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?
“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 last point. They also understood that an economic elite… Read More What Marxism Got Right
Note: To be sure, Catholics 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 must never under any… Read More St. Joan Confronts Utopia
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.
I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve heard or read of people blaming their personal troubles, failures or psychological stresses on “Catholic guilt” in the last 40+ years. It is as though the Church is the great rain cloud ever shadowing the grand Mardi Gras that so many expect life to be. All that… Read More Truth and “Catholic Guilt”
Since Pope Leo XIII’s landmark encyclical Rerum Novarum of 1891, a significant part of Catholic social doctrine has focused on man’s economic life and the challenge of building a well-ordered society rooted in correct first principles and animated by the twin virtues of justice and charity. The Church has boldly engaged the ideologies of the modern age—not… Read More Thomas Storck on An Economics of Justice and Charity
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.
No Socialism Here. Only Simple Justice. 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
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.
Good Fences, Shared Bounty Can it ever be wise to separate compassion, reasonable limits and common sense? If you have seen the movie Syriana you will have gotten a glimpse of the fears, greed and fanaticism which, often enough, make many peoples both in the West and the Middle East more than a little uneasy of… Read More Immigration, Birds of a Feather and Trojan Horses
Catholic Critique 