An informative, comprehensive, well-written, and persuasive book, The Splendor of Marriage was published by Angelico Press to mark the 50th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae (1968). In a culminating chapter, Richard Spinello lays out the argument of Humanae Vitae and makes it clear why the document is so central to Catholic doctrine … Read more
Within the last year and half I have traveled four times to Poland. I have by no means covered the broad expanse of this great country, but I have managed to visit Warsaw, Sulwalki, Lublin, Kraków, Oswęciem, Wadowice; I have spent much time in Katowice in Upper Silesia, and its surrounding towns such as Tychy, … Read more
This July at a conference at Mundelein Seminary I heard Cardinal George state that the Church is in a more perilous position in this country then it has ever been. In February he said the Church is being despoiled of her institutions and that the new HHS mandate is nothing short of a demand for … Read more
There is a great myth concerning the intellectual life of the Church prior to Vatican II, that it was impoverished by a lack of imagination, narrowly focused on scholastic hairsplitting, rigidly enclosed by dogma, and irrelevant to the contemporary world. This view completely overlooks the philosophical generation spawned by Leo XIII’s encyclical Aeterni patris. This … Read more
Discourse about the new role of the laity easily assumes the grammar and rhetoric of rights, autonomy, and liberation. We hear about the right to dissent, the right to be a priest, freedom to be engaged with the world, the autonomy of Politics, and freedom of conscience. I would suggest that a theology of the … Read more
The documents of Vatican II contain a wonderfully short and direct charter for the Christian citizen and soldier in chapter five of Gaudium et Spes (“The Church in the Modern World”). As in many other cases, it is a document more praised than read; and in the name of the “spirit of Vatican II” many … Read more
Is Pope John Paul II a socialist? Despite the controversy and debate which swirl around it, the question is really jejune. The Pope is a pastor of souls, not a politician. Like his Master, his is not a rule over temporal regimes. I think that the Pope would agree with the judgment of Jacques Maritain, … Read more
I fear that Professor Duffey escapes the dilemma of the new Catholic pacifism only through a number of equivocations, concerning especially the terms pacifism, Catholic tradition, and moral principle. The dilemma simply put is this: the Catholic pacifist must either accept moral relativism or a breach in the continuity of Catholic tradition. I shall attempt … Read more
Therefore, government authorities and those who share public responsibility have the duty to protect the welfare of the people entrusted to their care and to conduct such grave matters soberly. To this reasonable conclusion, drawn from the tradition of just war thinking, I should only like to add — “and may all discuss such grave … Read more