Harris Celebrating Abortion – “Kamala Harris is an abortion extremist. Her words and actions over the course of her career—as California’s attorney general, as United States senator, and as vice president—leave no doubt as to that fact.” Kamala’s Abortion Extremism (First Things)
Journalists, Philosophers, and Prophets – “Why?” is not the fundamental question, in fact, whether for the philosopher or the journalist. The fundamental question is: “What?” Between Philosophy and Prophecy (What We Need Now)
McGrath Institute for Church Life – “Supporters of the McGrath Institute for Church Life are insisting that the next director continue an emphasis on ‘service to the Church’ after university administrators abruptly announced that longtime director John Cavadini’s tenure would end following this academic year.” Future of Notre Dame’s Renowned ‘Catholic Think Tank’ in Question After Leadership Shakeup (National Catholic Register)
Entertainment Is Dead – “In fact, 2024 may be the most fast-paced—and dangerous—time ever for the creative economy. And that will be true, no matter what happens in November.” The State of the Culture, 2024 (The Honest Broker)
Gender Transition Hormones – “When she was a teenager, Cristina Hineman started testosterone after a 30-minute consult at Planned Parenthood. She’s now suing them. ‘I regretted everything.’” How Did Planned Parenthood Become One of the Country’s Largest Suppliers of Testosterone? (The Free Press)
Local Church Communities – “Online noise may incline us all to think our churches are battlegrounds; but the petty rages of those who live their lives on X are largely irrelevant to the work of local churches.” What Protestants Can Learn from Catholics (First Things)
The IVF Fairy Tale – “I.V.F. sells not just the promise of a child, but the hope of predictability and control. It cannot keep this promise, any more than any other route to parenthood can.” A Locked Chest (The Lamp)
France’s Majoritarian Principle – “What we once eagerly embraced as a fortunate pacification of political life in France meant its emptying, and finally its paralysis.” From Synthesis to Separation: On the causes of the paralysis of French political life (City Journal)
Chronic Worldly Corruption – “A period of Catholicism through and through, without serious blemishes introduced by her members from head to toe, has never existed in the Church, let alone in the surrounding culture.” In our day, is apostolic work impossible? (Catholic Culture)
Ethics of Voting – “An ancient church controversy helps us think about the ethics of voting for flawed candidates” Against political Donatism (World)
Doctrine of Justification – “The declaration, first signed on October 31, 1999 by representatives of the Catholic Church1 and the Lutheran World Federation, claims a resolution to the centuries-old dispute over the doctrine of justification.” Twenty-five Years After the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (Homiletic and Pastoral Review)
Underdog Catholic Debater – “There are uncanny similarities between the legendary boxing film and a recent debate between the Catholic underdog online commentator and host of the Voice of Reason TikTok channel … ” Young Catholic ‘Rocky’ TikToker who took on renowned Protestant theologian – and won (Catholic Herald)
(*The posting of any particular news item or essay is not an endorsement of the content and perspective of said news item or essay.)
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@ Journalists, Philosophers, and Prophets
Chris Altieri’s Into the Storm, described as an “on-the-ground analysis [that] details bishops’ ongoing inability to address the rot within their own leadership culture” [Catholic Store] speaks to the descriptive What rather than the philosophic Why. “We want journalists who read whatever is before us and see clearly what is happening right now [Altieri Channeling Chesterton]. That “What the man who was on the scaffold was doing there” [which actually reverts back to the Why].
Rot within Church leadership we know as well as Altieri strikes light lightning to the apex of leadership. A bolt seemingly prefigured by that 2013 St Peter’s Basilica strike. Storm is apt in describing the angst, the uproar of terror and rage doubts and fear run rife within our beloved Church. A place where peace could still be found lost since the elevation to the papacy of Jorge Bergoglio, the first Francis.
