Thoughts on listening, accompaniment, and synodality
I make some rather skeptical comments on the whole listening, accompaniment, and synodality thing at Catholic World Report.
Religion
Remembering Paul Elmer More
I discuss “New Humanist” literary critic and Christian apologist Paul Elmer More in the December issue of Chronicles Magazine.
The Synod speaks
I comment on the Summary Report of the first session of the Synod on Synodality at the Chronicles Magazine website. It’s not good.
Pastors who dislike their sheep
The Pope’s recent resuscitation of a bizarre anti-American article by his associates Fr. Antonio Spadaro and Marcelo Figueroa prompted me to dig out an analysis I wrote at the time that the publication that commissioned it never published:
… More ...Two close associates of Pope Francis, Antonio Spadaro and Marcelo Figueroa, recently published an article on conservative
Pontiffs and pontificators
Maureen Mullarkey’s characteristically vivid comments on Pope Francis and the environment have drawn much attention from participants in the Internet Francis Wars. One big reason is that her comments sometimes go beyond the vivid to the caustic (“press toads,” “ideologue,” “meddlesome egoist,” “megalomania”). Another is that they were made on her blog at First Things… More ...
Merton’s “Unspeakable”
A correspondent sent me the following passages from Raids on the Unspeakable by Thomas Merton:
… More ...The Unspeakable. What is this? Surely, an eschatological image. It is the void that we encounter, you and I, underlying the announced programs, the good intentions, the unexampled and universal aspirations for the best of all possible worlds. It is
How religious is natural law?
In the Crisis piece mentioned in the previous entry, I suggested the relationship between the two was ambiguous. A blogger who wants to maintain a strong distinction between natural law and religion called me on it, so I had to develop my thoughts a little.
My answer was that the distinction is important … More ...
Existence as violence
A correspondent referred me to a post by a “progressive Christian” blogger as a sign of a new frontier in inclusiveness. The post picked up on another blogger’s claim that “the self is inherently violent.” The example used was blogging, which involves self-assertion that comes at the expense of other bloggers. So it seems that … More ...
Review of Garry Wills’ Why Priests?
The following review of Garry’s Will’s Why Priests? appeared in the June 2013 Chronicles:
… More ...Garry Wills identifies himself as a Christian. He says he accepts the creeds, along with prayer, divine providence, the Gospels, the Eucharist, and the Mystical Body of Christ as the body of all believers. He thinks it a bad thing
Windsor, inclusiveness, and the churches
Here, in an unpublished essay, I discuss the Windsor case, what it shows about our current situation, and how the Churches should respond.
Windsor, Inclusiveness, and the Churches
by James Kalb
In United States v. Windsor, the case that invalidated the Federal definition of marriage as the marriage of man and woman, the Supreme … More ...