“If a type of action always destroys, damages or impedes some basic element of human good, then no ranking of proportional outcomes can make that action consistent with integral human flourishing. “ By E. Christian Brugger, Zenith Dispatch. Problem Lies in Idea of Maximizing Good. WASHINGTON, D.C., 27 JULY 2011 (ZENIT) Here is a question… Read More The Ongoing Battle Over Proportionalism in Ethics
BXVI: “We have to reflect on what was insufficient in our education, in our teaching in recent decades. There was, in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, the idea of proportionalism in ethics: It held that nothing is bad in itself, but only in proportion to others. With proportionalism, it was possible to think for some… Read More Benedict XVI: The Church Links Pedophilia to the Error of Proportion-alism in Ethics.
Be it near or still a ways off, Jesus the Lord said regarding the last times, “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there… Read More Does God send wars as a punishment for sin?
6/2021. Plato paints the picture of a Charioteer (Greek: ἡνίοχος) driving a chariot pulled by two winged horses: “First the charioteer of the human soul drives the pair. “The Charioteer represents intellect, reason, or the part of the soul that must guide the soul to truth; one horse represents the rational or moral impulse, the… Read More Avoiding the Crash. Plato’s Chariot & the Passions
Note: the objective in presenting this data is not to discourage but so that a good part of the clergy will finally get real and begin helping their people to address these matters from the pulpits and in homes regularly, because adults and children are hurting out here. Otherwise we must all, from Popes to… Read More Chat GPT: Heterosexual Marriages Continue General Decline. The Warning of the Prophets.
I’ve always loved Camus. But his shadow side must be faced. In his novella, The Fall, the Algerian-French philosopher and novelist Albert Camus stops lamenting social injustice for a moment as well as the “meaninglessness” and “absurdity” of an empty Nietzschean universe in general, and turns instead to biography, specifically to his own cruelty. Camus was a… Read More The Falls of Albert Camus
When a friend called me this morning with the news that Susan Sontag had died at the age 71, just about the first thing I thought was, “well, we’ll have a huge, hagiographical, front-page obituary tomorrow in The New York Times.” Check to see if I am correct. In the meantime, as you prepare yourself… Read More Susan Sontag: a Prediction by Roger Kimball. 2004
Or, where the Left would take us. by Roger Kimball.The New Criterion. On The Passion of Michel Foucault by James Miller. Michel Foucault’s personal perversions involved him in private tragedy. The celebration of his intellectual perversions by academics continues to be a public scandal. The career of this “representative man” of the twentieth century really represents one of… Read More The Perversions of Michel Foucault
An impressive look at our assumptions about Mainstream Media sources versus the new burgeoning superstars. “The term “mainstream media” has long been used to refer to established journalism outlets in the United States. In recent years, it has also been used in a more critical context, including by former President Donald Trump, other politicians and members of the media… Read More The Fall of the Mainstream Media? By What Metric?
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
Fetaltissue.org. 2021. | “Fetal tissue vaccines are the everyday means by which pro-lifers unawares develop some complicity in an industry they oppose. Our aim is to accessibly summarise the relevant facts regarding fetal tissue vaccines — which are obscured behind a veil of academia and technical jargon, concealing from the public legitimate moral & ethical… Read More Fetal Tissue Vaccines: 12 Faulty Assumptions
When Scripture’s creation-based, anthropocentric revelation is rejected, and an evolutionary animal continuum (from amoeba to man) is presupposed as the only reality, then human beings begin taking their cues for behavior from the animal-insect world. This rationalization has reached tragically absurd levels today as witness postmodernist writer Steven Shaviro’s longing for the sexual autonomy of… Read More From Creation and Family to the Petri Dish
Moral Theology: A Complete Course Based on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Best Modern Authorities Authors: John A. McHugh, Charles J. Callan Although the signs of scrupulosity are easily recognizable, the causes are not clearly defined, and authors are not entirely agreed in this matter. A listing of probable causes would include internal causes: (a)… Read More Causes of a scrupulous Conscience
Fr. Joel S. Panzer, The Catholic Answer and EWTN, 1996 When did the Catholic Church condemn slavery? According to some notable figures, the Church did not finally condemn slavery until recently. Judge John T. Noonan stated that it was not until 1890 that the Church condemned the institution of slavery, lagging behind laws enacted to… Read More The Popes and Slavery: Setting the Record Straight
“While the Catholic Church clearly differs from the popular culture on the issue of sexuality and sexual identity, at the same time the moral teaching of the Church is steadfast in promoting and protecting the dignity of every person as a child of God. We can respectfully disagree with someone when their opinions differ from… Read More Clear Difference on Moral Issues…
See Dr. Mark Miravalle talk below. Pope Leo XIII wrote, “… as soon as the constitution and the spirit of the masonic sect were clearly discovered by manifest signs of its actions, by the investigation of its causes, by publication of its laws, and of its rites and commentaries, with the addition often of the… Read More St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Popes & the Masonic Sect
Catholic World Report. Responsibility, Accountability, Transparency: This was the threefold watchword. Christopher R. Altieri. “Five years ago, the Pontiff railed against “abominable crimes that must be erased from the face of the earth…” His record since has been abysmal and even scandalous.” “Pope Francis has refused to defrock a confessed child molester or even remove him from… Read More “Pope Francis’s ‘all-out battle’ against clerical abuse has been a failure”
Truth does not change with the changes in political parties, current philosophies or trends. ” a thing cannot be and not be at the same time”— St. Thomas (Summa Contra Gentiles, Book 1, chap. 84) “…reason’s first principle is the principle of contradiction. He who denies this principle affirms a self-destructive sentence. To deny this principle… Read More Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange on Reason and The Law of Non-Contradiction.
