In May 1994, Pope John Paul II issued his apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis. It is, as far as Vatican documents go, very short. It deals with one specific issue, namely the Church’s ban on the admission of women to the ministerial priesthood, a ban first articulated in the 1976 Vatican . . . . Continue Reading »
I’d like to start with a proposition. Here it is: To be a Christian is to believe in history. Think about the Bible. All the great world religions have sacred books: the Qur’an, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Analects of Confucius. What those sacred texts have in common is that they’re essentially . . . . Continue Reading »
Last month I posted here some thoughts about abortion rights and the right to die. At Mirror of Justice, Rick Garnett offered a few tough-minded comments and has persuaded me that the equation between abortion and suicide may be too involved for anyone to depict it, as I tried to do, in broad . . . . Continue Reading »
The English language is so very rich, and not least when it comes to language about language. I confess to having a weakness for the aphorism. I like to quote them and have even tried my hand at a few. A friend tells me I mean epigram, not aphorism. Maybe so, but the distinctions are subtle. It . . . . Continue Reading »
The pope has stepped up his rhetoric in favor of it. The retired cardinal archbishop of Washington recently expressed sweeping public support. The National Association of Evangelicals regularly issues policy statements outlining the urgency of action. But perhaps religious fervor for curbing global . . . . Continue Reading »
Advice given to tourists in Scotland is equally applicable to contemporary academia: “If you don’t like the weather, wait a few minutes." Accordingly, those frustrated by reductive accounts of medieval spirituality need not waste energy in protest; the only need wait a few minutes . . . . Continue Reading »
Last Friday, on the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross (September 14), Pope Benedict’s motu proprio (a genre of decree indicating the pope is acting "on his own initiative") titled Summorum Pontificum took legal effect. I cannot predict at this early date how much of a demand there . . . . Continue Reading »
During the summer of 1502, the young Republic of Florence appeared fated to die as quickly as it had been born. Only four years earlier, the citizens of the Italian city-state had installed a democratic government after decades of oligarchic rule, first by the Medici family and then by the . . . . Continue Reading »
On July 31, I posted here " A Respectful Word on Episcopal Competence ." Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, Florida, who is head of the bishops’ Committee on International Policy, then offered an equally respectful response on August 7. In his response, he underscored what he described . . . . Continue Reading »
Impossible, irrational, delusionary, absurd, untrustworthy, fictitious, imaginary: You can’t read much about religion today without encountering these adjectives, each intended to leave religious belief with a tired, messy, belittled sort of look.You see it most with those who claim to be . . . . Continue Reading »
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