»
Has Ted Kennedy been canonized? “I knew that when he left us he would go to heaven and help pass the bill,” Nancy Pelosi proclaimed recently, going on to assure us, “And now he can rest in peace. His dream for America’s families has become a reality.” There is a problem here, which has more to do with theology than politics, and it provides a good opportunity to think about last things: four of them, to be precise… . Continue Reading»
New York isn’t quite as extreme as Paris, but the city gets noticeably emptier at the end of July and into August. It’s almost quiet and peaceful. OK, not almost, but certainly less crowded and frenetic. And therefore friendlier to the idea of settling down to read a book, which is no doubt why last night a friend asked me for some recommendations… . Continue Reading»
Christian worship is inherently political. As Bernd Wannenwetsch points out, this isn’t because worship is a tool for ginning up enthusiasm for a candidate or for stirring the fires of patriotism. On the contrary, “It is just because Christian worship is not a means to an end that it is political.” Worship is political because it “opens out into” the kingdom of God, and because in her worship the Church “anticipates the city of God” with its eternal liturgical assembly… . Continue Reading»
I am rethinking Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical condemning artificial birth control. Well, actually not rethinking since I cannot remember ever thinking about it much at all, ever, except dismissively. So best to say, I am considering it seriously for the first time. I actually sat down to read it. This, I admit, is a bit unusual for a Lutheran pastor, or for any Protestant, pastor or not… . Continue Reading»
The Supreme Court’s minor mistakes have few systemic consequences. But when the Supremes make a big mistake, the error tends to seep throughout the entire political process, poisoning everything in its path. That was what happened with the Court’s 1857 Dred Scott decision, which intensified the passions and accelerated the dynamics that led to the Civil War”and to 600,000 Americans killing each other… . Continue Reading»
My title for this post is borrowed from a short essay first published in 1952 by the Thomist philosopher, Josef Pieper. “Man’s ability to see is in decline,” argues Pieper in that essay, meaning not, of course, the physiological sensitivity of the human eye, but “the spiritual capacity to perceive the visible reality as it truly is.” … Continue Reading»
Except under a narrowly defined religious exception, the requirement under the Affordable Health Care Act that employers provide insurance that pays for contraception and other reproductive services, even when employers are religious institutions with long-standing convictions opposed to the use of contraception, has justifiably been sharply criticized… . Continue Reading»
Beauty in art has been the source of countless philosophies, treatises, and debates for thousands of years. It is a discussion I typically try to avoid, as the definition of Beauty (with a capital ‘B’) is based almost entirely on individual taste and each rule seems to have twenty exceptions leading down a never-ending rabbit hole from which there is no return… . Continue Reading»
