thoughts in and out of season
James Kalb A reader sent me a link to this speech by John Paul II explaining his attitude toward Vatican II. The Pope certainly takes a high view of the Council. Perhaps because I’m a lawyer, and much farther from sanctity than His Holiness, the speech leaves me with concerns:
What sense did it make to call Vatican II? The Pope called together thousands of men most of whom didn’t know each other and weren’t used to working together on anywhere near such a grand scale. In a gathering like that intelligent joint deliberation doesn’t seem likely unless the point is to deal with specific … More ...
So Emory canned their most famous award-winning historian: Michael Bellesiles Resigns from Emory Faculty. It’s nice that when things get bad enough something happens sometimes. It’s not likely though that much will happen often, given the apparent state of the academic history profession.
This is the sort of thing that makes me nervous about Catholicism: the Touchstone magazine blog includes a comment today on the Reflections on Covenant and Mission put out by the bishops’ committee not long ago. The comment points out that in a recent piece in America members of the committee that wrote the report … More ...
One thing that draws me to Catholicism is that it works and is built to last. I’ve mentioned the Tridentine mass as an example of something characteristically Catholic—whatever the state of affairs or your frame of mind, it works when you approach it. That’s a sign that it presents a sort of universal form of … More ...
One more in a series of allegations against aid workers and peacekeepers: UN discounts charges of widespread refugee abuse. As we’ve noted recently, those who have custody of the weak are subject to peculiar temptations, and people who intend to give into the temptations even seek out such positions. Modern social policy is … More ...
As usual, the wingnuts were right: the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most widely accepted international agreement ever (the U.S. and Somalia are the only two non-parties), does in fact guarantee children the right, regardless of local law or custom, to be sexually active and get an abortion without parental involvement. … More ...
Went to “RCIA” again today, my third session. I use the scare quotes because the parish doesn’t have a formal program, they just match you up with a priest and you come in once a week to talk. We’re using Ratzinger’s The Spirit of the Liturgy as the basis for discussion—a step up from the … More ...
It seems that “metanoia” really means a change of mind with respect to action. So the mental aspects of getting your life turned around would be metanoia on a grand scale. Sounds pretty close to “conversion,” but I like the Greek word anyway.
But what’s the need of conversion? Why want to … More ...
Why “metanoia”? Usually I don’t like the Christian use of Greek words, agape, kairos, koinonia or whatever. The effect is to suggest special authoritative knowledge that the rest of us just have to accept, and the substance is more often tendentious overemphasis on a one-sided interpretation of a key term. Still, I like … More ...