And so, nine months into the pontificate, Benedict XVI has issued his first encyclical. (It is dated December 25, Christmas, although released on January 25, the Conversion of St. Paul.) The title is Deus Caritas Est —“God is Love”—and it is an extended commentary on that . . . . Continue Reading »
The Roe decision of 1973, wrote Yale’s legendary law professor, John Hart Ely, "is not constitutional law and gives almost no sense of an obligation to try to be." He is hardly alone in holding that view. Among the harshest critics of Roe, most of whom nonetheless support the . . . . Continue Reading »
“Hoo boy!” as Albert the Alligator of “Pogo” fame used to say. Mark Gauvreau Judge stirred up a storm in the American Spectator with an article deploring the conflation of conservatism with populism. Judge is the author of two recent books, God and Man at Georgetown Prep: . . . . Continue Reading »
For the first time in about 35 years I took a winter break last week, five days in Mexico. I don’t mention this to boast of my work ethic but to confess my foolishness in not having done it more often. The five days are a little like a pleasant black hole in my memory—eating, drinking, . . . . Continue Reading »
Fr. Richard McBrien¯the Notre Dame theology professor and long-time lefty Catholic columnist¯is being tagged with the charge of plagiarism. The Boston Herald has picked up the story , which involves its Beantown competitor, the Boston Globe , and seems to run like this: On December 11, . . . . Continue Reading »
There’s no contradiction in saying "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," for the two facts occasionally coexist. So, I recently argued in the Weekly Standard , we are living in a moment in which a set of Catholic ideas and rhetorical gestures¯the Catholic way . . . . Continue Reading »
In his op-ed piece last Sunday in USA Today , Edward O. Wilson makes a sweeping pronouncement: “The two world views—science-based explanations and faith-based religion—cannot be reconciled.” I agree: one cannot reconcile them, because they do not need to be reconciled. They . . . . Continue Reading »
The current issue of the Weekly Standard carries an essay about the curious role Catholicism is playing in American public discourse these days. I thought I was relatively downbeat about the overall condition of Catholicism¯the nomination of Samuel Alito to be the fifth Catholic on the Supreme . . . . Continue Reading »
The village atheist usually challenges believers in Providence to answer a couple of devastating questions. One of them is: "Well, if two opposing armies pray to the same God, how can Providence be faithful to both if it answers one, but not the other?" It was to such a village atheist . . . . Continue Reading »
Well, at least Edward O. Wilson is trying. In an op-ed Sunday morning in USA Today , Harvard’s famed entomologist called for a ceasefire in the evolution wars: "American civilization was born of both religion and the science-based Enlightenment. Science will go on expanding its way, and . . . . Continue Reading »
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