Religion & Law
Mirror of Justice 
Dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory.
Post Frequency: 6.6/day Last Entry: November 19, 2009 at 13:02:40 Recent Entries: 2054
Go to Mirror of Justice, find other Religion & Law blogs, or browse all law blogs.
Search
Posts
That reasonable Washington Post editorial
Posted on November 19, 2009Rick: I think the Washington Post is right in suggesting that the controversy about Catholic Charities in Washington, DC is about religious liberty concerns, not the definition of marriage; but the claim at the beginning of the editorial that the...
Geoffrey Stone on Church, State, Kennedy, and Stupak
Posted on November 19, 2009Prof. Geoffrey Stone contends, here, that the role of the Catholic Church, and Catholics in securing passage of the Stupak Amendment, and in rejecting a same-sex-marriage law without adequate religious-liberty exemptions, is in worrisome tension with church-state separation and religious...
The Washington Post on SSM and religious liberty in DC
Posted on November 19, 2009A reasonable editorial, I thought: YOU MIGHT not realize, given the fury between Catholic Charities and the D.C. Council, that the Catholic Church is not trying to prevent the legalization of same-sex marriage in the District. Rather, the battle is...
Are Catholic law schools wise stewards of their students' debt?
Posted on November 19, 2009I agree with Rick that the legal profession's academic woes should not nececessarily reduce our commitment to the law as a humane discipline. However, I do believe that all law schools -- Catholic law schools in particular, I would hope...
Catholic Legal Theory and "The Death of Big Law School"
Posted on November 18, 2009Over at Prawfsblawg, I weighed in on an ongoing discussion about the implications for law schools and legal education of the crisis / meltdown / downturn / setback in the legal-services business. I wrote: "Above the Law" has collected some...
An Interesting Addition to the Chicago Tribune's Religion Blog
Posted on November 17, 2009Sister Anne Joan Flanagan, FSP, a Daughter of St. Paul stationed in Chicago, has recently been added to the panel of bloggers on the Chicago Tribune's religion blog, "The Seeker." Her first post is a reaction to a Tribune cover...
Genentech's lessons for the Bishops
Posted on November 17, 2009Perhaps the Bishops would have escaped criticism for raising concerns about the health care reform bill if they had taken greater pains to conceal their role?
A sad anniversary
Posted on November 17, 2009dot Commonweal reminds us that "It was 20 years ago today that 6 Jesuits, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter were killed [actually, murdered] at the University of Central America in San Salvador." More here.
This is change we can believe in, right?
Posted on November 17, 2009No, wrong! This is just more of the depressing same: Corruption Is No Barrier to U.S. Visa for Millionaire "Teodoro Nguema Obiang enters the country easily, although his wealth comes from corruption tied to his father?s regime in Equatorial Guinea."....
Policing the Church
Posted on November 17, 2009I sincerely thank Steve Shiffrin for his post on Cardinal George?s opening address delivered at the annual meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. I appreciate Steve?s comments, but I find it necessary to provide a complement to....
Policing the Media and the Universities
Posted on November 17, 2009According to Catholic New Service http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0905092.htm, Cardinal George in his opening address to the fall conference of Catholic bishops "noted that discussions have recently begun about how the bishops might strengthen their relationship to Catholic universities, 'to media claiming the...
Which Party is Worse? (plus remembering Gov. Robert P. Casey)
Posted on November 16, 2009I am grateful to Bob Hockett for his comments. I found much in them to agree with, but much to disagree with, too. Bob and I think very differently about which political party poses the greater overall threat today to...
The Center for Ethics and Culture and our Baptist Friends
Posted on November 16, 2009With the "Summons of Freedom," Center for Ethics and Culture once again put on an outstanding interdisciplinary conference as reported in a couple of posts by Rick. Although there is much to report from the many excellent panels and discussions,...
"... argument amongst friends ..."
Posted on November 16, 2009My Emory colleague Robert Ahdieh tells me that Hume--yes, that Hume--said that "[t]ruth springs from argument amongst friends." Let's try, let's struggle, mightily, all of us--Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives--to be friends. If for nothing else, for the sake...
In the Department of "So What Else is New" ...
Posted on November 16, 2009... Marci Hamilton joins the bishop-bashers in a piece arguing that the Stupak Amendment violates, among other things, the Establishment Clause. No surprise there. The novelty is that she argues that the bishops' effort to assert taxpayers' conscientious objections to...
Just how degraded is our politics these days?
Posted on November 16, 2009Read this, for one example: My Near Death Panel Experience
Poverty in America
Posted on November 16, 2009Hunger in U.S. at a 14-Year High By BRIAN KNOWLTON The number of Americans who lacked access to sufficient food shot up to its highest point since the government began surveying, the Agriculture Department reported. Facing hunger, pope demands an...
Thanks to Robby
Posted on November 16, 2009Many thanks to Robby for his thoughtful post, and for the heartening reminiscences on Governor Casey, about whom I'd be very happy to hear more. (Did I mention how happy I was when his son announced a run against Santorum...
A thought for the day ...
Posted on November 15, 2009"The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook." --William James
Dear Michael,
Posted on November 15, 2009. . . my point was clear enough, dear Michael, and you understood it perfectly well, I suspect. We shouldn't use MoJ for purposes of partisan point-scoring. Do you not agree? As a matter of fact, I do not keep...
Georgetown Symposium: A New Abortion Debate
Posted on November 15, 2009Yet another excellent conference taking place in what appears to be the busiest week of MOJ-interest-related conferences in history was the one organized at Georgetown Law School by the Progressive Alliance for Life and the Law Students for Reproductive Justice:...
Rob Vischer's new book
Posted on November 15, 2009This blurb of mine appears on the dust jacket of Rob's new book (or so I have been told): "There is no freedom more essential to the flourishing of a truly liberal democracy than the freedom to live one's life...
Speaking Salient Truths versus 'Scoring Points'
Posted on November 15, 2009Hello All, A few thoughts on the present colloquy between Michael and Robby. 1. The first point is that it's probably worth maintaining, at least as a regulative ideal, the goal of neither attempting to be, nor even of conceiving...
Vischer-fest at the Center for Ethics & Culture
Posted on November 15, 2009Yesterday, I moderated a panel discussion on our colleague Rob's forthcoming book, "Conscience and the Common Good." (Pre-order it here!) The participants included MOJ's Patrick Brennan, as well as Michael Moreland and Nora O'Callaghan. It was a really nice event,...
A great Notre Dame moment
Posted on November 15, 2009Certainly, there have been few such moments on the football field this season. But, on Friday morning, at the Center for Ethics & Culture's (wonderful) Fall Conference, "The Summons of Freedom," I attended a very interesting panel on Maritain, Murray,...
Extra, Extra, Read All About It: FORT HOOD KILLER ADVISED OBAMA TRANSITION!!!!!
Posted on November 14, 2009Here. God help us!
Dear Robby, ...
Posted on November 14, 2009... do you also maintain a file titled "conservative hypocrisy"? If not, why not? Is it only "liberal hypocrisy" that matters .. or that engages you? What, dear Robby, is your point? I can't fathom why anyone would think--and I...
Palin and Catholicism plus Hypocrites and Pharisees
Posted on November 14, 2009My understanding is that Sarah Palin's parents left the Catholic Church while their children were still at home and joined the Assemblies of God -- a Protestant pentecostal denomination. Sarah remained in that denomination until a few years ago when....
NU Conference on Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty
Posted on November 14, 2009As an academic associate dean, I can handle about one substantive scholarship/advocacy area at a time, and right now it's religious liberty and gay-marriage recognition. This past Thursday saw a fine conference at Northwestern Law School on the topic, and...
Iowa Debate on Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Accommodations
Posted on November 14, 2009Readers in and around Des Moines, IA, might be interested in a debate between Georgetown Law prof Nan Hunter and me, this Tuesday at 3 p.m. at Drake Law School. The topic is "Religious Liberty Exemptions and Iowa's Same-Sex Marriage...
Sarah Palin's 'Left Behind' Catholicism
Posted on November 14, 2009I don't know whether anything important hinges on it, but does anyone happen to know why Ms. Palin left the Church? Many thanks, Bob
Religious Legal Theory at Seton Hall
Posted on November 13, 2009I'm in beautiful Newark, where Seton Hall is hosting a marvelous conference titled Religious Legal Theory: The State of the Field. Most of the conversations are of direct interest to MoJers. In my own remarks, I tried to lay out...
RNC on Health Care and Abortion
Posted on November 13, 2009Question for the RNC: Can you spell 'Pharisee'?
The Republican National Committee and AbortionSalon.com Life | RNC's insurance covers abortion
Posted on November 13, 2009Salon.com Life | RNC's insurance covers abortion RNC's insurance covers abortionBy the reasoning behind the Stupak amendment, the committee might have paid to terminate employees' pregnancies Tracy Clark-Flory Nov. 13, 2009 | Holy hypocrisy, GOP: The Republican National Committee's health...
More "church and state" silliness regarding Stupak
Posted on November 13, 2009Check out (and then groan at) this "animated cartoon" in The Washington Post. What we are seeing, I fear, is an ugly re-emergence of Blanshard-ism. "The Bishops", or "The Catholic Church", is -- for some -- simply an all-purpose bug-a-boo;...
Two new pieces by MOJers!
Posted on November 13, 2009"Excluding Religion Excludes More than Religion"Matters of Life and Death: Religion and Law at the Crossroad, Boston College Law School, 2008 RICHARD STITH, Valparaiso University School of Law Email: Richard.stith@valpo.edu This Article contends that excluding apparently religious perspectives from public...
Catholic Charities D.C. and same sex marriage
Posted on November 13, 2009The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington D.C. is threatening that Catholic Charities will withdraw from city contracts that fund services to homeless and other poor people in the dead of winter if D.C. approves same sex marriages. http://www.washingtonpost...
I Second That Emotion
Posted on November 12, 2009Hear hear to Rick's Iran post. This fellow to whom Rick refers seems labor under an all too oft-encountered confusion -- a confusion that I suspect amounts to a symptom of what our colleague Steve Shiffrin calls 'public reason disease.'...
Catholic Bishops + Stupak Amendment = Iran?
Posted on November 12, 2009Ah, the legal academy (HT: America): [Michael Sean Winters writes:] Timothy Stoltzfust Jost, a professor of law at Washington and Lee University, thinks issues of Church and State are involved. He writes: "For Congress to have to look to a...
Religion and Adjudication: An Interesting Perspective
Posted on November 12, 2009Religion-Based Arguments in Juvenile Life Without Parole Cases -- Joan Gottschall [Joan Gottschall is a United States District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois, a member of the Visiting Committee to the University of Chicago Divinity School, and a...
Kevin Flannery S.J. on capital punishment
Posted on November 12, 2009I think Father Kevin Flannery's article on capital punishment is well worth reading. Here. He discusses problems with the explantion of the teaching on capital punishment in Evangelium Vitae and in the Catechism. In particular, he explains the errors in...
More on that TIME article (plus John Allen on Archbishop Burke and the Vatican)
Posted on November 11, 2009See here: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/nov/09111002.html
A new paper of possible interest
Posted on November 11, 2009My friend and former student, Stephen Wallace, has posted on SSRN his paper, "Why Third Party Standing in Abortion Cases Deserves a Closer Look." Here is the abstract: Third-party standing, the out of the ordinary ability for a litigant to...
Northwest Frontier Province Alert: Color Orange
Posted on November 11, 2009Hello All, Many thanks to Michael and Rick for the stimulating thoughts on capital punishment. I'm not as smart as you fellows, Finnis, or anyone else you have mentioned, so I'll simply say that the gut horror I've always experienced...
Response to Michael on Catholicism and capital punishment
Posted on November 11, 2009Just a quick note in response to Michael's mention of the Brugger book: My own view is that the position at which the late Pope John Paul II seemed to have arrived (at least in print) was not quite satisfactory....
On the Roman Catholic Tradition and Capital Punishment
Posted on November 11, 2009The best treatment of the Roman Catholic tradition and capital punishment with which I am familiar is this book, written at Oxford under the supervision of John Finnis: E. CHRISTIAN BRUGGER, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AND ROMAN CATHOLIC MORAL TRADITION (Notre Dame,...
More on John Muhammad's Execution
Posted on November 11, 2009Michael Perry beat me to it, but . . . a few thoughts on the Muhammad execution, and it's connection to the larger debate about the content and implications of our -- that is, of Catholics' -- pro-life commitment: First,...
Looks to be of interest to many MOJ readers
Posted on November 10, 2009Same-Sex Family Equality and Religious Freedom Ira C. Lupu George Washington University Law School Robert W. Tuttle George Washington University Law School Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy, Forthcoming GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No...
Quick Thanks to Rick and Michael
Posted on November 10, 2009Hello All, Many thanks to Rick and Michael for their thoughts on the Pakistan post. I'll respond to these helpful thoughts in full a bit later today. For the moment, let me do three quick things: First, to reassure Rick...
The IRS must stop the Bishops from being political!
Posted on November 10, 2009I expect to hear crazy calls for the IRS to investigate the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for making their views known regarding the Stupak amendment. I don't really expect to hear them from sitting members of Congress. Representative Lynn...
"The Summons of Freedom" conference
Posted on November 10, 2009This weekend (Thurs.-Sat.) is the annual Fall Conference of Notre Dame's Center for Ethics & Culture. "The Summons of Freedom: Virtue, Sacrifice, and the Common Good" is the theme. (The full schedule is here.) This conference, for me, is always...
Interesting story NOT in TIME Magazine ...
Posted on November 10, 2009Michael P. has linked to an article in Time magazine in which I am quoted by Amy Sullivan. Readers might be interested in things that I said that the devoutly liberal religion writer chose not to share with her readers....
Speaking of Pro-Life ...
Posted on November 10, 2009BREAKING NEWS 9:18 PM ET John Allen Muhammad, the Washington-Area Sniper, Is ExecutedVirgina is now a better place, yes? (Retribution.) Well, at least now a safer place, yes? (Deterrence.) And the United States too, therefore, yes? And "We, the People"...
