Tech Moguls, Financial Elites and the Danger of Oligarchy. “What Marxism got right is this: Social classes exist; some of the time, they have some common interests that conflict with the interests of other classes; and class inequality can, if allowed to grow too extreme, become a major social problem. Conservatives once widely recognized at least the… Read More What Marxism Got Right
“All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” Christians and non-Christians alike. “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”— 1 Jn.1:10 All we, like sheep, have gone astray,each of us has turned to our own way; — Isaiah 53:6 “For… Read More Truth and “Catholic Guilt”
“Catholic social doctrine is neither liberal nor conservative.” As Pope John Paul II put it, the Church’s social teaching “belongs to the field. . .of theology and particularly of moral theology”— Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, no. 41. “Most of us are raised and formed in a milieu in which we receive what we call either liberal… Read More Thomas Storck on An Economics of Justice and Charity
Note: To be sure, we are called to be the most earnest peacemakers and never to stop working hard towards peace. Yet, alas, in our own time, World War II showed again why it is not wrong to thrust out violent invaders when earnest efforts towards peace have failed. However we are taught that we… Read More St. Joan Confronts Utopia
Good Fences, Shared Bounty. Can it ever be wise to separate compassion, reasonable limits and common sense? If you have followed the immigration debates in the West in recent decades you will have long ago gotten a glimpse of the fears, greed, fanaticism and wars which, often enough, make many peoples in our post 9/11… Read More Immigration, Birds of a Feather and Trojan Horses
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett is playing the long game. In this week’s “Interesting Times,” She walks us through the current court’s most controversial rulings, why she believes that her originalist interpretations are resistant to ideological pressures and why she’s not comfortable thinking of herself as a cultural icon. 02:04 – Balancing the personal… Read More Ross Douthat Interview with SCOTUS Justice Amy Coney Barrett
To be a Roman Catholic one must believe in miracles. This in itself has been a stumbling block to many. And yet the believer knows that one need only find the earth beneath one’s feet and all other genuine miracles become mere footnotes. The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, originally a student of the intractable rationalist, Bertrand… Read More Wittgenstein and Existence.
Neither Socialism nor lassez faire CapitalismOctober 1, 2001 | By Mark and Louise Zwick The following was a talk given at the American Chesterton Society annual conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, in June 2001. Dorothy Day and G. K. Chesterton were contemporaries. Both came into Catholicism in the 1920’s, Chesterton in 1922 at age 48… Read More G.K. Chesterton and Dorothy Day on Economics
Many hope Donald Trump has brought new hope and that he can avoid both anarchy and tyranny. When John Adams wrote, “A republic is a government of laws, not arbitrary rule” he very likely could not even conceive of the constantly evolving laws we know too well today, laws that evolve substantially, essentially, from one… Read More In the West today, there has been no stable law.
Pope Leo XIII Apostolici Muneris, December 28, 1878. As the nature of Our Apostolic office required of Us, We have not omitted, from the very outset of Our Pontificate, addressing you, Venerable Brothers, in Encyclical Letters, in order to advert to the deadly plague which is tainting society to its very core and bringing it… Read More Socialism, Communism, Nihilism: Encyclical Letter. Leo XIII. 1878.
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s lengthy and emotional response to Sir 2016 John Chilcot’s inquiry into the Iraq War, a war opposed by Pope John Paul II and millions of people across the world: “The intelligence assessments made at the time of going to war turned out to be wrong, the aftermath turned out to… Read More Iraq. The Geat Internationalist Tragedy in Context And Retrospect.
Opinion. Amed Khan describes himself as a human rights advocate, political activist, financier and philanthropist. He goes to the front lines of humanitarian crises on his own and uses his personal wealth and networks to deliver whatever the communities say they need. Amed has two decades of experience working in conflict zones and humanitarian relief.… Read More Amed Khan and the Children of Gaza
Israel, Gaza and Lebanon, proportionality and preemptive strikes. Fr. Charles McCarthy, a Melkite Catholic priest in Massachusetts, argues that it might be a “mortal sin” to vote for either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris in this 2024 Presidential election, since each, he says, are in various ways complicit in “grave evil” by supporting and enabling… Read More A Melkite Catholic Priest Bound to Infuriate Many.
NDY Joins in Statement Against Assisted Suicide for Eating Disorders August 1, 2024 The Disability Rights Organization Not Dead Yet in has joined in solidarity with over 100 other organizations and experts to release a joint statement calling on governments to halt the practice of assisted suicide for individuals with eating disorders. This statement is… Read More Disabilities Rights Organizations Fight Assisted Suicide for Eating Disorders
SH Note: Never-ending media and book seller hatred for JFK is just what the warmongering Deep State wants. Media is influential after all. The objective has always been to murder even the memory of this President who so opposed that same Deep State and its dangerous amoral ways. See also, What Changed on November 22, 1963… Read More The Posthumous Assassination of JFK
The Real Mao and China. Steven W. Mosher knows Maoism well. “As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said, “Within the philosophical system of Marx and Lenin, and at the heart of their psychology, hatred of God is the principal driving force, more fundamental than all their political and economic pretensions.” This is certainly true of the leaders of… Read More An Interview on Mao’s Evil. Steven W. Mosher.
Ibram Kendi, walking contradiction, stumbles. ByJeremiah Poff.June 6, 2024 8:28 am.Washington Examiner. Perhaps the most foundational rule of logic is the law of noncontradiction. It is a fairly simple concept most famously articulated by Socrates and says that something cannot be both itself and its opposite at the same time. For example, someone cannot be both hungry… Read More The Crumbling of Ibram Kendi
In one of Saint Therese of Lisieux’s favorite books, End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life, the author, Fr. Charles Arminjon (1824-1885) writes among many important things on the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. And he draws a most important moral Gospel lesson: “There are circumstances when even… Read More Even the Wicked Are Rewarded In This Life.
