thoughts in and out of season
The following is the text of a lecture I presented at the Roman Forum conference in Gardone, Italy, on July 6, 2026:
Today I am going to talk about technocracy, that is, about the attempt to make a governing principle out of increasing power through modern scientific reasoning without reference to its intended use. … More ...
His Holiness sees Babel as a threat today. But does his recent encyclical tend, as a practical matter, to support it? I discuss at Catholic World Report.
Does the recent encyclical help us make sense of Catholic social teaching? I discuss at Catholic World Report.
If Catholicism rejects necessity as a defense, no matter what the circumstances, and Christ’s Kingdom is not of this world, how do we make sense of Catholic participation in politics and Catholic Social Teaching? I discuss at Catholic World Report.
How do things stand with “social justice” and “culture war” Catholicism these days? I touch on some of the issues at Catholic World Report.
That is, within the Catholic Church. What place should it hold in their list of concerns? I discuss the question at Catholic World Report.
Another piece at Catholic World Report, this one on basic considerations regarding immigration and Catholicism. A lot of them get lost in the partisan to-and-fro.
I attempt to do so at Catholic World Report.
I comment on the Second Vatican Council from a lawyer’s perspective, at Catholic World Report.
I discuss some of the difficulties of faith in a world whose highest ideals oppose it, and the attempt to flee the difficulties by romanticizing faraway people and their struggles.