A Victory (for the Moment) for Pro-Life Democrats
Posted on November 10, 2009In recent years, at academic conferences, in faith-based circles, and on blogs such as this one, the question frequently has been posed whether political activists and politicians committed to the sanctity of human life can survive and play any meaningful...
A comment, and a question, from MOJ friend ...
Posted on November 10, 2009... and Trinity College Dublin law prof Gerry Whyte: I was intrigued by the apparent suggestion from Archbishop Burke that Ted Kennedy should have been denied a Catholic funeral. Throughout the years of the Troubles in N. Ireland, the Church...
Justices Scalia and Breyer argue about originalism and Brown v. Board of Education
Posted on November 10, 2009Interesting story, here. How would *you* have voted in Brown, and on what basis?
Something else Robby and I can agree on (mirabile dictu)!
Posted on November 10, 2009At least, I think we can: namely, that John Allen's book will almost certainly be quite good! THE FUTURE CHURCH: HOW TEN TRENDS ARE REVOLUTIONIZING THE CATHOLIC CHURCH By John L. Allen Jr. Reviewed by John W. O'Malley Perceptive, evenhanded,...
Apostolic Constitution and Complementary Norms
Posted on November 09, 2009Moments ago the Holy See issued the Apostolic Constitution and Complementary Norms providing for personal ordinariates for Anglicans entering into full communion with the Catholic Church. [HERE] I am sure some of us may wish to discuss the legal and....
"Buen Camino: The Happy Pilgrim Song"
Posted on November 09, 2009On the day we arrived in Santiago, Mark, Bill, and I wrote a song titled "Buen Camino: The Happy Pilgrim Song." We recorded it on All Saints Day thanks to Johan, a German studying in Santiago. It is now posted...
The ?Visitation? re-Revisited
Posted on November 09, 2009Thanks to Michael P. for drawing out attention once again to this pressing issue about the visitation of the LCWR. I find Fr. Richard McBrien?s thoughts interesting, but I have read them before. I have also read and re-read Sandra...
The "Visitation" Revisited
Posted on November 09, 2009In a post a few days ago, in which I posted a reader's (Tom White's) comments, I referenced Sandra Schneiders (here). Well, in his column today, Fr. Richard McBrien, of Notre Dame's Theology Department, writes about Sr. Schneiders. Here's an...
Interesting story in TIME Magazine ...
Posted on November 09, 2009... and interesting not least for what fellow-blogger Robby George has to say in the story: here.
Who was that lone (and lonely?) Republican who voted on Saturday night for the health care legislation?
Posted on November 09, 2009Well, as it happens, he is a former Jesuit seminarian! Check out this post at dotCommonweal.
Bob Hockett and Paul Krugman
Posted on November 09, 2009I just read Paul Krugman's column in today's NYT, and its has a striking affinity with Rob Hockett's post, which I referenced, and to which I linked, earlier today. On reflection, I think that Bob and Krugman are definitely on...
Pakistan?
Posted on November 09, 2009As much as I admire Bob Hockett, I was not wild about his "Republican Party as Pakistan" post to which Michael Perry recently called our attention. Given how thoughtful and helpful Bob's posts have been here at MOJ, I am...
"Objectionable"?: A response to Bob
Posted on November 09, 2009In response to Bob's last post, a few quick thoughts: First, it is not at all the case that opposing the proposal that passed the House is -- the Stupak amendment notwithstanding -- (anything like) "aim[ing] at stifling the Magisterium...
Objectionable
Posted on November 09, 2009Here, incidentally, is footage of floor "debate" on healthcare reform this weekend, even with Stupak known to be imminent: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/just_ugly.php#more?ref=fpblg. Since the Bishops have called for universal health coverage for decades, and since the Stupak Amendment, as I understand it,...
Thanks, Michael Perry
Posted on November 09, 2009Many thanks, Michael. I'll bear that in mind in future. Incidentally, Mike Dorf has interesting observations on the Stupak Amendment over on today's DoL. Somewhat relatedly, listening to Dennis Kucinich on Democracy Now this morning -- a Congressman and a...
Dear Bob Hockett,
Posted on November 09, 2009That was a very interesting post you made at "Dorf on Law", on The Republican Party as Pakistan. Given the breadth of postings here at MOJ on matters political, you could easily have posted your thoughts here as well.
Liberal Democracy, the Right to Religious Freedom, and the Roman Catholic Church
Posted on November 08, 2009This paper, soon to be published in a symposium issue of Notre Dame's Review of Politics, may be of interest to some MOJ readers. Liberal Democracy and the Right to Religious Freedom Michael J. Perry Emory University School of Law;...
Yet another slander against the fraternity!
Posted on November 08, 2009If you have ever testified in court, you might wish you could have been as sharp as this policeman, being cross examined by a defense attorney during a felony trial. The lawyer was trying to undermine the police officer's credibility....
The Sash Without a Country
Posted on November 08, 2009Sorry, All, I inadvertently left out two key words in composing the final sentence of my post a moment ago: "in France." It is in France that I recall seeing those bright red sashes at all the civil ceremonies preceding...
More Thoughts on Civil and Sacramental Marriage
Posted on November 08, 2009Hello All, An interested reader of my earlier post sent some helpful thoughts that I thought I would share, then quickly -- and again tentatively -- respond to. Here is what he wrote: "I think, however, that some of the...
An Answer
Posted on November 08, 2009Rest assured, Michael. It's hard to see how even a much-more-hard-core-than-I-am Irish fan could blame Navy -- let alone the ever-amiable Chris Eberle -- for being the instrument of Notre Dame's humiliation on Saturday.
A Reader Responds
Posted on November 07, 2009Thanks to Tom White for reading MOJ--and especially for his response below to my post. It's clear where I stand on the issue of the "visitation": with Sr. Sandra Schneiders and Sister X, among others (including my Aunt Betty, who...
On "Benedict's ongoing battle against secularism"
Posted on November 07, 2009I'm not a fan of the National Catholic Reporter, but that newpaper certainly has a gem of a reporter in John Allen. Thanks to Michael P. for calling attention to Mr. Allen's characteristically insightful article on Pope Benedict's ongoing battle...
"Benedict's ongoing battle against secularism"
Posted on November 07, 2009Is there anywhere a more informed, or more insightful, commentator on today's Roman Catholic Church than John Allen? If so, who? This week's Friday missive from John Allen is especially good, And that's saying something! Read it ... here.
A Question
Posted on November 07, 2009Are my friends Rick Garnett (Notre Dame) and Chris Eberle (United States Naval Academy) themselves still friends? Just kidding. Of course they are! Indeed, I doubt that Chris Eberle knows that Navy has a football team. Chris?
Notre Dame's adult-stem-cell-research ad and initiative
Posted on November 07, 2009Today, at halftime of Notre Dame's pathetic disappointing loss to Navy, this ad -- which describes a research project that uses adult stem cells and proclaims Notre Dame's commitment to life from conception to natural death -- ran. And, this...
Professor Dickens?s Great but Tragic and Flawed Expectations
Posted on November 06, 2009Thanks to Michael P. for alerting us to Professor Bernard Dickens recent essay appearing in Medicine and Law dealing with conscientious objection in the realm of ?reproductive rights? and his assertion that there are occasions when the conscientious objector claim...
Is the NYT anti-Catholic?
Posted on November 06, 2009[Some MOJ readers will be interested in this:] A Response to Archbishop Dolan I am the national religion correspondent at The New York Times, and sent this letter to Archbishop Dolan yesterday. I would like to share it with the...
Is 'Marriage' a Civil as Well as a Sacramental Category?
Posted on November 06, 2009Hello again, All, Martha Nussbaum gave an interesting talk here today on the subject of same-gender marriage, a subject which figures into her forthcoming book on 'the politics of disgust.' I took the opportunity of the talk to raise a...
Shiffrin Fest Part II
Posted on November 06, 2009Hello again, All, Just a quick note to say there's a very nice exchange between our friend Steve on the one hand, and Steve's & my colleague Mike Dorf on the other, over at Dorf on Law today. I still...
American nuns may have been infected by the "feminism" virus. That's why the Vatican patriarchy must investgate!
Posted on November 05, 2009Read all about it at dotCommonweal, here.
The Camino Begins...
Posted on November 05, 2009(hoisting the censor at the Santiago Cathedral) After spending more than a month blissfully in first gear, I have shifted into second gear after returning home Tuesday night. In many ways, reaching Santiago marked - for me and my fellow...
Some More Grist for Rob's Mill
Posted on November 05, 2009"Legal Protection and Limits of Conscientious Objection: When Conscientious Objection is Unethical" Medicine and Law, Vol. 28, pp. 337-347, 2009 BERNARD DICKENS, University of Toronto - Faculty of Law Email: bernard.dickens@utoronto.ca The right to conscientious objection is founded on human...
Remember, remember, the Fifth of November
Posted on November 05, 2009Today is "Guy Fawkes Day" (or, more precisely, for our friends across the Pond, tonight is Bonfire Night), When I was in first grade, my public school celebrated Guy Fawkes Day. It did not strike me as strange at the...
Hans Kung and the Vatican
Posted on November 04, 2009One of my favorite theologians, Hans Kung, has criticized the Pope on the Anglican issue, See http://www.catholicreview.org/subpages/storyworldnew-new.aspx?action=7087, and the Vatican has fired back. See http://blog.beliefnet.com/news/2009/11/vatican-newspaper-denounces-sw...
A Message from Italy
Posted on November 04, 2009[MOJ friend, Pasquale Annicchino, Fellow in the Law and Religion Programme at the University of Siena and Editor in Chief, University College London Human Rights Review, sends this along:] Lautsi v Italy: A European Everson? Italian National Ms Soile Lautsi...
The Next Generation of Catholic Leaders.... in action at Georgetown?
Posted on November 04, 2009John Allen recently published an interesting article called "The Next Generation of Catholic Leaders", on a topic that we've addressed on MOJ in the past -- the nature of a perceived generational shift in attitudes toward the Church. He writes:...
The well-formed conscience as the "certain" conscience
Posted on November 04, 2009MoJ reader Robert King offers some thoughts on our conversation about the Catholic voter and conscience: While in the process of investigating, the individual should give the benefit of the doubt to the Church; and only when every avenue of...
Catholic Social Theory Critique of the UN's MDGs
Posted on November 04, 2009The Millennium Development Goals: In Light of Catholic Social Teaching By D. Brian Scarnecchia, JD and Terrence McKeegan, JD looks good. Focuses on a lack of solidarity and subsidiarity. Check it out further at http://www.c-fam.org/publications/id.1403/pub_detail...
Conscience and the Catholic voter in Maine
Posted on November 03, 2009We've talked about conscience and the Catholic voter before on MoJ, but it's worth revisiting in the context of the Maine same-sex marriage vote. The notion that a person is only obligated to follow a well-formed conscience is in some...
Cultivating a Franciscan sensibility among lawyers
Posted on November 03, 2009Even in his first post, Bob Hockett has contributed significantly to the Catholic legal theory project. There is a lot to explore along the lines of his Franciscan worldview and its implications for our understanding of lawyers and the work...
Conscience and Fr. Ratzinger
Posted on November 03, 2009Thanks to Rob for his joining me on the discussion on conscience and fidelity, a discussion we pursue frequently at the Mirror of Justice?and, I am confident, we will continue to discuss for some time to come. In view of...
Steve Shiffrin Fest
Posted on November 02, 2009Hello All, A quick note to congratulate our friend Steve Shiffrin upon the release of his new book on the 'Religious Left.' We held an illuminating symposium here this past Friday to mark the occasion. I'll write more about that...
As goes Maine...
Posted on November 02, 2009Tomorrow voters in Maine will cast their individual ballots on the proposal to determine the meaning of marriage?the Question 1 initiative. A ?yes? is a vote for the defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Sound...
Welcome home, Michael
Posted on November 01, 2009I suspect I speak for many MOJ readers and bloggers when I say how wonderful and inspiring it has been to have had Michael's faith-filled dispatches from the Camino these past few weeks. What a blessed experience this been for...
Gratitude in Santiago
Posted on November 01, 2009We just finished the Pilgrim´s Mass at theCathedral, and it was one of the most beautiful masses I have ever attended with the choir´s voices moving through the church like angels. The pilgrim´s were fumigated with a big censor (sp),...
"Reformation Day"
Posted on October 31, 2009Timothy George has posted some thoughts, over at First Things, on the occasion of "Reformation Day."
Thanks for Having Me, and an Idea I'd Like to Float: 'The Franciscan Sensibility'
Posted on October 31, 2009Hello All, I've finally figured out how to add comments here, so here goes the maiden voyage. And thanks many millions to Rick both for the invitation and for making the actual posting possible! I thought I'd start off by...
"Law & Order" (pleasantly) surprises
Posted on October 31, 2009Although the show has been on for nearly 20 years, I am pretty sure I've seen every episode of the original Law & Order series. (Don't worry -- this is not going to become a TV blog. After all, it...
Arbp. Dolan on anti-Catholicism and the NYT
Posted on October 31, 2009"Foul Ball", charges Arbp. Timothy Dolan: . . . I do not mean to suggest that anti-catholicism is confined to the pages New York Times. Unfortunately, abundant examples can be found in many different venues. I will not even begin...
"Two There Are"?, again
Posted on October 30, 2009Following up on Rob's post, which called our attention to two recent federal-district-court opinions, here's another decision, out of the European Court of Human Rights, that seems troubling for similar "political authority overreaching and interfering in church polity" reasons.
"The worst thing that you . . . can do"
Posted on October 30, 2009Apparently,it's having babies. The odd thing is, the person who said this probably thinks of himself as a humanist.
USCCB urges Catholics to urge lawmakers to keep abortion funding out of health-insurance legislation
Posted on October 30, 2009More here.
