thoughts in and out of season
James Kalb The function of Catholic dogma is mostly the description of a world in which Christian morality is the natural way of acting. So conversion has its theoretical side. The world should look different. A couple of random thoughts on what that might mean:
To touch on current events, it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out: Vatican drafts new guidelines for accepting priestly candidates that (apparently) will bar homosexuals. A common response in American church circles to settled doctrine on homosexuality has been in effect to say “yes, official doctrine is that it’s sinful, but it’s not … More ...
Usually I just glance at the New York Times, so I miss most of the goodies, and I’m glad when someone points them out. So I was happy when Diana West noted in a recent column that the Times is apparently incapable of identifying the Muslim suicide terrorists who seized the theater in Moscow … More ...
Theodore Dalrymple has an article in City Journal, The Barbarians at the Gates of Paris, that details conditions in the housing projects in which the French have been fostering the development of a peculiarly destructive immigrant underclass. The piece has some fascinating aspects, many of them relevant to recent VFR discussions:
John Leo has written what can serve as a follow-up to recent VFR discussions on “racial profiling” and the Beltway Sniper case: P.C. timidity in sniper case may have cost lives. A key additional bit of information Leo provides is that “Eric Hickey, a criminal psychology professor at California State University-Fresno, says there are … More ...
I went around the corner to the closest Catholic church to do the day-of-obligation thing. It was the first English mass I had been to for a while, and I found it hard to adjust completely.
I do prefer the old Latin mass. Still, everything should be the best of what it is. For example, … More ...
What ever happened to the razzmatazz about artistic independence, integrity, what have you? It seems that it only works one way: Author questions ‘racism’ in U.K. theatre. Suppose the House of Lords had talked about the need to ensure X, Y and Z in a discussion of the theater’s “institutional licentiousness”?
Not that it … More ...
All Saints’ Day, a day of obligation I’m told, so in an hour I’ll go off and discharge my duties. I’m starting to feel like a papist already.
This sort of discipline is a good thing, I think. It marks off particular days for common recollection and worship, and if you don’t happen to feel … More ...
There’s been too much gloom about grand public affairs in my comments. Confucius never heard of the mote and the beam, but he knew that we should start on things by turning ourselves around. Besides, we’re told that God is present if we pray, so not everything is bad.
With that in mind, but in … More ...
To be Catholic anno Domini 2002 is to place oneself radically at odds with with the public order as understood by its most authoritative interpreters. After all, Roe v. Wade is no fluke. It’s been law for almost 30 years, and mainstream authorities are united in viewing it as fundamental to right public order. Attempts … More ...