Note: The State today is massively involved in every aspect of American capitalist society, even to the point of total surveillance of citizens and outrageous mandatory thought-direction. Does this fact make the old paradigms (Capitalism / Socialism) obsolete? Few seem to think so. So as Francis Schaefer once asked, how should we then live? These… Read More Catholic Economics Round Table
Aldous Huxley stated plainly, “I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption [SH: note that desire preceded investigation]. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with… Read More Huxley’s Faith and Confession
Edward Pentin of the National Catholic Register wrote, “The former cardinal-archbishop of Milan [Jesuit Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini], a favorite of those pushing for heterodox reforms in the Church, had envisioned a permanent synodal Church in which the idea of collegial governance introduced at the Second Vatican Council could be better realized. The Jesuit biblical… Read More Martini’s Endless Dream
Updated. Cardinals Mueller and Burke on the German Synod and beyond. “Bishops are accusing brother bishops of schism and heresy — and it’s all over the most fundamental and crucial doctrines of the Church.” Signs of the times. “Desecration is the act of depriving something of its sacred character, or the disrespectful, contemptuous, or destructive… Read More Pontificate of Francis 10 Years Later
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
How will the knaves manipulate the masses without this “speech”? The Daily Beast: J.D. Vance Is Coming for Your Porn–Watch Out Meantime, Swiss Cows Browser and Search Engine “No Tracking. Anonymous. Family Friendly (No Pornography. Ever).“ https://swisscows.com/. (Get the App at Google Play and other App stores online). “We place great importance on family-friendly Internet… Read More Vows to Ban Porn Increase
“… A year earlier, Jeffries called pro-life Texans a “bunch of yahoos” for passing a ban on abortions once an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable. Various state and national polls have shown about half of all Americans support heartbeat laws. And new research indicates the law has saved as many as 10,000 unborn babies’ lives so far. Democrat leaders like Jeffries want to… Read More House Democrats Elect Abortion Activist Hakeem Jeffries as New Leader, Replacing Nancy Pelosi
Paul Kingsnorth (born 1972 in Worcester) is an English writer who lives in the west of Ireland. He is a former deputy-editor of The Ecologist and a co-founder of the Dark Mountain Project. He wrote about his spiritual journey and conversion to Christianity in a June 2021 essay in First Things. [wikipedia]. [His] debut novel, The Wake, won the… Read More Paul Kingsnorth on the Theological Roots of Transhumanist Projections
Updated. New York Times columnist Ross Douthat’s new book, To Change The Church: Pope Francis And The Future of Catholicism … is an urgent, compelling work of popular religious journalism. Douthat reads the signs of these anxious times with acute clarity and far-seeing vision. This book is must reading for every Christian who cares about the fate of… Read More Revisiting the 2018 Dreher / Douthat Interview: the Great Gamble of Francis.
And why our Faith tells us we “cannot do evil that good may come“. Fox News: “From Human to Robot and Everything in Between …a subdermal microchip in one’s hand to a tiny robot learning to imagine itself and its own purpose to a tiny microprocessor implanted directly on one’s brain, the line between man… Read More “Bio-hacking humans: implanting chips in hands and heads”
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
Statement on the Ukraine conflict – A Call to Peace and End to War. Los Angeles Catholic Worker. “We are anti-war. We believe war is a moral failure stemming from our unwillingness to actively work for peace. From the individual to the collective national level, the prioritizing of shortsighted self-interest has created this crisis. Victims… Read More The Russia – Ukraine Tragedy
Muggeridge on the Media.June 19, 2017. “IN the 1970s, British journalist and author Malcolm Muggeridge insisted that television news involved deliberate deception. During lectures on the media in London in 1976, he stated: “I remember once returning to my hotel in New York and noticing on the way that a crowd had assembled outside what was… Read More Muggeridge on the Media [and Control].
Biden to request $2.6B to promote gender equity worldwide Alex Gangitanohttps://thehill.com/ President Biden will request $2.6 billion for foreign assistance programs that promote general equality worldwide, he announced on International Women’s Day on Tuesday. The funds will be part of his fiscal 2023 budget request to Congress and will double the amount requested for gender programs last… Read More Worldwide? Who Will Define “Equity, Equality, and Gender” Globally?
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
Must it really be viewed as the thin end of the wedge,”Progressivist,” a diminution of our Pro-life convictions? And what of political Parties, Civil Rights and the greater Common Good? The following discussion shows the current state of the issues involved and is posted for educational purposes. Opinion Social Justice, War, and Housing: How many… Read More Can A Traditional Catholic Adopt a ‘Consistent Ethic of Life?’
House passes bill to force young women to sign up for the draft. Passed by 181 Democrats and 135 Republicans. The House’s move to approve the changes Thursday comes after months of debate, with a handful of Republicans pushing back on the modifications made to the existing Selective Service law. Under the new language, failure… Read More Targeting Traditional Families
St. Pius X: It is of great importance that the priest should combine his daily divine meditation with the constant reading of pious books, especially the inspired books. That was the command that Paul gave to Timothy: Attend unto reading. The same lesson was taught by St. Jerome when instructing Nepotianus on the priestly life:… Read More St. Pius X on Spiritual Reading & Pope Pius XII on Media
Henry I’s date of birth is generally accepted as 1068 AD. The location of his birth is most likely Selby, located in Yorkshire. — Ancient Origins History. According to English historian David Starkey, Henry I (1065-1135) upon finally becoming king of England promptly investigated complaints of “galloping inflation,” since the entire prosperity and stability of the… Read More ‘Twas Thought A Fair Price to Pay for Galloping Inflation