Dawkins: Catholic Church in the running for world's "greatest force for evil"
Posted on October 30, 2009First Maureen Dowd, now hipster-atheist Richard Dawkins: What major institution most deserves the title of greatest force for evil in the world? In a field of stiff competition, the Roman Catholic Church is surely up there among the leaders. ....
Rep. Stupak on abortion and health-insurance legislation
Posted on October 30, 2009"I am not trying to kill health reform", says Rep. Bart Stupak. What a world. A congressman who is trying to get the leadership to allow a vote on the question whether public funds should subsidize the "kill[ing]" of unborn...
"Two there are?"
Posted on October 30, 2009Do claims for negligent hiring, retention, and supervision against the Catholic Church stemming from clergy abuse violate the First Amendment? A federal court says not necessarily.
Pilgrim´s Progress
Posted on October 30, 2009Stillness! I spent more than a half an hour this morning watching the sun rise over a medeival bridge along a quiet river listening to the river, the wind in the trees, the birds, a rooster signalling the dawn, farm...
Tale of Two Caminos: A Testimony to Community
Posted on October 29, 2009The Camino is a metaphor and a microcosm of life. And, like life itself, there are many facets to the journey. This reflection will focus on the paradoxical freedom flowing from living in a committed community. Everyone walking to Santiago...
Family Law as Social Insurance
Posted on October 28, 2009Anne Alstott has posted a new paper, Private Tragedies? Family Law as Social Insurance, that may be of interest to MoJ readers. From the abstract: In this essay, I suggest that family law constitutes a form of social insurance, supplementing...
"The Nuns' Story", about Maureen Dowd
Posted on October 28, 2009Like, unfortunately, many things that Maureen Dowd writes, this recent screed (which, as Michael noted a few days ago, was very, very widely read), "The Nuns' Story", tells us much more about the bile that sloshes around in Maureen Dowd...
Women may come out winners in the
Posted on October 27, 2009Women may come out winners in the Synod for Africa By John L. Allen Jr. If there's one big idea that seemed to surface at the nearly monthlong Synod for Africa in Rome, it was a call to take women...
The Practical Camino and an Update
Posted on October 27, 2009Since the clouds lifted and the rain ended around 10 am on Sunday as we descended from O´Cebrerio with its partially 9th Century Church (the oldest extant church associated with the Camino), we have had two glorious days of walking....
"The Nuns' Story"
Posted on October 27, 2009This is, as I post, the most e-mailed story of all the stories that have appeared recently in the NYT: The Nuns' Story.
R. George at the William J. Clinton School of Public Service
Posted on October 27, 2009On Thursday of this week, I'll be giving a lecture at the William J. Clinton Library and School of Public Service in Little Rock, Arkansas. Here is the announcement: Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University October 29,...
On the question of the ordination of women: Anglicans, 1; Vatican, 0
Posted on October 26, 2009Decide for yourself. Here.
Same-Sex Unions: As the World Turns ...
Posted on October 26, 2009NYT, 10/27/09 In Battle Over Gay Marriage, Timing May Be Key By ADAM LIPTAK In a San Francisco courtroom two weeks ago, a prominent lawyer opposed to same-sex marriage made a concession that could mark a turning point in the...
Martin Marty on "Anglicans and Rome"
Posted on October 26, 2009Sightings 10/26/09 Anglicans and Rome -- Martin E. Marty The top ecumenical ? some are saying un- or anti-ecumenical ? news of the year occurred October 20th with a Vatican announcement. Bypassing forty years of Anglican-Roman Catholic conversations-cum-negotiations and blindsiding...
On One of Those Takes on Pope Benedict's Invitation to Anglicans
Posted on October 26, 2009Rick: I'm baffled by those comments by David Gibson that you quoted. Perhaps I'm just not understanding what Mr. Gibson is trying to say. There are indeed some mysteries waiting to be revealed about how the affairs of the new...
Pope Benedict's invitation to Anglicans: Two Takes
Posted on October 26, 2009Here's Ross Douthat and David Gibson on the Pope's recent invitation to Anglicans. Gibson wonders if the move is "liberal", in that Benedict has signaled that the standards for what it means to be Catholic -- such as the belief...
Petitionary Prayer
Posted on October 26, 2009Unlike Merton (who I'm a big fan of) or Michael P., I find petitionary prayer neither the product of immature theology nor mind-boggling. However, assuming the Notre Dame players were not simply giving thanks for the opportunity to play football...
Religious liberty and SSM in D.C.
Posted on October 26, 2009As the Washington Post reports: [F]ive law professors and Marc D. Stern, executive director of the American Jewish Congress, sent a letter to council members Friday asking that religious organizations be given more latitude to deny services for same-sex weddings...
On the Bible and Homsosexual Acts: Anglicans, 1, Episcopalians, 0
Posted on October 26, 2009From the same Anglican Bishop (N.T. Wright). Decide for yourself here: http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/word/wright.htm Money quote: Q. So a Christian morality faithful to scripture cannot approve of homosexual conduct? A. Correct. Bishop Wright is quite an unpredictable fellow, by the way...
Football prayers: A response to Michael
Posted on October 26, 2009In response to Michael's"curio[sity]", occasioned by my report from the ND v. BC game, two quick thoughts: First, it's easy for me to imagine that the Irish players were not "petitioning" God, but instead thanking him for the wonderful privilege...
A thought on the occasion of Rick's post
Posted on October 25, 2009Was the players' prayer (or were their prayers) petitionary? Or not? If peititionary, is the players' prayer the sign of a mature theology? Or not? Thomas Merton thought petitionary prayer the sign of an immature theology. My thought? This side...
A perceptive observation
Posted on October 25, 2009On Saturday, my son Tommy and I were at the ND v. Boston College game. After agreeing with me that it was ?cool? that the Notre Dame players run out of the tunnel, down to the south endzone, where they...
Shedding my Burdens on the Camino
Posted on October 24, 2009Today I shed a month´s worth of photo´s that must have been burdening me although they didn´t seem to weigh that much. I had a great photo that I wanted to be able to blow up to a larger size...
A New President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
Posted on October 24, 2009A few moments ago Pope Benedict appointed Peter Kodwo Appiah Cardinal Turkson, currently the archbishop of Cape Coast, Ghana, as the new President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. The announcement is [HERE], and the appointment is effective...
"Singing in the Sleet"
Posted on October 23, 2009Yesterday morning we left our Albergue in Foncebadon (resident population 2) about 8:30 am in near total darkness with fog and mist. About a kilometer later we were facing driving sleet and rain. After a slight and unintended detour on...
For those with an interest in John Courtney Murray, S.J.
Posted on October 23, 2009For those Mirror of Justice friends and contributors who may be interested in matters John Courtney Murrayish and may be in Chicago on November 10, scroll down to that date here. RJA sj
Save the Date: "Christian Realism and Public Life: Catholic and Protestant Perspectives"
Posted on October 22, 2009Readers might be interested in this conference on Christian Realism, to be held at St. Thomas's law building in Minneapolis November 20-21, and sponsored by the Murphy Institute for Catholic Thought, Law, and Public Policy. (You can register at the...
An Announcement of Interest to MOJ Readers
Posted on October 21, 2009?Religious Legal Theory: The State of the Field? Seton Hall University School of Law Newark, New Jersey Thursday-Friday, November 12-13, 2009 Seton Hall Law School will host Religious Legal Theory: The State of the Field, a conference to assess the...
The Vatican v. the European Court of Human Rights
Posted on October 21, 2009Lombardi Vallauri v. Italy (application no. 39128/05) CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF MILAN SHOULD HAVE GIVEN REASONS FOR REFUSING TO EMPLOY A LECTURER WHO HAD NOT BEEN APPROVED BY THE ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITIES Violation of Articles 6 § 1 (right to a fair...
Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study: Call for Fellows
Posted on October 21, 2009Notre Dame's new Institute for Advanced Study announces its inaugural annual conference, on "Beauty", to be held on Jan. 21-23, 2010, here. Note also the "call for Fellows." I hope a number of Catholic legal scholars will apply! Here's some...
More on Catholic judges
Posted on October 21, 2009Thanks to Rob for linking to the AP piece, which quoted me, on Catholic judges. I also think, I should say (and did say, to the author of the piece) that a Catholic judge -- like, I would think, any...
Garnett on Catholic judges
Posted on October 21, 2009The AP reports on a speech given by Justice Alito yesterday in which he expressed frustration regarding persistent questions about having six Catholics on the Supreme Court. Our own Rick Garnett is quoted in the article expressing support for Alito's...
March for Life in Spain
Posted on October 20, 2009I feel confident that there's better coverage available elsewhere, but here is the BBC: A broad cross-section of Spanish society were represented, says the BBC's Steve Kingstone in Madrid - old and young, parents with babies, priests, nuns, immigrant families...
John Allen's (devastating) reply to Sarah Silverman
Posted on October 20, 2009We've all heard it before -- something like, "why doesn't the Church sell all its fancy art and care for the poor?" etc. etc. Sarah Silverman is only the latest person (who is not as smart as he or she...
"The Persecution of Belmont Abbey"
Posted on October 20, 2009Charlotte Allen is on the case, in The Weekly Standard. (For another MOJ treatment of this case, go here.) The implications for religious liberty in the EEOC's newly-arrived-at decision to ignore the good-faith beliefs of a religious institution closely affiliated...
Blomquist, Tillman, et al. on the Founders and Religion
Posted on October 20, 2009Prof. Blomquist comments (link) on some recent work by Seth Tillman (here) and Geof Stone: In this Essay, Professor Blomquist responds to the remarks of Seth Tillman, which critiqued an article by Professor Geoffrey Stone on whether or not the...
The reconciliation begun by Mary Tudor and Reginald Cardinal Pole advances
Posted on October 20, 2009This morning, the Holy See and the Archbishop of Canterbury made two important announcements, [HERE] and [HERE]. It is expected that Pope Benedict XVI will be issuing in due course an Apostolic Constitution that will prepare the way for amending...
Coming to your local bookstore, soon ...
Posted on October 20, 2009... and sure to cause heartburn in certain precincts. Check it out, here.
Some additional thoughts on conscience?
Posted on October 19, 2009Friends of the Mirror of Justice will recall that I have participated in past discussions on the matter of conscience. Today I do not plan on getting into a prolonged discussion; however, I would like to offer a few observations...
The Life of Faith and the Moral Life
Posted on October 19, 2009On Sunday, I had the honor of receiving Mount St. Mary's University's Founder's Medal in a ceremony held at the end of a beautiful Mass in the University's Chapel at which one of my godsons, Msgr. Stuart Swetland, who is...
Reply to Rob on Conscience
Posted on October 19, 2009Rob, if you have another look at what I said about those justices of the peace, you'll see that I actually didn't state a position on the question that you and Steve Shiffren have taken opposing sides on. I was...
Religious Freedom, Moral Freedom: The Final Exam Question
Posted on October 19, 2009Brian Leiter argues, here, that there is no good reason to privilege religious freedom over moral freedom (though BL does not use the latter term). Michael Perry argues, here, that given the best--in the sense of most ecumenical--argument for privileging...
Latest Law-Prof-Blog rankings. Nutshell: MOJ-love is spreading like wildfire
Posted on October 19, 2009Or, at least, that's how I choose to interpret Prof. Caron's latest rankings. Only two blogs out of the "top 35" saw a larger percentage-change in hits and page-views over the past year than we did. No doubt, it is...
Mary Ann Glendon on the "Greatest Grassroots Movement of Our Times"
Posted on October 19, 2009Prof. Mary Ann Glendon's lecture, given on the occasion of her recent receipt of a well deserved reward, is available here, at the First Things blog. A bit: One of the main reasons for our slow but steady progress, I...
An exchange on the Founders and religion
Posted on October 19, 2009This exchange, between Profs. Sam Calhoun and Geof Stone, looks worth a read. Here's Calhoun's abstract: Professor Geoffrey Stone?s Essay, The World of the Framers: A Christian Nation?, seeks to state ?the truth about . . . what [the Framers]...
Patrick Brennan at Lumen Christi
Posted on October 19, 2009Our own Patrick Brennan has the honor of presenting the Yves Simon Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, November 4th at 4:30 pm in the Swift 3rd Floor Lecture Hall at the University of Chicago. Professor Brennan's lecture is entitled "Are Catholics...
Recommended Reading [Updated]
Posted on October 19, 2009[Here is the link to Brian Leiter's paper, for those of you interested in pursuing this interesting dispute. ] Can There Be a Religion of Reasons? A Response to Leiter's Circular Conception of Religious Belief Jeffrey M. Lipshaw Suffolk University...
Martin Marty on the Common Good
Posted on October 19, 2009Sightings 10/19/09 The Common Good -- Martin E. Marty Sometimes we do our sightings and findings of religion-in-public-life themes among throwaway or incidental lines, writings or sayings which suddenly hit us with unexpected force. A seemingly banal one struck me,...
Great Day Walking with Friends on the Camino
Posted on October 19, 2009Our relaxing day in Leon ended with night pray with the Benedictine Sisters who were hosting us in their albergue. Around 9:30 one nun came over to the albergue to invite us to pray. She even told a group of...
Do yourself a favor: read this ...
Posted on October 18, 2009Fellow Inmates Ease Pain of Dying in Jail.
On being "awake" ...
Posted on October 18, 2009"To be awake is to be alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face?" --Henry David Thoreau Well, Thoreau never met Jesus. Or Buddha. Among others. "O...
Honoring Michael Scaperlanda's sacrifice
Posted on October 18, 2009I feel your pain, Michael. To honor your sacrifice, I am posting a link to Bono's op-ed in today's NYT, titled "Rebranding America". Enjoy!
Sacrifice on the Camino
Posted on October 18, 2009Today is my one big day of sacrifice on the Camino. U2 is in Norman and my friend Teresa is using my ticket to go with my wife and two of my children. On the other hand it has been...
The Virtue of Enough
Posted on October 17, 2009Today I participated in the St. John's University Vincentian Chair of Social Justice Poverty Conference, the Vincentian Center's 6th biennial povertty conference. The theme was Extreme Wealth and Poverty and the Virtue of Enough. I moderated the opening plenary session,...
