thoughts in and out of season
“Free to be you and me,” which at bottom refers to the notion that the only moral connections among human beings are contract and the abstract solidarity of the tolerant and inclusive welfare state, has some unfortunate implications. Here’s one, which comes out of life as actually lived in our nation’s capital: Witnesses’ apathy caught … More ...
Par. 1930 of the Catechism says rights “are the basis of the moral legitimacy of every authority.” It doesn’t say rights are “necessary for” legitimacy, it says they are “the basis of” legitimacy. The formulation echoes the statement in the Declaration of Independence that governments are instituted to secure rights. It seems to suggest that … More ...
Is it true that “the human person … is and ought to be the principle, the subject and the end of all social institutions?” [Gaudium et spes, cited in par. 1881 of the Catechism.] In a sense it is, but the formulation can distract attention from the extent to which man becomes what … More ...
In a very idle moment I picked up the Thursday arts section of The New York Times to see what was up these days—I hadn’t looked at it for quite a while—and found 5 stories:
Paul Gottfried has a couple of complaints about the piece on traditionalism I posted here recently. He says I’m not going to be able to raise the armies of social-moral rearmament I’ll need to reconstitute a traditionalist order, and also finds fault with a couple of negative comments I made (in the piece and elsewhere) … More ...
Things are galloping along in Tony Blair’s Cool Britannia: More diverse, caring and single – the new face of Britain. According to recent census data, the minority ethnic population rose 50% in the past 10 years or so, while in the last 20 years the proportion of married-couple households fell from 64% to 45%. … More ...
How many things are wrong with this picture? More U.S. military women edging closer to combat positions in preparations for Iraq war . The young woman grabs her M-16 and leaves her husband and 2-year-old son to go off to war. It’s played rather as a human interest story, because it’s not the sort of … More ...
I suppose the basic objection I have to the Church as an institution made up of human beings is that it reflects human small-mindedness. People just aren’t up to the truths they profess. They’d rather have something that’s more their size.
I suppose my basic reason for becoming Catholic is basic Christian doctrine: the Creation and the Incarnation. If you accept them then the Catholic Church makes more sense than the protestant churches, which tend to dematerialize things. If the things of this world mean something, so much so that God could become a particular man, … More ...
One Vatican official warns of a plan to supplant Christianity with a “global ethic”, while a pontifical council calls for “a sense of community among people of different religious beliefs who work together as a human family to achieve a world peace.” Something for everyone—isn’t it wonderful?