Peter Flanigan has shown in America [January 5-12], 5-12], that there is a remarkable parallelism between the first draft of the bishops’ pastoral letter and the lay letter on the U.S. economy. A substantive consensus is within reach. Nonetheless, a patch of philosophical analysis appears from time to time in the bishops’ draft, which is … Read more
Archbishop, a wit once declared, is a Christian rank neither reached nor aspired to by Christ. Nothing prevents columnists from aspiring so high, however, or even higher. This my colleague Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe recently did, setting forth in a recent column her vision of how the Catholic church ought to be constituted. … Read more
“God as social democrat” is the theme of Newsweek’s story on the first draft of the new pastoral letter by the U.S. Catholic bishops on the economy. That is as outrageous as: “God is a Republican.” My phone has been ringing with calls from Catholics of many political viewpoints who fear that the bishops have … Read more
John J. O’Connor, the Archbishop of New York, and Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, the Archbishop of Chicago, describe themselves as “good friends.” No doubt, they also seek to maintain brotherly amity in word and deed. Still, their public positions on religion and politics are remarkably different in intellectual approach, personal style, and public mode of argument. … Read more
It is not often that a critic is so determined to be fair and rational, both in substance and in tone; I am grateful to Arthur McGovern. His article reveals the same high qualities I admire in his Marxism: An American Christian Perspective. Fr. McGovern finds the language of my original article “apocalyptic”; certain sentences … Read more
Rooted in the recognition of human sinfulness, biblical realism is an antidote to the utopian ideals of the Enlightenment. The crisis faced by a handful of democracies in a sea of tyrannies has become more severe today than it was in 1938. The ruling elites of the Soviet Union command far more military power than … Read more
It is undeniably dangerous to employ religious categories in economic matters, because of the tendency of all human beings to claim divine warrant for their own opinions. It is pernicious to use “the gospels” as a screen for ideology. Persons on the Catholic left say that right-wing Catholics employ “ideology” in discussing economic realities, whereas … Read more
Pacifism is the capitulation of orthodox Christianity to the pagan Enlightenment. Forty years ago a tide of pacifism swept through the Christian churches as again it is doing today. In 1940, Reinhold Niebuhr tried to stem this tide with a book of essays entitled Christianity and Power Politics. “It is the thesis of these essays,” … Read more
In their loathing for our own society, some Christians may be ready for a preemptive surrender to Marx. Large segments of the staff and top leadership of the American Protestant and Catholic communities have moved steadily and rapidly over the last fifteen years from liberalism to socialism. Many are, in the name of “radical analysis,” … Read more
The month of March always reminds me of St. Thomas Aquinas, whose influence now seven centuries after his death is probably more effective on the world than at any time in history. From whom else did our age receive so clearly the concept of “person,” so central to the best contemporary understandings of human rights? … Read more
“The more one becomes a feminist,” Rosemary Reuther has been quoted as saying, “the more difficult it is to remain a Catholic.” To which some will reply: “But of course!” Many of the claims of contemporary feminism are as radically opposed to orthodoxy as were similar Gnostic claims in the second century, in the first … Read more
IF I WERE A STRUGGLING THIRD WORLD COUNTRY, I WOULD LOOK AROUND AND SEE HOW THE DREAM IS DOING IN OTHER THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES. THE PEOPLE OF BRAZIL, CHILE, ARGENTINA, ETC. MIGHT LONG FOR MERE INEFFICIENCIES, SHORTAGES, MEAN SALARIES, AND ENDLESS WAITING IN LINE. COULD YOU NAME ONE THIRD WORLD COUNTRY THAT HAS FOLLOWED THE … Read more
This appeared in the October 7 issue of the New York Post Terence Cardinal Cooke was a good and gentle man, who changed the role of the Archdiocese of New York in American Catholic life. Before Cardinal Cooke, the Archdiocese of New York — and specifically, the office of Francis Cardinal Spellman — used to … Read more
My office is on a top floor, in a corner, with windows south and west, through which the sun can, when it chooses, pour enough solar heat to drench a tropical greenhouse. You could call it “the open office.” Thank God for Venetian blinds. What is happening to “the open church?” Not a few good … Read more
This is the second lecture Michael Novak gave at the Pontifical University, Santiago, Chili, May 3-5, 1983. Fix in your mind the year 1800. Then imagine the course of development until today, in the brief period of 183 years. In 1891, in his encyclical Rerum Novarum, Leo XIII turned the attention of the Catholic church … Read more
This is the first of two lectures Michael Novak gave at the Pontifical University, Santiago, Chile, May 3-5, 1983. I.                ON DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS Nowadays, when a nation calls itself a Popular Democratic Republic, we often understand that it is neither a Republic nor a democracy. We suspect that is not even popular. So … Read more
In their distinguished comments on “Moral Clarity in the Nuclear Age,” James M. Cameron (June) and Christopher Derrick (July) raised interesting points. Professor Cameron thought he detected a bit of “Manichaeism” in my views on the Soviet Union. I am certain that he is mistaken. If someone held that the regime of Adolf Hitler was … Read more
Everywhere in the world, socialist populations face inefficiencies, shortages, mean salaries, and endless hours waiting in line. Once one of the richest nations of South America, Cuba, e.g., depends every day on enormous Soviet subsidies. Indeed, the most lively experiments within the socialist world — in Poland, Yugoslavia, Hungary, China, and even the Soviet Union … Read more
In its recent issues, the National Catholic Reporter (May 27 and June 3) has accepted the Sandinist Nicaraguan government’s view of Nicaragua and of the United States. It has done this, in part, by relying on a chronology prepared in affiliation with a Managua-based institute clearly under the censorship of the Nicaraguan government, the Instituto … Read more
On May 11, civil disturbances all over Chile evoked “the worst crisis atmosphere in ten years.” A full-fledged general strike did not materialize, but work-stoppages, school absences, tooting horns, and a sustained clanging of pots and pans in many streets awakened ominous memories of the Allende years. At least two persons died at police hands. … Read more