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Who’s next for the Laetare Medal?

Paul — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 21:31:09 +0000

With Mary Ann Glendon having declined to receive the Laetare Medal from Notre Dame — because of the way she was being used as a way of balancing the university’s controversial and Bishop-defying decision to honor President Obama — one has to wonder exactly who Notre Dame will pick as their second choice. They will risk stepping in to the middle of a firestorm.

Swine flu affects Sunday mass

Paul — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:02:12 +0000

The outbreak of swine flu originating in Mexico has caused public Sunday mass celebrations in Mexico City to be canceled. Spanish announcment here, and more news here and here. (H/T Laurence England).

Torture: occasional or never?

Paul — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 21:24:40 +0000

It seems to me clear that authoritative Catholic teaching forbids the use of torture under any circumstances. However, some hold that torture might occasionally permissible in extreme situations. As emerged recently, Deal Hudson is one of those who do not see why torture might be occasionally permitted, and he has written on this. The real meat of the discussion is in the comments that follow. Henry Karlson is particularly good. At one point in the comments, Hudson says: “this [Veritatis Splendor] is example of how, in my opinion, Catholic social teaching gets itself in a jam”. A rather unfortunate thing to say about a papal encyclical. But this occurs right after Hudson has been misinterpreting the intentions of the teaching (as Karlson later points out).

So the root cause seems to be Hudson’s misunderstanding of the teaching, rather than any real ambiguity in the teaching. Is a blog posting, and a set of comments a good way to resolve this? Not particularly. It needs an extended dialog to resolve such issues, and a threadful of comments doesn’t produce that. Rather, it produces even more poorly founded questions and answers. Somehow, the web has to come up with a better technique for promoting real dialog.

Sebelius veto

Paul — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 20:21:38 +0000

The Kansas Catholic Conference (the official voice of the Catholic Church in Kansas on matters of public policy) has responded to Governor Sebelius’ veto of a bill that would significantly aid the enforcement of Kansas’ existing late-term abortion law.

Kansas, despite having one of the strictest late-term abortion laws in the country, is internationally known as a haven for the practice of particularly barbaric late-term abortion procedures – the kind most abortionists will not do. And no one has done more to ensure that Kansas retains its status as sanctuary for the likes of George Tiller than Governor Sebelius.

The full statement here. (H/T The Catholic Key Blog)

Immigration and flu

Paul — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 20:03:51 +0000

There’s an an approach to immigration over at Ascent to Mount Carmel that I really don’t get:

There’s a flu epidemic in Mexico right now. Given the United States’ weak border security, it’s only a matter of time before it reaches us.

I looked up some example statistics and found that in 2004 there were about 240 million legal crossings from Mexico to the USA. Illegal crossings are only a fraction of that, so weak border security can surely only have a small effect on increasing the transmission rate of any such disease.

The post goes on:

It is not a moral burden on our shoulders if an illegal immigrant comes to our door begging for food and we turn them in to the authorities

The Catholic Catechism is considerably more challenging:

The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin.

It is the grimmest of ironies…

Paul — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 09:32:18 +0000

It is the grimmest of ironies that one of the most savage, barbaric acts of evil in history began in one of the most modernized societies of its time, where so many markers of human progress became tools of human depravity: science that can heal, used to kill; education that can enlighten, used to rationalize away basic moral impulses; the bureaucracy that sustains modern life, used as the machinery of mass death, a ruthless, chillingly efficient system where many were responsible for the killing, but few got actual blood on their hands.

That’s Obama, talking about … what? Follow the link over at the Black Cordelias to find out what.