Further Response to Rob
Posted on October 17, 2009I, of course, agree with Rob regarding the executioner, but not with the Massachusetts justice of the peace. The justice of the peace can perform most marriages and sufficient alternatives exist for the remaining marriages. It is distinguishable from the...
How much work can the unconstitutional conditions analysis do?
Posted on October 17, 2009Regarding Steve's response, if a state where the death penalty is legal looked to hire an executioner, would an applicant who is conscientiously opposed to the death penalty have a legitimate claim to that job? Requiring the waiver of the...
Unconstitutional condition
Posted on October 17, 2009For what it's worth, in my view the statute described by Rob should be declared unconstitutional as applied to those whose freedom of conscience would be impaired. In the language of one line of cases, it should be regarded as...
Question for Robby and Steve on conscience
Posted on October 17, 2009I probably should be concerned that Steve Shiffrin and Robby George are united in disagreeing with my assertion that liberty of conscience should not empower a justice of the peace to refuse to marry a same-sex couple in a state...
Conscience, Justices of the Peace, and Associational Hiring
Posted on October 17, 2009For what it is worth, I think justices of the peace should be able to refuse to marry individuals if their consciences would be violated even if a justice holds the view with respect to interracial couples. (As described, the...
Conscience and Consequences
Posted on October 17, 2009Someone who holds, as I do, that the racist justice of the peace in Louisiana who refuses to perform marriages of interracial couples should not be permitted to retain his job is not logically committing himself to the proposition that...
Defend conscience! (Of the racist justice of the peace?)
Posted on October 16, 2009To answer Michael's question about the Louisiana justice of the peace who refuses to marry interracial couples: No, I do not believe that he should be legally empowered to exercise his conscience in this way, regardless of how many justices...
What say you, Rob, about this act of conscience?
Posted on October 16, 2009Interracial marriage. Same-sex marriage. Hmm. NYT, 11/16/09 October 16, 2009 NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Louisiana's governor and a U.S. senator joined Friday in calling for the ouster of a local official who refused to marry an interracial couple, saying his...
A conference in honor of Edward P. Mahoney
Posted on October 16, 2009Philosophers out there, take note: Duke University is holding a conference in honor of the work and memory of my former teacher, Fr. Edward Mahoney, a medievalist who taught for years at Duke. Here are some thoughts I wrote, when...
Task-Force Recommendations (draft) on Faith-Based Initiative
Posted on October 16, 2009Available here. (HT: Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance). A bit: The "Reform of the Office" task force made draft recommendations today to President Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, advocating clarification and some modifications of the church-state rules that...
"Reason for Faith"
Posted on October 16, 2009Check out Ryan's Anderson's review-essay, "Reason for Faith," in a recent issue of The Weekly Standard. He concludes, "natural science can reveal how the physical world works but not how we should act in it or what might exist above...
"Tax Dollars Should Not Fund Abortion"
Posted on October 16, 2009Charmaine Yoest contends, in the Wall Street Journal, that "Tax Dollars Should Not Fund Abortion." She's right. As is Bill McGurn. And Michael Sean Winters. And Jody Bottum. And the USCCB.
The Most Colorful Character on the First Half of the Camino
Posted on October 16, 2009I have had the pleasure of meeting many colorful characters so far on the Camino, and it is time to name the most colorful of the first half of the walk. My friend, Peter K. hopes it will be a...
Sex + priests = front page
Posted on October 16, 2009The New York Times has found another Catholic priest scandal to explore. On today's front page, the paper offers a "rare look at the lengths the Catholic Church goes to to keep clergy members' clandestine relationships hidden." The article documents....
More on hiring-for-mission and "discrimination"
Posted on October 16, 2009Steve writes: Catholic Charities ?hires to mission.? It does not and need not require that employees or volunteers be Catholics to further its mission. If it did so require, it would be discriminating on the basis of religion. When it...
Hiring to Mission
Posted on October 15, 2009Catholic Charities ?hires to mission.? It does not and need not require that employees or volunteers be Catholics to further its mission. If it did so require, it would be discriminating on the basis of religion. When it requires that...
"Discrimination" by Faith-Based Programs: A response to Steve
Posted on October 15, 2009Steve writes, here, that it is "possible to exaggerate the need for faith-based organizations to discriminate in the provision of social services." I suppose that's right. That said, I will go into broken-record mode and say that, in my view,...
Congratulations to Teresa Stanton Collett
Posted on September 30, 2009Congratulations are in order to Teresa Stanton Collett, colleague of our members from St. Thomas and a friend to many of us here at the Mirror of Justice. Teresa was nominated this morning to be a consultor to the Pontifical...
It´s a Small World on the Camino
Posted on September 30, 2009As I opened the door yesterday morning, I could here other pilgrims as their walking sticks and trekking poles clicked against the cobblestones of the medieval city of St. Jean Pied de Port. On the way out of town in...
This looks interesting ...
Posted on September 30, 2009[if lt IE 4] script src="http://servedbyadbutler.com/adserve/;ID=148263;size=300x250;setID=88259;type=js" type="text/javascript" /script noscript a href="http://servedbyadbutler.com/go2/;ID=148263;size=300x250;setID=88259" img src="http://servedbyadbutler...
Dear Robert, in your post below, ...
Posted on September 30, 2009... you quote this passage: "Dissent, in the form of carefully orchestrated protests and polemics carried on in the media, is opposed to ... a correct understanding of the hierarchical constitution of the People of God." Here's a translation of...
A house divided...
Posted on September 30, 2009Thanks to Michael P. for bringing to our attention the National Catholic Reporter story about Sr. Theresa Kane, RSM. I had seen the story earlier today, and I have been following the accounts of the investigations of the Leadership Conference...
Mercy Sister Thersa Kane Critizes Church Hierarchy
Posted on September 30, 2009This appeared this morning at NCRonline: Speaking at the 40th anniversary conference of the National Coalition of American Nuns in St. Louis, Mercy Sr. Theresa Kane offered a stinging rebuke to the Vatican for its treatment of women in general...
Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church
Posted on September 30, 2009I appreciate Michael's post with "a" translation of N. 113 of Veritatis Splendor. However, it seems that the text that I provided is in accord with Lumen Gentium wherein the people of God is discussed at considerable length. I think...
Welcome to Bob Hockett!
Posted on September 29, 2009And the MOJ party rolls on! Robby George joined us a few weeks ago and today I am delighted to announce that Bob Hockett (Cornell) has also signed on. For more about Bob's wide-ranging, excellent work, go here. Strange (but...
The Constitution in 2020: Religion, Division, and Pluralism
Posted on September 29, 2009I am participating this weekend in a conference at Yale Law School on "The Constitution in 2020" (more info here). There is also a blog up-and-running, where the various participants have posted summaries of their contributions to the conference. My....
Toleration or Respect?
Posted on September 29, 2009Take a look at Brian Leiter's new paper, posted on SSRN, "Foundations of Religious Liberty: Toleration or Respect?" Here is the abstract: Should we think of what I will refer to generically as ?the law of religious liberty? as grounded...
Prof. Feldblum nominated to EEOC
Posted on September 29, 2009Pres. Obama has nominated Prof. Chai Feldblum to be a member of the EEOC (thanks to Prof. Friedman for the link). This article of hers, "Moral Conflict and Liberty: Gay Rights and Religion", might be of interest. She concludes: [W]e...
"Love and Capitalism": TNR on PB16
Posted on September 29, 2009Here (thanks to Michael Sean Winters, at America, for the link) is a piece, by David Niremberg, on the Pope's recent encyclical, Caritas in Veritate. (I posted some thoughts, here, a while back about the encyclical and the ways that,...
"Catholic Social Thought and Legal Education"
Posted on September 29, 2009On Saturday, I had the pleasure of joining a number of my fellow MOJ-ers at Villanova for the Joseph T. McCullen, Jr. Symposium on Catholic Social Thought and the Law. It was a wonderful event. At the same time, it...
Who is Contributing to Sexualization of Children?
Posted on September 29, 2009One of the most disturbing and unpleasant things I've had to do in a long time was to spend three hours on a Monday evening at a training program for volunteers at our parish school. This training program is mandated...
More on the Sexualization of Children
Posted on September 29, 2009On the topic of the sexualization of children, one particularly passionate and articulate defender of children, Mary Leary at Catholic, has just posted a new paper: "Death to 'Child Erotica'". From the abstract: The world of child sexual exploitation is...
Doug Mills/The New York Times.
Posted on September 29, 2009Doug Mills/The New York Times. The Supreme Court photograph is taken only when there is a change on the bench.
Interesting New Work on Christian-Muslim Relations
Posted on September 28, 2009The most recent issue of Commonweal has a fascinating article on the interaction between St. Francis of Assisi and Sultan Malik al-Kamil during the Fifth Crusade. The piece is an adaptation of Paul Moses' The Saint and the Sultan: The...
Camino Reflections
Posted on September 27, 2009I leave Cantabria tomorrow for St. Jean Pied de Port, Fr where I will start walking on Tuesday. But, the Camino has been with me from the beginning. I met a law professor from Melbourne on the Metro in Madrid...
UPDATE: See below ...
Posted on September 26, 2009Bill Kostroun/Associated Press Justice Sotomayor Throws Out First Pitch By JACK CURRY 6:26 PM ET Yankees catcher Jorge Posada escorted Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the field to throw the first pitch before the Yankees played the Boston Red Sox on...
The Scandal of the Sexualization of Children
Posted on September 25, 2009Rob Vischer does a service by calling our attention to the scandal of the sexualization of children. It began in earnest in our society with Kinsey and his outrageous (and largely fraudulent) research. In recent decades it has metastasized to...
Coming Out in Middle School
Posted on September 24, 2009You should read this NYT Magazine story, if only to get a snapshot of how much more complicated things seem to be for budding adolescents today: Austin doesn?t have to play ?the pretend game,? as he calls it, anymore. At...
Islam on Capitol Hill
Posted on September 24, 2009There has been a lot of concern expressed in the blogosphere (and on Facebook) about a large Muslim prayer gathering on Capitol Hill scheduled for tomorrow. One of the organizers apparently said some inflammatory things in an interview, including some...
Should the government take sides in intra-religious debates?
Posted on September 23, 2009From the "better late than never" file: Keith Pavlischek has this post, over at First Things, asking whether it "violates the First Amendment" to "oppos[e] radical Islam". He writes: Since the Islamists believe they are permitted, indeed obliged, by their...
Teaching Terror as a Moral Obligation and the First Amendment
Posted on September 23, 2009I think the question whether teaching that the practice of terror is a moral obligation is constitutionally protected primarily raises free speech issues (not freedom of religion issues), and under current law, the rules dictate that the facts are important...
An article of interest to MOJ readers
Posted on September 23, 2009Catholic Moral Demands in American Politics: A New Paradigm By Jo Renee Formicola J. of Church and State Here.
A good day: New Eamon Duffy
Posted on September 23, 2009I received today a copy of Eamon Duffy's new book, "The Fires of Faith: Catholic England Under Mary Tudor." A must-read (Ed.: Have you read it? RG: No, but I just know. Ed.: Fair enough.).
Where goeth political debate?
Posted on September 23, 2009Many thanks to Rob Vischer for bringing to our attention the recent developments regarding Professor Scott FitzGibbon of Boston College Law School and the ?ruckus? over his appearance in a political advertisement concerning the state of Maine marriage referendum...
Should an anti-SSM professor be welcome in an inclusive law school?
Posted on September 22, 2009Boston College law prof Scott Fitzgibbon has caused quite a ruckus by appearing in an ad opposing same-sex marriage. I don't have anything new to say about the ad itself, but I was struck by a post at the popular...
Does CST's support of the market extend to health care?
Posted on September 22, 2009Over at PrawfsBlawg, Rick Esenberg responds to my question about Bishop Nickless's statement regarding the importance of defending the private sector in health care. Rick comments: Rob asks whether Catholic Social Thought actually claims that "a flourishing private sector" is...
The denouement of the travesty at Ave Maria Law School?
Posted on September 22, 2009A partial denouement, at least. Read the good news here.
Reminder: "The Summons of Freedom"
Posted on September 22, 2009If it's Fall, that means (i) Bell's Brewery has a tasty Octoberfest beer out, and (ii) the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture's big annual conference is drawing near. This conference is among the highlights of the academic year...
The Church on Health Care: "Defend the Private Sector!" (?)
Posted on September 21, 2009I'm quite sure that I do not know how to solve the problems we have in this country regarding access to health care; I'm also pretty sure that the bishops don't know how to solve the problems either. (Nor do...
Camino de Santiago
Posted on September 21, 2009For over a thousand years pilgrims have been walking the Camino de Santiago. Tomorrow I leave for Spain. After spending a few days with my wife?s relatives in Santander, I?ll make my way to St. Jean Pied de Port, France...
some arguments against social justice re health care in particular
Posted on September 21, 2009Seeing our sicknesses and other sufferings as social injustices makes us resent them more, makes us search for someone (the State) to blame for them, makes us less grateful to those officials who alleviate them (because we are only, at...
Happy Constitution Day!
Posted on September 18, 2009Give it a read, if you haven't recently. There's some good stuff in there: We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote...
Esenberg on CST, subsidiarity, and crises
Posted on September 18, 2009Richard Esenberg has a very thoughtful post up at Prawfsblawg about "the Catholic notion of subsidiarity and what how it may inform our thinking about proposed expansions of the state in response to various 'crises,' e.g., the financial seizure, global...
GOD'S ECONOMY: Faith-Based Iniatives and the Caring State, by Lew Daly
Posted on September 18, 2009Here is the University of Chicago Press pre-publication blurb about a book that readers of MOJ should rush to pre-order: GOD?S ECONOMY Faith-Based Initiatives and the Caring State Lew Daly With a foreword by E. J. Dionne Jr. University of...
