Matthew J. Franck

Everywhere I keep hearing that when the cardinals of the Catholic Church meet next month to elect Pope Benedict XVI’s successor, there will be 117 electors in the conclave. Quite a number of living cardinals are over 80, and thus ineligible to vote in the papal election. Canon lawyer . . . . Continue Reading »

Readers be forewarned: this is a very long blog post. About a week ago in this space, I criticized Grant Gallicho for saying, at the dotCommonweal blog, that the Obama administration’s recent “accommodation” of religious nonprofits under its HHS contraception mandate ought to satisfy . . . . Continue Reading »

Journalism professor Howard Good of SUNY-New Paltz has written a piece with the sombre title ” Teaching Ethics in a Dark World ” (subscribers only) for the Chronicle of Higher Education.  A teacher of a course in media ethics, he was called by a New York Times reporter in late . . . . Continue Reading »

The recent leak to NBC News of a Justice Department “white paper,” on the authority to conduct “lethal operations” against U.S. citizens abroad if they are enemy combatants in our war against al-Qa’ida, has touched off another round of controversy about the lawfulness of our tactics… . Continue Reading »

At the dotCommonweal blog, Grant Gallicho sorrowfully surveys the statement issued yesterday by Cardinal Timothy Dolan on behalf of the USCCB, which rightly characterized the latest version of “accommodation” on the contraception mandate of the Obama HHS as inadequate. Mr. Gallicho . . . . Continue Reading »

In a statement released today on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York and president of the Conference, responded to last Friday’s proposed revision of the HHS contraception/sterilization/abortifacient mandate by saying, in . . . . Continue Reading »

Today at Public Discourse , I discuss the Obama administration’s latest puff of smoke trying to sell its “compromise” on mandating employer coverage of sterilization, contraception, and abortifacients, in “ Deciding Who Gets Religious Freedom .”  Here’s a sample: . . . . Continue Reading »

Friends of religious freedom—and even those not so friendly to it who wish to learn more about it—will enjoy a public conversation on the subject next week at Georgetown University, where the Religious Freedom Project of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs will . . . . Continue Reading »

Joseph Knippenberg describes very well the likely scenario by which the Boy Scouts will move from a surrender on homosexuality to a surrender on atheism. This is just how institutions are conquered by their implacable foes; it always begins with a decision to be “accommodating” . . . . Continue Reading »

The joyful anticipation of a fresh conquest is palpable on the front page of today’s New York Times : ” In a Quick Shift, Scouts Rethink a Ban on Gays .” That’s right, at its national executive board meeting next week, the Boy Scouts of America will consider eliminating . . . . Continue Reading »