“Does it make any sense today to write an encyclical to condemn communism? Or to condemn national socialism? No, they are dead, they are not the problem. Capitalism is the problem.” We must be clear. Catholic social teaching is neither capitalism nor socialism. Rocco “Buttiglione It is also important to stress that the Church does… Read More Capitalism is a Problem
As a Christian I’ll eagerly go as far “Left” as seeking to meet the needs of a person’s physical hunger, injury or homelessness; but never so far “Left” as approving absolute “equality” (so-called “equity” today!) in wages; or approving promiscuous immigration, or the supposedly “equitable” availability of abortion, automobiles, personal video games, pornography, sex changes,… Read More Going Left
“In the first book, O The-oph′ilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.”— Acts 1, 1-2 “The fortieth day after Easter Sunday, commemorating the Ascension of Christ… Read More The Glorious Feast of the Ascension
Opinion.By Ireland’s John Waters.March 6. Substack. Excerpt. Autogolpe’(Spanish): ‘A self-coup, also called autocoup, a form of coup d’état in which a nation’s leadership, having come to power legitimately, tries to stay in power through illegal means.’ Something odd has been happening inIreland in the past week or so. This in itself is not unusual: Very strange… Read More Ireland’s Undeclared Autocoup?
From the Imaginative Conservative In acknowledgement of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I wish to raise the question, based on Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” as to when, if ever, as well as to what extent, it is appropriate to defy the rule of law. On The Imaginative Conservative Winston Elliott raised the question “When is a… Read More Martin Luther King and the Rule of Law
From The Imaginative Conservative “Under the Law, says Aquinas, whenever foreigners wished to be admitted into complete fellowship with the Israelites, “a certain order was observed: …”For they were not at once admitted to citizenship: just as it was law with some nations that no one was deemed a citizen except after two or three… Read More Aquinas on Citizenship & Immigration
“[Karl Marx] showed precisely how to overthrow the existing order, but he did not say how matters should proceed thereafter. He simply presumed that with the expropriation of the ruling class, with the fall of political power and the socialization of means of production, the new Jerusalem would be realized. Then, indeed, all contradictions would… Read More Benedict XVI on Marx’s “Fundamental Error”
What, exactly, is a just and moral taxation going to look like? — The Distributism Review See also, What is Distributism? By Thomas Storck Neither Capitalism or Socialism Distributism and TaxationBy Andrew McInnes “To defraud any one of wages that are his due is a great crime which cries to the avenging anger of Heaven.” – Pope… Read More Distributism and Taxation.
Opinion. Is International Law True Law?27th Sept. 2021. Lawteacher.net. Western nations drag other nations before International courts but often refuse to be judged there themselves. Is this just? Just what is International Law? And a discussion of Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the French Revolution . International Law. “Despite the fact that international law is the… Read More Is International Law True Law?
Note: SH. Today it is States alone which consider the punishment of [political and ever-evolving moral] “sins” to be their exclusive prerogative. And these States employ the shocking punishments most liberally day after day. Countless millions have died. But there exists One who is far above and infinitely mightier than creaturely states (Exo. 3:14-17) Who… Read More God is a “Man of War”. The Problem of Violence in Scripture
The following conversation took place in 2018 and it appears we remain essentially stuck where we were then. Many, of course, argue that it’s much worse today since the issues discussed here seem to have been eclipsed and complicated by bizarre psycho-sexual agendas from coast to coast. Others say not really since both the legacy… Read More Stuck ‘Twixt Him and Him
Genuine Due Process, its principles theoretically still exist. Will they endure to rein in dangerous whim? Reenactment took place at Westminster Hall, Friday July 31, 2015, 6 PM. On the 31st July 2015, Westminster Hall, the Magna Carta Barons were charged with Treason for their involvement in the sealing of Magna Carta in 1215. A… Read More History: The Trial of the Magna Carta Barons.
Neither Socialism nor Laissez Faire Capitalism Pope Pius XI in 1931 warned of International Finance, the grave dangers of ‘economic domination’ accumulated in the hands of the few He warned in Quadragesimo Anno of the dangers of international finance controlling credit, crushing competition and families. And this message flows directly and seamlessly from the teachings of Christ… Read More Despotic Economic Dictatorship — Pope Pius XI
Quod Apostolici Muneris.On Socialism. Pope Leo XIII – 1878. To the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and Bishops of the Catholic World in Grace and Communion with the Apostolic See. At the very beginning of Our pontificate, as the nature of Our apostolic office demanded, we hastened to point out in an encyclical letter addressed to you,… Read More Encyclical on Socialism. Pope Leo XIII.
The Christian and Woke understandings of “Equality” could scarcely be more different. But tell that to the naive and sentimental…or to the cynical. Friedrich Nietzsche, we know too well, was hardly a Christian, but the “secret ambitions” in words of “justice” preached by the Woke could hardly be hid from one so brilliant and shrewd… Read More Nietzsche’s Parable of the Tarantula
Just and Unjust Wars The Catholic Church distinguishes between two types of justice concerning war: jus ad bellum and jus in bello. Most of the time, when people discuss just-war theory, they mean jus ad bellum (justice before the war). Jus ad bellum refers to those four conditions described by Saint Augustine through which we determine whether a war is just before… Read More Justice and War
The Gospel of John. Chapter 1. [The divinity and incarnation of Christ. John bears witness of him. He begins to call his disciples.] [1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] The same was in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made… Read More The Revolutionary Mosaic Law
…an empathetic informed dialogue. See also James Lindsay’s New Discourses site.
Catholic Critique 