MOJ Friend Gerry Whyte on Christianity and Socialism
Posted on September 18, 2009Gerry Whyte (Trinity College Law [Dublin]) writes: [T]he relationship between socialism and Christianity ... may be closer than many US conservatives realise. For a start, socalists arguably inherited from Christianity a particular way of seeing history, namely, as a linear...
A Unique Position for the United States Bishops in the Health Care Debate
Posted on September 17, 2009I think all of us on this blog agree that everyone should have access to affordable quality health care regardless of economic status, age, or condition of health. The devil, as usual, is in the details. What I fear is...
Pro-life critique of baucus bill
Posted on September 17, 2009National Right to Life comments on the Baucus proposal for health care ? Sept 16, 2009. http://www.nrlc.org/press_releases_new/Release091609.html
Fr. Jenkins' letter on Notre Dame Task Force
Posted on September 17, 2009A letter from Fr. John Jenkins to the "Notre Dame family" has been circulated and discussed widely; the full text is available many places, including here, at the America blog. Here is a taste: As our nation continues to struggle...
What do our "dorms" say about us?
Posted on September 17, 2009When I think back to the condition of the dormitory bathroom that I shared in college, I still shudder a bit. I haven't checked, but I'm pretty sure it was designated as a Superfund site shortly after graduation. We may...
Red Mass in Norman, Oklahoma
Posted on September 17, 2009All lawyers, judges, law students and others associated with the legal profession are invited to the 30th annual Red Mass at St. Thomas More in Norman (corner of Jenkins and Stinson). The Mass is at 5pm this Sunday, Sept. 20...
Rick Garnett gives the right response
Posted on September 17, 2009That is, "right" as in "correct"! Immediately below. And thanks, Rick, for putting up with this compulsive tweaker!
Michael Perry asks the wrong question
Posted on September 17, 2009Because my friend Michael likes to have fun tweaking me, by pretending that my thinking and action when it comes to policy and politics is shaped by a loyalty to "Republicans," or an aversion to "Democrats" (he knows this isn't...
Is Sen. Baucus out to kill Grandma too?
Posted on September 17, 2009Is the National Right to Life Committee engaging in scare tactics? I was disturbed to read that the Baucus bill "will gravely endanger the lives of America's senior citizens." Then I read the analysis: With respect to rationing, the proposal...
Socialism (Catholicism?) 101, Part 5
Posted on September 16, 2009[From today's NYT online's "Room for Debate:.] Jefferson Cowie and Nick Salvatore teach American history at Cornell University and are the authors of the forthcoming book, ?The Long Exception: An Interpretation of the New Deal from FDR to Obama.? When...
Socialism (Catholicism?) 101, Part 4
Posted on September 16, 2009[From today's NYT online's "Room for Debate".] Terence Ball Why are some ? mostly older, overwhelmingly white ? Americans so afraid of ?socialism? and, by extension, ?socialized medicine?? One explanation is that they don?t actually know what socialism is, namely...
Socialism (Catholicism?) 101, Part 3
Posted on September 16, 2009[From today's NYT online's "Room for Debate".] Andrew Hartman. Recent denunciations of Obama?s proposed health-care plan as ?socialist? have taken some observers by surprise, especially since the foreign threat of socialism receded two decades ago when the Soviet Union imploded...
Socialism (Catholicism?) 101, Part 2
Posted on September 16, 2009[This one by my Emory colleague, historian Patrick Allitt.] [From today's NYT online's "Room for Debate".] Patrick Allitt is the Cahoon Family Professor of American History at Emory University in Atlanta. He is author of ?The Conservatives: Ideas and Personalities...
Socialism (Catholicism?) 101, Part 1
Posted on September 16, 2009[Frm the today's NYT online's "Room for Debate".] Katrina vanden Heuvel When any American reform leader takes on the status quo, he or she confronts a ferocious, well-organized and reactionary opposition. Is it any surprise that right-wing groups now compare...
A great conference in Mexico: "The Lay State and Religious Liberty"
Posted on September 16, 2009More info here. The purpose of the symposium is to raise awareness of international religious liberty standards and how they apply to the United States, Latin America, and Mexico. The symposium is also meant to encourage the emerging voices of...
Congrats to Russ Hittinger
Posted on September 16, 2009MOJ bloggers and readers are, no doubt, familiar with the work of Prof. Russ Hittinger. I've learned that Russ has recently been named to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, the aim of which is to promote the study and...
Michael Moore, the Catholic Documentarian, on Capitalism
Posted on September 16, 2009Moore's new documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story, will soon be out. (I'm sure Rick is salivating!) In today's NYT, it is said: As much as Mr. Moore sometimes plays a comic-book version of class warrior ? Left-Thing vs. the Republic...
Thomas Merton ...
Posted on September 16, 2009... to whom I dedicated my second book, way back in 1988, and who, I sometimes think, singlehandedly keeps me identifying myself, in spite of everything, as a Roman Catholic, what would you think about this?
Interested in the "Catholic" take on the Health Care Reform Debate?
Posted on September 16, 2009Of course you are! Then, check this out: Here. And here. What say you, Rick: Ready to join the Democrats on this one, at least?
Allen on Subsidiarity and Health Care Reform
Posted on September 15, 2009Prompted by a statement of Kansas bishops Naumann and Finn, several MOJ posts in the last week or so have addressed the issue of health care reform and subsidiarity John Allen takes up the topic in his NCR column this...
What would Catholic legal theory say to Kanye?
Posted on September 15, 2009David Brooks offers a nice reflection on the "line of narcissism" we've crossed as a culture since World War II, exemplified in recent days by Rep. Joe Wilson, Kanye West, and Michael Jordan. Brooks overstates things a bit, asserting that...
"Being real"
Posted on September 15, 2009In response to my post about Kanye West, Marc DeGirolami adds: In addition to the self-creation angle, I wonder whether ?being real? is now a justification (or maybe only an excuse) for various sorts of vice that might coincide with...
Immanuel Kant Never Visited Yerkes!
Posted on September 14, 2009September 14, 2009 Virtual empathy clue to behavior By Emily Rios In the only study of its kind, researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center have documented the first example of a nonhuman primate empathizing with a computer animation....
Kain on Kant on Human Moral Status
Posted on September 14, 2009In light of our recent conversation about Christianity's debt to Kant, we might find helpful Purdue philosophy prof Patrick Kain's recent paper, Kant's Defense of Human Moral Status. Here's a summary: The determination of individual moral status is a central...
Some reflections on sovereignty by one who studies the Church?s social doctrine and public international law
Posted on September 14, 2009I would like to thank Patrick and Greg for their discussions about sovereignty. As Patrick mentioned, there was not the opportunity to hear from the realms of public international law or theology at the symposium that was described, so perhaps...
More on "Intractable Disputes About the Natural Law"
Posted on September 14, 2009In response to my post below, I am informed that: The CUA Nat'l Law Symposium will be published in the upcoming issue of the Journal of Law, Philosophy, and Culture: http://law.cua.edu/clpc/journal/Vol3.pdf
More on the Sovereignty Symposium at Villanova
Posted on September 14, 2009Over the weekend, Patrick Brennan provided a synopsis of the very interesting and diverse presentations offered at the ?Sovereignty? symposium on Friday hosted at Villanova Law School. Before adding my ?two or three cents worth,? as Patrick invited me to...
"Elementary Experience" and Natural Law
Posted on September 13, 2009At the urging of my pals Mary Ann Glendon and Joseph Weiler, I accepted an invitation to speak (in a tag-team partnership with Mary Ann) at the 30th annual "Meeting for Friendship of Peoples" hosted by Communion & Liberation in...
Kristof on the Debate Over Health Care
Posted on September 13, 2009"After Al-Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 Americans, eight years ago on Friday, we went to war and spent hundreds of billions of dollars ensuring that this would not happen again. Yet every two months, that many people die becaue of our...
Lifted from dotCommonweal ...
Posted on September 13, 2009... because of special relevance to us here at MOJ: Intractable Disputes About the Natural Law?Alasdair MacIntyre and His Critics September 13, 2009, 6:03 pm Posted by Cathleen Kaveny Many of the subjects discussed on this blog touch upon moral...
Welcome to Robert George
Posted on September 13, 2009I suppose I should not be surprised that the newest member of the MOJ community, Prof. Robert George (Politics / Princeton), put up his inaugural post before I could put up the "welcome" post. In any event, welcome aboard, Robby!
Opting Out
Posted on September 12, 2009This week my family took at small step away from government subsidized big agri-business toward what I hope will be healthier food produced in a more sustainable way by people we will get to know over the years. We joined...
A Health Care Reform Alternative
Posted on September 12, 2009This op-ed in the Wall Street Journal from last month proposes a market-based solution for health care reform, which gets us closer to universal coverage without massive government regulation. If it works, isn't this solution consistent with Catholic Social Teaching?...
Health Care Reform: Big Food v. Big Insurance
Posted on September 12, 2009Thank you Susan for your insights into health care reform. Last month, after reading Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma, I suggested that one way to control health care costs in the US would be to reform agricultural policy. A couple of...
"You're not the boss of me"
Posted on September 12, 2009My subject line was the unofficial title for the symposium held yesterday at Villanova Law: "Sovereignty's Seductions: Reconciling Conflicting Claims to Govern." The symposium grew out of a conversation my wonderful colleague Ann Juliano and I carried on, over several...
A Market-Based Alternative for Health Care Reform
Posted on September 12, 2009Michael Scaperlanda directs us to a recent WSJ op-ed and asks what problems there might be to the author's suggestion of a market-based approach and whether such an approach is inherently at odds with Catholic Social Teaching. I think the...
Remembering 9/11
Posted on September 11, 2009Thanks to Rick for posting Pope Benedict's prayer during his visit to Ground Zero. I'm drawn particularly to the request for wisdom and courage to work for a world of peace. In my Creo en Dios! post this morning (which...
For September 11 . . .
Posted on September 11, 2009Here is the prayer offered by Pope Benedict during his visit to Ground Zero: O God of love, compassion, and healing, look on us, people of many different faiths and traditions, who gather today at this site, the scene of...
Have white Catholics in the U.S. "put racial prejudice behnd them"?
Posted on September 10, 2009"How Overt Racial Prejudice Hurt Obama in the 2008 Election" SPENCER PISTON, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor - Department of Political Science Email: spiston@umich.edu Some commentators claim that white Americans put prejudice behind them when evaluating presidential candidates in...
"Barack Obama's conversion to Catholicism"
Posted on September 10, 2009Does anyone know anything about this, here? [Thanks to MOJ friend Pasquale Annicchino for the pointer.]
McGurn on the New Hampshire case
Posted on September 10, 2009I blogged a few days ago about (what I think is) a disturbing family-law opinion, written by a judge in New Hampshire. Bill McGurn has an interesting op-ed, here, about the case, and also about a case in Florida, in...
Saving Grace
Posted on September 09, 2009The current issue of America has a review of one of my favority TV shows, Saving Grace, starring Holly Hunter.
What do you think ...
Posted on September 09, 2009... of New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman's view of one-party autocracy? One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages....
God's Politics
Posted on September 09, 2009Is God a liberal? A conservative? A traditional Catholic will say neither because Vatican teachings are on both sides of the liberal/conservative divide. I am not a traditional or Vatican Catholic, but disagreeing with that position is not the point....
New Book: The Religious Left and Church-State Relations
Posted on September 09, 2009I have a new book that has recently been released. For a description, endorsements, table of contents, and the introduction, go to http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9088.html.
Villanova conference on Catholic Legal Education
Posted on September 09, 2009This should be a fun and thought-provoking event: There are 29 law schools in Catholic universities in the United States, and the past 10 years have witnessed a renaissance in Catholic legal education. New law schools have opened with an...
China's "enlightened" leaders?
Posted on September 09, 2009This Tom Friedman piece is just creepy. I suppose China's "enlightened" leaders make the trains run on time, too? (Yes, yes, Friedman is correct to note that democracy complicates the efforts of those who desire dramatic policy shifts. But still...
Robert George on Kant and Human Dignity
Posted on September 09, 2009Robby George writes: Rob Vischer asks: What does the Christian belief in human dignity owe to Kant? One way of approaching the question is to consider Kant?s second formulation of the categorical imperative, namely: ?treat humanity, whether in the person...
Can a sane person oppose SSM?
Posted on September 09, 2009Apparently this is an open question at The Washington Post. Get Religion offers its usual helpful analysis.
More on our disappointing health-care "debate"
Posted on September 09, 2009Like Susan (though perhaps for some different reasons), I am "depressed about the prospects of passing meaningful health care reform." This depression was greatly enhanced (exacerbated?) by reading the cover story in the September issue of The Atlantic...
"Contraception cheapest way to combat climate change"
Posted on September 09, 2009This article may be of interest: Every £4 spent on family planning over the next four decades would reduce global CO2 emissions by more than a ton, whereas a minimum of £19 would have to be spent on low-carbon technologies...
God's Politics: A response to Steve S.
Posted on September 09, 2009Steve's post on "God's politics" is, I think, very insightful. I agree that it is a mistake to imagine that "God is neither a liberal or a conservative" if by that one means "God is indifferent to the results and...
The Kansas Bishops' Statement on Health Care Reform
Posted on September 08, 2009Bishops Naumann and Finn issued a statement on health care reform last week. I am not by any stretch an expert on health care reform, but I think there is much to talk about in the document. For now, three...
Stith on Abortion and the Causal Link
Posted on September 08, 2009Our own Richard Stith has an excellent essay in the current First Things titled "Her Choice, Her Problem." An excerpt: Throughout human history, children have been the consequence of natural sexual relations between men and women. Both sexes knew they...
KC Bishops and Health Care Reform
Posted on September 08, 2009I've become so depressed about the prospects of passing meaningful health care reform that I've refrained from posting on the subject. I don't have time for an extensive response to the statement of Bishops Naumann and Finn, but since Rob...
The Best Film of the Year ...
Posted on September 08, 2009... hands down ... is The Hurt Locker. Read Richard Alleva's review, just published in Commonweal, here.
