Oct
21
Who Speaks for the Church?
October 21, 2006 | Leave a Comment
I. Shawn McElhinney, whose blog Rerum Novarum I rather like and read rather often, has taken a position regarding the torture question that strikes me as grounded in reasons that are, for him, uncharacteristic. In a series of posts he has made an argument to the effect that it is not, in fact, the teaching [...]
Oct
20
The Examined Life
October 20, 2006 | Leave a Comment
Yesterday I had one of those experiences that come only very rarely: I got to meet, and hang out with, one of my intellectual heroes, if that is the right sort of word to use in this context. For a long time I have been an admirer of the work of historian Eamon Duffy, holder [...]
Oct
17
JUST SAY IT LOUDER
October 17, 2006 | Leave a Comment
The other day I was driving withy my 5 year old daughter on the way to doing some Krogering when she asked me, from her perch in the booster seat in the back, “Daddy, can we get that thing that’s with the open part?” To which I replied, “I’m not sure what you’re talking about, [...]
Oct
14
Scandal and Bad Reasons
October 14, 2006 | Leave a Comment
I was a little surprised when I read Rod Dreher’s recent explanation of his conversion away from Catholicism to the Orthodox Church. Dreher, of “Crunchy Con” fame, appears to attribute the motivation for his move principally to his assessment of the nature of the molestation charges being made against certain Roman Catholic priests, and to [...]
Oct
12
Vatican Excavations
October 12, 2006 | Leave a Comment
There is a story at CNN about a “newly unveiled necropolis” under the Vatican dating from the time of the Roman Empire. The site is of particular interest for the light it sheds on the Roman middle class of at the start of the Christian era.
It appears that some of the folks buried there may [...]
Oct
12
Pontificator on Limbo
October 12, 2006 | Leave a Comment
Fr. Alvin Kimel has weighed in (rather heavily!) on the topic of limbo at Pontifications. Discussion of his post is open at Sacramentum Vitae, but since I’ve blogged on limbo a number of times I also welcome discussion of the topic here at this blog.
Oct
11
Uh Oh…Now What Do We Protest?
October 11, 2006 | Leave a Comment
According to a story in the Times of London, Pope Benedict XVI is about to sign a universal indult permitting priests everywhere to celebrate the Mass in accordance with the rubrics of 1962 any time and any place they wish. This raises two questions.
First, who is going to wish to do these things beyond the [...]
Oct
11
Combox A’Poppin’!
October 11, 2006 | Leave a Comment
Christopher Blosser has done everyone in the Christian blogging community a huge favor by compiling the information in his two posts on torture (here and here) that I mentioned the other day. The topic is obviously a controversial one, so it comes as no surprise to find nearly 100 comments in the combox of [...]
Oct
11
Now Playing at Pontifications
October 11, 2006 | Leave a Comment
There is an interesting selection from the Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes on display at Pontifications. In this passage we hear that
In reality it is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of humanity truly becomes clear.
This is a fascinating idea to me–I have blogged several times on the [...]
Oct
11
Martyrology Returning Soon
October 11, 2006 | Leave a Comment
A couple folks have asked about the daily lectio from the Martyrologium Romanum. In making the move to Beta Blogger I managed to lose the code I had written that was providing that, and it will be a day or two before I can put it back in. For those of you who can’t wait, [...]
