Robert T. Miller

Back in October, I wrote in this space about how the Vatican’s International Theological Commission (ITC) was preparing a document on the fate of unbaptized infants that, by some accounts, would say that such infants are saved and enjoy the beatific vision. I noted then that the Catholic . . . . Continue Reading »

At the recent debate among Republican presidential candidates, Chris Matthews asked the candidates to raise their hands if they believed in evolution. Sen. Sam Brownback didn’t raise his hand. Last week he published an op-ed in the New York Times explaining his position.The senator makes some . . . . Continue Reading »

I wrote in this space yesterday about the controversy surrounding the remarks of Pope Benedict XVI concerning whether Mexican legislators who voted to legalize certain abortions were excommunicated lata sententia under canon 1398. As I stated yesterday, c. 1398 prohibits only "actually . . . . Continue Reading »

Earlier this month, a reporter asked Pope Benedict XVI whether he agreed with the Mexican bishops who warned Catholic politicians voting to legalize first-trimester abortions in Mexico that they would face excommunication. Benedict said that he did indeed agree with the Mexican bishops. As reported . . . . Continue Reading »

Here’s the latest example of a fascinating, though depressing, cultural phenomenon. A fellow who clearly knows nothing about a deep and difficult intellectual problem produces a manuscript purporting to resolve the problem definitively. Such a fellow is a crank, you might think, and will quite . . . . Continue Reading »

Last Friday, the Philadelphia Inquirer published the Tony Auth cartoon below.Apparently referring to the fact that the five Supreme Court justices who voted last week in Gonzales v. Carhart to uphold the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 are all Catholics, Mr. Auth’s point seems to be . . . . Continue Reading »

John Rose wrote here yesterday concerning Einstein’s attempted reconciliation of complete physical determinism and human free will, and he noted the argument, mentioned by Stephen Barr and others , that the indeterminacy of quantum theory may make a place for free will in the physical . . . . Continue Reading »

As I wrote in this space last week (see here and here ), many Catholic thinkers tend to dismiss as "relativists" anyone who disagrees radically with them on some moral or political matter. This, I argued, is a mistake, for there very many ways of disagreeing with Catholic moral teaching, . . . . Continue Reading »

I recently argued in this space that Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and director of the Cardinal Van Thuân International Observatory , was wrong when he argued that "relativism"¯by which Crepaldi means an a priori rejection . . . . Continue Reading »

Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and director of the Cardinal Van Thuân International Observatory , has an essay on reason and religion in the public square in the ZENIT Daily Dispatch for March 10, 2007. Crepaldi is worried about what he . . . . Continue Reading »