Inazu on the Right of Association
Posted on September 07, 2009If you're interested in Catholic legal theory, any day should be a good day to talk about the right of association, but Labor Day seems like an especially fitting occasion, and John Inazu has posted a nice conversation-starter in the...
The loss
Posted on September 06, 2009Thanks Michael P. Setting Bradford's injury aside, ESPN's Pat Forde had these damning words for Coach Bob Stoops and the Sooners: Say this much about the Sooners: they're not Michigan. This performance was compelling evidence that they're not violating the...
Demonization and Hysteria as Par for the Course
Posted on September 04, 2009Facilitating the common good requires the cultivation of a political culture in which people of opposing views can engage each other in good faith and with open minds. It took a few years for anti-Bush hysteria to work itself up...
Tony Blair on the importance of faith in the public square
Posted on September 04, 2009Last week Tony Blair spoke at Communion and Liberation's annual meeting in Rimini. The full text of his speech is here. Here are some highlights: [T]here is not just room, but a growing space today for organisations of civic society...
Red Mass This Evening in Lawrence, Kansas
Posted on September 03, 2009If you are in the Lawrence, Kansas area this evening, consider attending the Red Mass, which will be celebrated at 5:15 pm at St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center. For more information, click here. HT: Emily Friedman
Brennan on self-love and forgiveness
Posted on September 03, 2009Our own Patrick Brennan has this interesting paper up on SSRN: Forgiving is not pardoning, excusing, condoning, forgetting, or reconciling, nor is forgiving just about a change in emotions on the part of a victim. This paper pursues a virtue-theoretic...
The Post's suggested reading for the President on educational choice
Posted on September 03, 2009I am a few days late on this, but I hope readers had a chance to see this op-ed, in the Washington Post, regarding the D.C. school-choice program, which the new Congress has been attacking: PRESIDENT OBAMA reportedly has a...
Taxing churches
Posted on September 03, 2009Gerald Russello is concerned (here) that "to tax churches is to muzzle religion." (I explored this and related concerns a few years ago in this law-review article.) A taste: [T]he existence of churches and their ability to freely practice their...
Pres. Obama's "dramatic[] change[s]" to the faith-based office
Posted on September 03, 2009According to Dan Gilgoff, writing in the Washington Post, the President has "dramatically changed" the role of the faith-based office: Six months after its rollout, Obama's office has dramatically shifted gears from the one that Bush started from scratch in...
"A House Divided"
Posted on September 03, 2009Jody Bottum has a must-read post over at First Things, about a -- to me -- very disturbing family-law decision in New Hampshire. (Eugene Volokh comments on the same case here.) A "10-year-old daughter lives during the week with her...
Catholic Teaching, Senator Kennedy, and Abortion
Posted on September 03, 2009This posting is not intended to delve into the subject of Senator Kennedy?s views on a variety of issues. Rather, it is an opportunity to bring to the attention of those who visit this site some relevant information about what...
The self-created life story
Posted on September 03, 2009This New York Times article is meant to capture the human cost of the economic downturn. It also captures the human cost of a worldview in which a person is free to rewrite their own story line as a free-floating...
Outrageous myths and heartfelt
Posted on September 03, 2009Outrageous myths and heartfelt beliefMichael McGough Support for Barack Obama?s health-care reforms from the US Catholic hierarchy has foundered over abortion. But more unites the bishops with the principle of ?Obamacare? than divides them from its possible practice
"The Moral Case for Insuring the Uninsured"
Posted on September 03, 2009A statement by the Consortium of Jesuit Biothics Programs ... here. [HT: dotCommonweal.]
"Caritas in Veritate: The Truth about Humanity"
Posted on September 03, 2009Jennifer Roback Morse reflects on Pope Benedict's latest encyclical at the Acton Institute blog. Her essay begins this way: Many commentators read Pope Benedict XVI?s Caritas in Veritate as if it were a think tank white paper, and ask whether...
Woodstock at 40
Posted on September 03, 2009OSV's Greg Erlandson writes: We really thought for a short while that the past had no hold on us and that the future was entirely within our grasp. Those illusions took a beating in the last four decades, but I...
I didn't know that Michael S. was an Ayn-Randian!
Posted on September 02, 2009Here. The old, the young, the sick, the poor--in short, "the least of these sisters and brothers of mine"--might have a hard time earning a place on the Holtz-Scaperlanda team ...
Obama & Berlusconi ... and the Vatican and the local episcopal conferences
Posted on September 02, 2009Interesting piece here, sent to us by MOJ friend Gerry Whyte of the law faculty at Trinity College Dublin.
A long newsmagazine story about Ave Maria School of Law
Posted on September 02, 2009Is here, in the Washington Monthly. What can one say? It's all very sad.
Of Football and Politics
Posted on September 02, 2009As the liturgical calendar turns from Ordinary Time to College Football Time (has the Vatican approved this change yet?), I thought some of our readers might be interested in this WSJ article "Why Your Coach Votes Republican." Here is a...
Winters on SSM in DC
Posted on September 02, 2009Over at the America blog, Michael Sean Winters has a useful post up regarding the same-sex-marriage debate in Washington, D.C., and on Archbishop Wuerl's recent statements regarding the Church's teaching, and the traditional understanding, of marriage...
Tattooing and cannibalism
Posted on September 02, 2009I'm reading Walter Rauschenbusch's Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907) for the first time, and my favorite quote thus far is one I'll throw out there for my friends and family members (and perhaps MoJers?) who have tattoos: Gambling is...
Welcome Home Ali O'Grady: Muhammad Ali made freeman of his ancestral home in Ireland
Posted on September 02, 2009Read about it ... here. What does this have to do with Catholic legal theory, you ask. I won't stoop to dignify such an ignorant question with an answer. (But I wil tell you that Muhammad Ali, John Breen, and...
Prof. Stone (again) on "our six Catholic justices"
Posted on September 01, 2009Prof. Geoffrey Stone returns, here, to the phenomenon of "our . . . Catholic justices." A few years ago, after the Supreme Court rejected a constitutional challenge to the federal ban on partial-birth abortions, Prof. Stone had caused some controversy...
Sexual Morality and Church Teaching Cont'd
Posted on September 01, 2009Denise Hunnell, a Mirror of Justice reader who also hosts the "Catholic Mom" blog, has been following this thread and offers some thoughts on her blog. You can read the full post here, and herewith is an excerpt of her...
A Different Kind of Liberal
Posted on August 31, 2009Earlier this month, John Breen noted that the New York Times in its obituary for Eunice Kennedy Shriver, as well as the Washington Post obituary linked by Rick Garnett (here), had conspicuously neglected even to mention that she had been...
symposium on Kraynak
Posted on August 31, 2009The Catholic Social Science Review published a very interesting symposium (here, see volume 9 (2004)) on Robert Kraynak's book Christian Faith and Modern Democracy. That book and the symposium take up some of the questions raised by Rob in his...
Conscience at Fordham
Posted on August 31, 2009A while back I blogged about a lovely evening I spent at Fordham engaged in a rollicking (and eyebrow-raising) debate about conscience with Marc Stern, Nadine Strossen, and Doug Kmiec. A couple of readers had asked if a transcript of...
What does the Christian belief in human dignity owe to Kant?
Posted on August 30, 2009In his essay, Made in the Image of God: The Christian View of Human Dignity and Poltical Order, Colgate poli sci prof Robert Kraynak writes that Kantian philosophy seems to match most closely the contemporary Christian concern for the rights...
Recommended Reading
Posted on August 29, 2009This interesting and deeply troubling article will appear in tomorrow's (Sunday's) New York Times: "Strained by Katrina, a Hospital Faced Deadly Choices," here.
Mark Stricherz: How Will the Church Mark the Passing of Teddy Kennedy ? Both of Them?
Posted on August 29, 2009I strongly encourage everyone to read Mark Stricherz?s essay at True/Slant entitled Good Teddy Kennedy, Bad Teddy Kennedy. In the piece, Mark provides a balanced retrospective on Senator Kennedy: his love for his Senate colleagues and devotion to his children...
Ted Kennedy's Humanity
Posted on August 29, 2009By E. J. Dionne Commonweal (web only) August 27, 2009 WASHINGTON ? Ted Kennedy was treasured by liberals, loved by many of his conservative colleagues, revered by African-Americans and Latinos, respected by hard-bitten political bosses, admired by students of the...
Discussing Kennedy and His Legacy
Posted on August 29, 2009I am truly sorry that Steve Shiffrin finds a discussion of Senator Kennedy's legacy -- including noting lost opportunities -- to be insensitive. But I do think his description of the two postings here on Mirrror of Justice as "cold-blooded"...
Ted Kennedy
Posted on August 29, 2009Here and elsewhere, in the period after his death and before his funeral while many are mourning, Ted Kennedy has been judged in a cold-blooded way. To do so at this time seems insensitive ? at least to me.
Hey, Guys, let's not idolatrousize the magisterium, okay?
Posted on August 28, 2009The issue is not whether rejecting the teaching will lead to some un-weaving (of magisterial authority?), but whether the teaching is true or false. In my judgment, it is false. See, e.g., Brian K. Blount, ?Reading and Understanding the New...
Interested in the debate about health care reform?
Posted on August 28, 2009Who among us isn't?! Well, then, read this informative, interesting story about the bishops and the debate, which appears on the front page of this morning's New York Times, here.
Is it possible to protect our kids and human dignity?
Posted on August 28, 2009The story of Jaycee Dougard is heart-breaking and, especially for parents of young children, a source of intense anxiety. It also will shape the debate over how we treat convicted sex offenders. This morning I saw one law enforcement expert...
Kennedy the Catholic
Posted on August 28, 2009Rev. Robert A. Sirico writes about Senator Kennedy?s passing and about his personal encounter with ?arguably the most prominent Catholic layman in the country, scion of the most prominent Catholic family, perhaps, in U.S. history.? Herewith a sample of Father...
Another Reader's Thoughts on Church Teaching, Christian Doctrine, and Sexual Morality
Posted on August 27, 2009Another Mirror of Justice reader, active in Catholic Church work, responds on this thread and in particular response to my post, which I had concluded by asking: "Might the surgery necessary to excise moral teaching on sexual relationships from the...
Is religious liberty about inclusion by the state or competition with the state?
Posted on August 27, 2009Toronto law profs Ayelet Shachar and Ran Hirschi have posted their paper, "The New Wall of Separation: Permitting Diversity, Restricting Competition." From the abstract: In recent years, the specter of litigants turning to religious or customary sources of law as...
Obama: A Vatican II President?
Posted on August 26, 2009That's what Notre Dame theologian Fr. Richard McBrien seems to suggest, here. I wonder whether the MOJ bloggers who are "evangelical" Catholics (you know who you are!) will agree ... "Evangelical" bloggers? "Vatican II bloggers? Hmm ...
Vatican II?Type People (including politicians [including Presidents])
Posted on August 26, 2009Like Rick, I am not sure what a Vatican II?type politician, including the President, is. I think the rich teachings of the Church give us ample material from which the correct portrait of the public official who follows right reason...
A response to McBrien, and a question for Michael
Posted on August 26, 2009In a recent op-ed (to which Michael P. linked recently), Fr. Richard McBrien suggests, Michael says, that President Obama is a "Vatican II President." (Actually, McBrien quotes church historian John O'Malley, S.J., who used that phrase.) I'm not sure what...
A Catholic position on health-care reform?
Posted on August 26, 2009Re the editorial in the Aug. 15 issue of the [London] International Catholic Weekly, is there anyone out there who doesn't agree with this editorial? It seems abundantly clear to me that, regardless of one's position on other public issues,...
Another Response on Homosexuality and Church Teaching
Posted on August 26, 2009I asked a close friend of mine who is in a committed homosexual relationship and who is a former priest what he thought of the exchanges between Greg and me on the issue of homosexuality and Christian teaching (here, here,...
A Response to Susan?s Post
Posted on August 26, 2009I take this occasion to respond to Susan?s post entitled ?Another Response on Homosexuality and Church Teaching.? I appreciate her bringing to the attention of Mirror of Justice readers and contributors the thoughts of her close friend who is in...
More on the Integration of Teaching on Sexual Morality and the Foundations of Orthodox Christian Faith
Posted on August 25, 2009Susan Stabile responds to my earlier posting and argues that it indeed is possible for a religious organization or denomination to ?pluck? the thread of traditional church teaching on the morality of same-sex sexual conduct without unraveling the rest of...
Obama at Notre Dame, redux
Posted on August 25, 2009The cover of the new issue of America magazine says "Notre Dame revisited." The issue includes essays by my own bishop -- and the bishop in whose diocese the University of Notre Dame is located -- John D'arcy, and also...
"The Church and the University"
Posted on August 25, 2009The August 31 edition of America has Bishop D'Arcy's "pastoral reflection on the controversy at Notre Dame." Read it here.
More On the Leadership Role of Laity
Posted on August 25, 2009A reader had these comments on the lay leadership discussion: Like yourself, and Prof. Stabile, I'm puzzled by the lack of support for lay leadership of religious institutes that have established lay membership. I find it particularly puzzling in light...
Sin (or, the little black book)
Posted on August 25, 2009Metallica's "Black Album" was very cool. So, I am confident, is my friend Gary Anderson's (Theology, Notre Dame) new (and very black) book, "Sin." What is sin? Is it simply wrongdoing? Why do its effects linger over time? In this...
More on Homosexuality and Christian Faith
Posted on August 25, 2009One reader offers these reactions to Greg's reply to my response to his original post on the ELCA's recent decision to allow parishes to allow noncelibate homosexualis in committed relationships to the pulpit: "I greatly appreciated your comment in response...
Another Reader's Response on Homosexuality and Christian Faith
Posted on August 25, 2009Another MOJ reader offered this comment to Greg's reply to my response to his original post on the ELCA's recent decision to allow parishes to allow noncelibate homosexualis in committed relationships to the pulpit: "Sisk asks: And what Christian group...