What may we honestly say? What, while bracketing Why, we leave the latter to God’s judgment, is a posture of compassion perceived as an embrace of the sinner, sin and all, without prejudice. That traditionalists [a wide ranging word simply understood as all of us who hold to Apostolic tradition] are rigid stone heavers, casting their deadly missiles at the helpless woman caught in her adulterous moment. Pope Francis the new savior chastises in strong manner where Christ chastised in silence. We are the oppressors. A paradigm so complete that His Holiness surrounds his papal office with the fallen, the rebuked, the clerical sinner raised to rank rather than demoted.
What the journalist may overlook for sake of professional propriety, perhaps touch with diplomatic hand, can be justifiably described as is manifest by the ordained clergy. That the rot of the Rupnik scandal, one among many, may be interpreted in the light [more appropriately the darkness] of the new gospel implemented in Rome.
@ Doctrine of Justification
The author details the particularities about faith and works, and in passing reports that the document is heralded by various Protestant denominations. But, overlooked in the article are the related, but different perspectives on concupiscence–whether mankind tends toward evil or is essentially depraved through and through.
About which, published Protestant versions then omit both the ANNEX and the brief PREFACE…
From the Catholic Church’s realist Christian anthropology, part of the Annex explains the irreducible difference between the tendency or “concupiscence” (within human nature) and the contradictory notion that (nominalist) individuals are intrinsically corrupt through and through, sinners saved by grace alone. Yes, the Declaration very carefully explores the intricate relationship between grace and free will, BUT is still capable of misinterpretation, since the word concupiscence itself “is used in different senses on the Catholic and Lutheran sides…(!).”
The often-omitted one-page Preface refers to the also omitted five-page Annex (both retained in the Catholic edition–William B. Eerdmans): “The solemn confirmation of the Joint Declaration on 31 October 1999 in Augsburg, by means of the Official Common Statement WITH ITS ANNEX [caps added!], represents an ecumenical event of historical significance.”
@ Doctrine of Justification
Faith Alone is not belief alone, for it’s famously said even the devils believe. That infers an interior disposition to love God, a sentiment of spiritual and truthful worship. Works are deadly when they’re perceived as means to satisfy God’s commandments, and the person’s interior life contradicts a disposition of charity and goodness.
Works are dead when works are accomplished for gain, be it wealth or esteem. Whereas works of compassion, done from the heart rather than the esteem of others are the evidence of faith as confirmed by James. Paul asserts it’s faith, not works that save us, a reference to the Law practiced as a duty rather than the inspiration of charity. Faith alone and the gift of salvation are valid when faith is an interior disposition to love for its own sake without the desire for gain.
@ Doctrine of Justification
As Peter Beaulieu ascertains the word concupiscence has varied meaning throughout Christianity. Basically from a Catholic Thomistic perspective concupiscence is the movement [tendency] of the sensitive appetite contrary to human reason and the inherent apprehension of good and evil. It is reason and the will that are impaired by original sin, when the will neglects the judgment of reason regarding the good or evil of an act.
Thus, as Aquinas teaches, evil is in the will. It’s the gift of grace that can influence the will to freely decide for the good rather than evil. Protestants, notably Lutherans, Baptists speak of total depravity of human nature [only the damned become totally depraved]. The doctrine of total depravity is why Protestants will say, following Luther that faith alone saves. Total depravity in this life is an impossibility since sin, or grace for that matter do not change our nature, rather nature is inclined one way or the other.
Consequently, according to St Thomas Aquinas it’s grace, that’s freely assented to and disposes man to choose good rather than evil in the pursuit of doing the will of God, that is, actions that define goodness and love, a lacuna in Protestant theology on justification [although Protestants are nonetheless naturally disposed to the impetus of the gift of grace to perform the good works that evidence our salvation. The issue is a theology of justification that impairs that performance]. Assent to truth is concomitant with our assent to grace and the entrance to a life of sacramental grace that realizes the end of our human nature created in the image of God.
Unfortunately Trump has stated that he is for a 20 week abortin ban I last heard. also he has said he woruldn’t sign a Federal bortion ban. this elction is the pits.
Mr. Trump is not able to govern and he really is not aware of the needs of the needy. The Republican beliefs have no relevance to the poor or elderly.