Douglas Farrow

On 26 September 2012, at the close of Yom Kippur, the Canadian Parliament voted 203–91 against M-312. Children in the womb, for legal purposes, will remain non-persons whose lives may be ended with impunity. But who will atone for that? . . . . Continue Reading »

I’d like to thank Mark Chapman of Ripon College Cuddesdon for noticing that my Ascension Theology (T&T Clark 2011) “even includes coloured pictures” in its “ambitious . . . survey of scripture and tradition.” We went to a lot of trouble, not to mention expense, with . . . . Continue Reading »

David Blankenhorn, who contributed greatly to the defense of marriage and suffered for the cause, confesses his current state of mind with this one sentence: “As I look at what our society needs most today, I have no stomach for what we often too glibly call ‘culture wars.’ . . . . Continue Reading »

Those who lost their rights but kept their dignity, as John Paul II and the Polish people once did, know the difference between the two. “Of themselves, rights are not enough,” Blessed John Paul insisted. Rights must be grounded in dignity, and the granting of rights in the recognition of . . . . Continue Reading »

The controversial “ Note on financial reform from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace ” makes the international financial crisis, still unfolding around us in slow motion, the occasion for a renewed call for a “global political authority.” That, rather than its . . . . Continue Reading »

The definition of gender-related discrimination and of “hate crimes” is becoming ever more imaginative on both sides of the forty-ninth parallel. Witness, for example, Bill H1728 in the state of Massachusetts, An Act Relative to Gender-Based Discrimination and Hate Crimes, or its Canadian . . . . Continue Reading »

Two Muslim women defy the (appropriately named) Rapiscan . . . while the other cowards in the British police state continue their cowardly ways: The two women are thought to be the first passengers to refuse to submit to scanning by the machines, which have provoked controversy among human rights . . . . Continue Reading »

In his preface to the second edition of A Short History of Ethics, Alasdair MacIntyre notes the absurdity of his attempt to treat Christian ethics in a mere ten pages sandwiched “between 109 pages on Greek ethics and 149 pages on Western European ethics” from the Renaissance onward… . Continue Reading »

When the pope’s new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, appeared this summer, its ambitious scope and curious composition left many scratching their heads. The frequent rhetoric about human solidarity, embodied in institutions with global reach and authority, for example, left some wondering . . . . Continue Reading »

Wesley writes that conscience clauses should include this principle: “No medical professional should be forced to take, or be complicit in the taking of human life, whether of an embryo, fetus, or born member of the species.” The principle is sound but the language isn’t. No one . . . . Continue Reading »