Background from a Reader with Experience on the Lay Governance Issue
Posted on August 25, 2009Here's some interesting background on this issue from a reader (who incidently has an interesting post on the geographical distribution of the 7 deadly sins at his blog): I have had some experience as a lay brother in a clerical...
Why Does Fostering a Strong Sense of Catholic Identity Require A Restrictive View of the Role of Lay Persons?
Posted on August 24, 2009NCR reports today on the Vatican's decision to veto an election by the Maryknolls that would have resulted in a religious brother holding the position regional superior of the United States for the Maryknolls. The Vatican directed thata priest be...
Imaging a post-gender world
Posted on August 24, 2009Bennett Capers looks at the Caster Semenya case (the South African runner whose gender has been challenged) as another example of society's exclusion of certain segments of the population through binary classifications.
Health Care Reform and "Abortion: Which Side is Fabricating?"
Posted on August 24, 2009Factcheck.org has this to say about health care reform and abotion: " Despite what Obama said, the House bill would allow abortions to be covered by a federal plan and by federally subsidized private plans." Read the rest at the...
"Judge Upholds Law Requiring Doctors to Tell Women Abortion Ends Life"
Posted on August 24, 2009According to the Catholic Spirit (Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis): A federal judge in South Dakota ruled Aug. 20 that a 2005 South Dakota law requiring doctors to inform patients that abortion kills a human being is constitutional. U.S....
Lay Authority
Posted on August 24, 2009I share Susan's puzzlement over why restricting the governance authority of the laity is considered necessary to "preserve the distinctiveness of the ordained priesthood." Why are attempts to strengthen the authority of lay people in the Church almost invariably seen...
Welcome to new law students!
Posted on August 23, 2009I had the pleasure, yesterday, of welcoming the incoming first-years to Notre Dame Law School. The experience reminded me of just how exciting those first few days of law school were (and, I hope, still are). And, to prepare, I...
A Paper of Possible Interest: The Nuremberg Trials
Posted on August 23, 2009The Nuremberg Trials Douglas Linder University of Missouri at Kansas City - School of Law 2007 Abstract: No trial provides a better basis for understanding the nature and causes of evil than do the Nuremberg trials from 1945 to 1949....
The ELCA and Plucking a Thread from a Garment
Posted on August 23, 2009I don?t have time for more than short answer to Greg?s question. (It is Harvest Festival weekend here at St. Hubert?s in Chanhassen.) I do believe it is possible to pluck one thread from Christian teaching without unraveling the entire...
The ELCA, the Episcopal Church, and the Integration of Church Teaching on Sexual Morality With Christian Doctrine
Posted on August 23, 2009?You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.? Peter?s response to Jesus in today?s Gospel reading (John 6:60-69) encapsulates the central teaching of our Catholic...
St. Cory?
Posted on August 21, 2009From John Allen's column today (Disclosure: I chose St. Joan of Arc as my confirmation saint.): When former President Corazon "Cory" Aquino of the Philippines died from colon cancer on August 1, she was hailed as a popular saint for...
Michael Perry's Question
Posted on August 21, 2009Michael Perry asked yesterday what it means to identify oneself as Catholic. Although I did not have his question in mind when I wrote my Creo en Dios! blog post this morning, which commented on today's Gospel from St. Matthew,...
What does it mean to identify oneself as "Catholic"?
Posted on August 21, 2009For me it is a willingness to ask God each day for the grace to say "Be it done unto me according to your will" and the grace not to beat myself up when I fail at this a million...
Kaveny joins the Dershowitz / Scalia debate
Posted on August 21, 2009My colleague Cathy Kaveny has posted some thoughts in response to the Dershowitz piece we've been discussing. And, she proposes that Dershowitz's debate challenge be expanded to cover a particular text, St. Thomas Aquinas on the duties of a judge...
What does the ELCA get that, say, the magisterium doesn't? Or vice versa?
Posted on August 21, 2009Here.
"What's going on?"
Posted on August 21, 2009Michael P. asks "what's going on?" with respect to the investigations into women religious in America. Michael references a PBS interview of National Catholic Reporter's Tom Fox. In that interview Fox speculates that the Vatican may be attempting "to rein...
U.S. Nuns and the Vatican Inquisition: What's going on?
Posted on August 21, 2009Check it out, here.
A Conservative?s Road to Same-Sex Marriage Advocacy
Posted on August 20, 2009That's the title of an interesting piece (NYT, 8/19/09) about Ted Olson's role in the effort to get SCOTUS to rule that states may not deny the benefit of law to same-sex unions. An excerpt: Theodore B. Olson's office is...
Why doesn't Dershowitz's question deserve an answer?
Posted on August 20, 2009In fairness to Prof. Dershowitz, I do not think he is scolding Justice Scalia for, as Rick puts it, "not being more aggressive about incorporating the moral teachings of the Roman Catholic Church into the constitutional doctrines of the United...
Dershowitz's disingenuity
Posted on August 20, 2009It is strange to hear Prof. Dershowitz scolding Justice Scalia for not being more aggressive about incorporating the moral teachings of the Roman Catholic Church into the constitutional doctrines of the United States Supreme Court. Weren't we supposed to be...
U.S. Bishops Must Back Obama
Posted on August 20, 2009So says an editorial in the August 15 issue of The [London] Tablet The International Catholic Weekly: President Barack Obama?s health-care reforms are in deep trouble. All over the United States rival lobby groups have argued and sometimes clashed as...
Transubstantiation
Posted on August 20, 2009As we have been working our way through John 6 at Mass these past few weeks, this passage from the Omnivore's Dilemma caught my attention. "[The grass farmer] reached down deep where his pigs were happily rooting and brought a...
What does it mean to identify oneself as "Catholic"?
Posted on August 20, 2009I asked that question earlier today. A reader responds with a quote from Walker Percy: "What distinguishes Judeo-Christianity in general from other world religions is its emphasis on the value of the individual person, its view of man as a...
To hell with the so-called common good! It's all about ME!!
Posted on August 20, 2009Let's hear it for the preferential option for the elderly--even the well-to-do elderly! Here.
From Santiago to San Diego
Posted on August 20, 2009Early this morning, I returned from a student-produced constitutional law conference in Santiago, Chile. (What a breathtakingly beautiful city it is--Santiago--surrounded by the snow-capped Andes. If only I had had time to hike.) On Saturday morning, I leave for San...
Ted Olson ... Doug Kmiec ... and Rick Garnett
Posted on August 20, 2009Isn't it interesting--not to mention startling, disappointing, unnerving ...--that Ted Olson (with respect to same-sex unions) and Doug Kmiec (with respect to Obama) aren't ... well ... insightful enough to get it. Get what? That they are contradicting their earlier...
Ted Olson
Posted on August 20, 2009With respect to Michael's shout-out to members of the Federalist Society (yes I am!), Ted Olson's quip -- "I thought, why wouldn?t I take this case? Because someone at the Federalist Society thinks I?d be making bad law? I wouldn?t...
Rob's (and Vischer's) question
Posted on August 20, 2009In response to Rob -- whose question would certainly "deserve an answer", even if Prof. Dershowitz's did not -- who asks, "if moral opposition to the death penalty requires resignation for a judge who is required to preside over the...
Question about Natural Family Planning and the EEOC
Posted on August 19, 2009WIth respect to the question posed by our reader, I agree with Rob that the EEOC is unlikely to deem the coverage of NFP sufficient. It is the second of the reasons Rob mentioned that is key. The claim here...
Wide Pro-Life Coalition Gears Up
Posted on August 19, 2009A veritable mosaic of groups, including the solid and brilliant Students for Life and Democrats for Life, has been formed to oppose the social validation of abortion as simply a matter of health care. Check out this site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RD7hJhwy5g
Could natural family planning satisfy the EEOC?
Posted on August 19, 2009Regarding the situation facing Belmont Abbey College, a reader asks: If a Catholic institution provided coverage for NFP training (but not contraception) would that legally satisfy the EEOC?s complaint? In other words, I understand that the EEOC could make an...
Oklahoma "Law Requiring Ultrasounds for Abortions is Struck Down"
Posted on August 19, 2009According to the Washington Post: "An Oklahoma judge decided Tuesday that doctors do not need to perform ultrasounds and offer women detailed information about the tests before performing abortions." For the full article, click here. The abortion clinics opposing the...
Dershowitz vs. Scalia on Catholic social teaching
Posted on August 19, 2009One of the highlights of my first year of law school was when my Criminal Law class signed a petition asking Justice Scalia to attend one of our class sessions and debate our professor, Alan Dershowitz, who was always challenging...
On Callahan on Rationing
Posted on August 19, 2009Peter Steinfels quotes Dan Callahan as saying "whenever demand for some resource outstrips supply, as seems to be the case for quality medical care, some kind of rationing, whether by official policy or by economic advantage, starts to operate." However,...
The case of Belmont Abbey College
Posted on August 18, 2009Thanks to those who have begun to address the situation involving Belmont Abbey College and the EEOC proceedings regarding ?reproductive health? coverage and the alleged ?discrimination? suffered by those employees of the college who desire ?medical services? that conflict with...
Investigation of Women Religious
Posted on August 18, 2009At least several MOJ posts in the last two months have addressed the Vatican investigation of women relgious in the United States. I've tried hard to look at this in the best possible light, which I confess has not always...
Catholic Institutions and Contraception Coverage
Posted on August 18, 2009The EEOC's decision regarding Belmont Abbey College, which Rob addresses, is lamentable, but not surprising. The EEOC has consistently taken the position that the exclusion of contraception coverage from prescription coverage constitutes discrimination on the basis of sex and/or discrimination...
Should Belmont Abbey College be required to cover contraceptives?
Posted on August 18, 2009Once again public officials are mistakenly equating the liberty of conscience with individual autonomy, failing to see the importance of institutional venues for living out shared moral convictions. Even more discouraging is that the latest mistake appears to have been...
Why I detest politics more and more with each passing day
Posted on August 17, 2009According to this Atlantic blog post, HHS Secretary Sebelius said that a public option was not essential to the President's health care reform plan. One administration official later said that she "misspoke" but then added that the public option "is....
A double-standard for Pres. Obama on faith
Posted on August 17, 2009Kathleen Parker (certainly no "conservative") points out, here, that a press whose "separation!" flags were flying high when President Bush proposed his "Faith-Based Initiative" has been blase and unbothered by Pres. Obama's similar program: A comparison of how the media...
Praise the Lord! And Pass the Money!
Posted on August 16, 2009Believers Invest in the Gospel of Getting Rich Donors streamed forward at the Southwest Believers? Convention this month in Fort Worth. By LAURIE GOODSTEIN FORT WORTH ? Onstage before thousands of believers weighed down by debt and economic insecurity, Kenneth...
NYT, 8/16/09 Why We Need Health
Posted on August 16, 2009NYT, 8/16/09 Why We Need Health Care Reform By BARACK OBAMA OUR nation is now engaged in a great debate about the future of health care in America. And over the past few weeks, much of the media attention has...
"Atticus Finch and the Limits of Southern Liberalism"
Posted on August 16, 2009Malcolm Gladwell has this interesting article in a recent New Yorker. Any thoughts?
This is awesome. If I could get this mutation, ...
Posted on August 15, 2009... I could post to MOJ almost as much as Rick G. does! Read about it, here.
Thanks for your prayers, Rick
Posted on August 15, 2009God knows I need all the prayers I can get! But your own beloved Coach K is a Republican! Need I say more?!
Lifted from dotCommonweal
Posted on August 15, 2009Michael Place on Health Care Reform August 15, 2009, 11:21 am Posted by Cathleen Kaveny One of the voices most worth listening to on matters of health care policy is Michael Place, former head of the Catholic Health Association, former...
Pray for Michael Perry
Posted on August 15, 2009Recent news reports indicate that the rock-star coach of our own Michael Perry's favorite college basketball team is a loathesome lout. (Let's go Duke!).
Peter Steinfels' column this week is about the debate over healthcare reform
Posted on August 15, 2009It's certainly worth reading, here.
Professor Amos Guiora and Public Religion
Posted on August 15, 2009Thanks to Rob for bringing to our attention Professor Amos Guiora?s interesting essay entitled Religious Extremism: A Fundamental Danger. I have not been successful in downloading the entire essay as I have had problems in working with the SSRN website...
Combat terrorism! Keep religion in the home!
Posted on August 14, 2009Utah law prof Amos Guiora has posted his article, Religious Extremism: A Fundamental Danger. I do not think religious liberty is Prof. Guiora's primary area of scholarship, but that is no excuse for some of the assertions set forth in...
Dallas Willard on my mind
Posted on August 14, 2009I've been thinking a lot about Dallas Willard, who is one of the most thoughtful evangelical Christian writers today and a philosophy professor at USC. He was one of the featured speakers at the Bible conference I attended last week....
"Common Ground" on Health Care
Posted on August 13, 2009For months now, Congress and the White House have talked about the need for Americans to seek ?common ground? on the issues that face us. This is a very welcome theme. The ?common good? and ?common ground? are central messages...
Human Nature
Posted on August 13, 2009"The clue to the political thought of any period lies in the conflict between various views of human nature." -Kingsley Martin, The Rise of French Liberal Thought (1929)
Some thoughts about human nature
Posted on August 13, 2009I begin this entry by thanking Michael Scaperlanda for his posting earlier today bringing to our attention the quotation from Kingsley Martin on human nature: ?The clue to the political thought of any period lies in the conflict between various...
Modern Man AMERICA, 8/17/09 ByThomas
Posted on August 13, 2009Modern Man AMERICA, 8/17/09 ByThomas C. Kohler [concurrent professor of law and philosophy at Boston College Law School. This essay is drawn from a forthcoming book, Solidarity Forever: The Story and Significance of an Idea.] The already elderly Pope John...
Is it alright ...
Posted on August 13, 2009... if MOJ morphs--as indeed our lives morph--along paths, into areas, unanticipated ...
Another Levertov Poem ...
Posted on August 13, 2009... which MOJ colleague Susan Stabile just sent my (our) way: Annunciation ?Hail, space for the uncontained God? From the Agathistos Hymn, Greece, VIc We know the scene: the room, variously furnished, almost always a lectern, a book; always the...
Eunice Kennedy Shriver and the NYT: ?All the Pro-life News Not Fit to Print?
Posted on August 11, 2009Somehow, this aspect of Eunice Kennedy Shriver?s life failed to make it into the New York Times obituary for Mrs. Shriver, as well as the Washington Post obituary cited by Rick. As the article makes clear, Mrs. Shriver was forthright...
How should the Church counsel gays?
Posted on August 11, 2009I was on vacation last week when the American Psychological Association released its report on "reparative therapy" for gays, but I did see the headlines declaring that "Psychologists repudiate gay-to-straight therapy." The Wall Street Journal has a more nuanced account...
Barbecue Day of Obligation
Posted on August 11, 2009Ok, Ok, I missed it by a day, but today I am smoking a brisket (rubbed with Salt Lick dry rub) for our RCIA core team, which is meeting at our house this evening. In the early 1990's, we'd get...
Still more on health care and rights
Posted on August 11, 2009Prof. Bryan McGraw (political theory / Wheaton) has this contribution to our conversation: I've been reading (and skimming) the various posts on whether there is a "right" to health care and a few things suggest themselves to me. One of...
Remember Fr. Coyle
Posted on August 11, 2009On Aug. 11, 1921, Fr. James Edwin Coyle was murdered in Birmingham, Alabama. (His killer would later be represented by Hugo Black, and acquitted after a Klan-infected trial.) More here.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, R.I.P.
Posted on August 11, 2009From The Washington Post: Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 88, a member of a political dynasty who devoted her life to improving the welfare of the mentally disabled by founding the Special Olympics, died Tuesday morning at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis,...
Please, PLEASE, nominate me, not Rick G!!!!!
Posted on August 11, 2009NYT August 11, 2009 Specctacular Distractions Are the Perks of Judgeship By JESSE McKINLEY YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. ? The search is on for a candidate for one of the most scenic jobs in American law: magistrate judge for the...
Thomas More Society on Facebook
Posted on August 11, 2009After resisting for years, I finally joined Facebook. And, on Facebook, I found the St. Thomas More Society, a "group designed for Catholics who are practicing lawyers, or law students (doesn't say anything about professors, oh well) to discuss what....
Extreme Wealth and Poverty and the Virtue of Enough
Posted on August 10, 2009The Sixth Biennial Poverty Conference of the Vincentian Chair of Social Justice will take place on October 17, 2009. The theme for this year's conference is Extreme Wealth and Poverty and the Virtue of Enough. The conference will include plenary...
A new paper, hopefully of interest ...
Posted on August 10, 2009... to Rick Garnett and to many other MOJ readers (and to their families and friends): Religious Freedom and Beyond: The Right to Moral Freedom Michael J. Perry Emory University School of Law; University of San Diego - School of...
The Story Behind the Lemon Case
Posted on August 09, 2009For those interested in the background of perhaps the most important Establishment Clause case ever, I've posted on SSRN this draft chapter, "Lemon v. Kurtzman: The Parochial-School Crisis and the Establishment Clause." It's from a forthcoming book, edited by Leslie...
Sotomayor Sworn In as Supreme Court
Posted on August 08, 2009Sotomayor Sworn In as Supreme Court Justice Jim Young/Reuters Newly sworn in Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is congratulated by Chief Justice John Roberts.
In what sense of "Catholic" am I a Catholic?
Posted on August 08, 2009In many senses. This is (but) one: When I read a story such as this, I find myself saying "Hail Mary, full of grace, ..." instantaneously, without forethought.
Catholicism and Human RightsVincentian Center: 1999 Presentations
Posted on August 07, 2009Professor Samuel Levine, of Pepperdine Law, sends this page and links our way:Vincentian Center: 1999 Presentations HUMAN RIGHTS: A VIEW FROM A CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY: Introduction to the 1998 Presentations Charity and Justice within the Gospel and the Church's Social Teaching...
Basic Health Care, The Human Right to
Posted on August 07, 2009Notre Dame's Cathy Kaveny writes: "I noticed that you and Rick were engaged with the question whether health care is a human right (in my view, it is) and the problem of how to implement it with legal means in...
"U.S. women religious leadership, at the crossroads"
Posted on August 07, 2009By Ken Briggs NCR, 8/7/09 As I see it, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which gathers next week in New Orleans, faces a bleak choice: either die or survive at a great cost to its integrity and dignity. The...
This looks interesting ...
Posted on August 07, 2009[And notice the contributions by MOJers Brennan & Berg.] Church Autonomy Conference. Federalist Society Conference: "the things that are not Caesar's: Religious Organizations as a Check on the Authoritarian Pretentions of the State". 7 Geo. J.L. & Pub...
Climate Change, Health Care, and Agricultural Policy
Posted on August 07, 2009Assuming Michael Pollan's facts and assumptions are correct in The Omnivore's Dilemma, I am beginning to see a big gaping hole in the President's domestic agenda. He wants to deal with climate change (environmental issues) and health care, but it...
Corn Fertility
Posted on August 07, 2009I am just now getting around to reading Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. At one point in the book, Pollan discusses the growth in yields on a typical farm in Iowa from 20 bushels of corn an acre in...
"What's Love Got to Do with It?"
Posted on August 06, 2009I'm a big fan of (which is not to say I always agree with the writers at) the blog "Front Porch Republic" ("Places. Limits. Liberty." Catchy.) Check out this recent post there, "Benedict on Business: What's Love Got to Do...
Another quick response to Rick ...
Posted on August 06, 2009... but not from me. Rather, from the same friend of MOJ whose comments I posted immediately below. The reader is responding to Rick's most recent post (i.e., to Rick's "quick response to Michael"). Even here, I?m inclined to split...
More on health care ... and "rights"
Posted on August 06, 2009A friend of MOJ writes: A quick thought or two, if that, on health care as a right and obligation, in connection with your MOJ exchange with Rick Garnett: First, the positive versus negative right distinction is admittedly ambiguous at...
A quick response to Michael
Posted on August 06, 2009Michael's invitation is a tempting one: I love San Diego, running along the beach with Michael sounds fun, and -- of course -- I am always eager to have things "explained" to me. Like Michael, I am a fan of...
Another reader's thoughts on a right to health care
Posted on August 06, 2009This from an MOJ reader, in response to the "health care as a right" question: My first thought is a criticism of those who claim that health care is a right. It seems that the argument for health-care (which would...
Incentives or management?
Posted on August 06, 2009A reader asks, in response to some recent MOJ posts about health care, its status as a right, and the regulation of abortion: Pro-life apologists for Obama are now arguing that there is a right to healthcare which entails a...
Human Rights from a Religious Perspective
Posted on August 06, 2009If any of you out there are interested in pursuing this topic, you may find this list of some use as a point of departure. (Not that I'm trying to "explain" anything to Rick G. or anyone else, mind you!)...
A quick reponse to Rick ...
Posted on August 05, 2009Rick, you write, in the post immediately below, that you are "inclined to think that claims about 'rights' to health care are not as helpful as arguments about the moral obligations of a political community to its members." Oh my!...
Health care as a "right": a response to Michael P.
Posted on August 05, 2009A few days ago, Michael P. asked (here), among other things, "is there a human right to (basic) health care?" I am inclined to think that claims about "rights" to health care are not as helpful as arguments about the...
George on marriage, courts, and the culture wars
Posted on August 04, 2009If the Supreme Court imposes same-sex marriage, it will exacerbate, not heal, "culture wars" and divisions, writes Robert George in The Wall Street Journal: We are in the midst of a showdown over the legal definition of marriage. Though some...
The bishops on health-care proposals and abortion
Posted on August 04, 2009Following up on Richard's and Michael P.'s recent posts on the current health-care debate: Here is a piece about Cardinal Rigali's recent letter to the members of the relevant House committee. He says, among other things: In this particular letter...
Farr on the Administration and religious liberty abroad
Posted on August 04, 2009Thomas Farr is a veteran diplomat and a crucial voice in the struggle for religious liberty, here and abroad. (Read his book!) Courtesy of the American Principles Project, here (and here) are some of his thoughts on the Administration's plans...
Correcting Rick G.'s reading of my argument
Posted on August 04, 2009In my book, I specifcally declined to argue that a state's refusal to call same-sex unions "marriages" violates the Constitution. (This is an issue that has divided some state courts--state courts that have ruled that a state's refusal to extend...
That lovable, zany wedding party dance
Posted on August 03, 2009I did not intend to stop blogging while teaching in Rome, but the combination of teaching a partially new course, finishing my book edits, and (most significantly) keeping three children from getting run over by speeding scooters meant that something...
Berlusconi and the Italian Episcopacy
Posted on August 03, 2009MOJ friend Pasquale Annicchino thought that some MOJ readers would be interested in the piece, from the Irish Times: Timid Church remains largely silent on Bersluconi's adventures (here). Pasquale said that the piece was "widely debated today in Italy...
Memos/Letters on Religious Liberty and Same-Sex Marriage
Posted on August 02, 2009Over the last months, there have been MOJ posts about the efforts of an assortment of religious-liberty scholars --including MOJers Berg, Garnett, and Perry -- proposing strong religious-liberty protections for conscientious objectors in states where same-sex marriage has been or...
"A Catholic Framework for Evaluating Health Reform"
Posted on August 02, 2009See Cathy Kaveny's post, today, at dotCommonweal; see especially the material at the links Cathy provides (here). Is there a human right to (basic) health care? What is the magisterium's position on that issue? If there is such a human...
The Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola
Posted on July 31, 2009To readers and contributors of the Mirror of Justice, a blessed feast of Saint Ignatius of Loyola! May his company of Jesus be faithful to the vocation of the least Society of Jesus. Saint Ignatius, pray for us! May Mary,...
Two new blogs of interest
Posted on July 30, 2009I learned the other day about a new group blog, run by a group of in-formation (not-yet-ordained) Jesuits, called "Whosoeverdesires". Check it out. Lots of interesting stuff. I also discovered that one of these young Jesuits has a blog of...
National Health Care as a Struggle for the Moral Validation of Abortion
Posted on July 30, 2009Inclusion of abortion in an official national healthcare plan is a communal imprimatur, similar to the imprimatur received for gay sex when gay marriage is approved. It does more than increase liberty; it says that nothing is significantly wrong with...
MOJ among the "stickiest" law blogs
Posted on July 29, 2009According to uber-law-blogger Paul Caron, Mirror of Justice is the sixth (!) "stickiest" law blog; that is, our visitors spend, relatively speaking, much more time at our blog than do the visitors to most law blogs. I choose to chalk...
Open Letter on "No Clothes" Athletes
Posted on July 29, 2009Here's a deftly written open letter to ESPN Magazine on the news that it is considering publishing an issue of "no clothes" pictures of athletes in an effort to one-up the Sports Illustrated swimsuits. And here, by the same author,...
PSSST: Why MOJ is such a sticky blog ...
Posted on July 29, 2009Thanks for the info, Rick. The reason for MOJ's high stickiness rating: Each time I visit MOJ, I remain for hours and hours, sometimes staring in disbelief, scratching my head at what I see, wondering what, if anything, to say...
More on Saletan's "pragmatism" on abortion
Posted on July 29, 2009It has been suggested -- at Slate, at Commonweal, and elsewhere -- that opposition to (or even, it seems, doubts about) the Preventing Unintended Pregnancies, Reducing the Need for Abortion, and Supporting Parents Act makes one a "militant" (boo!) rather...
These two papers, recently posted on SSRN, look to be interesting
Posted on July 28, 2009"No Male or Female" U of Chicago, Public Law Working Paper No. 266 MARY ANNE CASE, University of Chicago Law School Email: macase@law.uchicago.edu For this, my contribution to the Feminist Legal Theory Projects's Twenty-fifth Anniversary Volume Beyond the Boundaries of...
The possibility of "vigorous debate" on abortion
Posted on July 28, 2009Many of us very much want to be reasonable and realistic when it comes to difficult and divisive questions regarding the use of law to promote and protect moral goods. The perfect should not, this side of Heaven, be seen...
Brooks on children, the future, and hope
Posted on July 28, 2009It has struck me as a shame that David Brooks's columns are not more often as good as yesterday's, "The Power of Posterity." Although Pope Benedict is not mentioned, the column reveals the author's (perhaps unconscious) appreciation for the fact...
English Translation of the International Theological Commission text on the Natural Law
Posted on July 28, 2009In previous postings, I have commented on the International Theological Commission's recent paper entitled "The Search for Universal Ethics: A New Look at the Natural Law." A while back I offered a synopsis of the text. While no official English...
"Impasses in today's [Catholic] Church"?
Posted on July 27, 2009[In his weekly column, Notre Dame theologian Fr. Richard McBrien writes:] Terrence Tilley is chair of the Department of Theology at Fordham University and immediate past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America. In his presidential address at the...
Building the City of Mary
Posted on July 27, 2009I am just back from a Focolare?s northeast summer gathering held at the University of Scranton, ?Mariapolis? (city of Mary) where about 400 people of all ages and from an amazing variety of ethnic and social backgrounds, came together for...
Hey, Rick, which brand do you prefer ... if either?
Posted on July 27, 2009John Harwood, formerly of the WSJ, and now of the NYT, writes about "Competing Brands of Republicanism", here.
Catholic nurse claims she was forced to participate in late-term abortion
Posted on July 27, 2009More here. One hopes that the "reasonable" conscience protections that the President has claimed he supports would apply in cases like this.
"Affordable Health Choices Act" and the End of Life
Posted on July 27, 2009It's often been observed that one of the challenges facing our (and other developed countries') health-care systems is the increasing percentage of health-care spending that goes to those who are very near death. It has also been observed that one...
A New Essay by MOJ's Patrick Brennan
Posted on July 26, 2009The Place of 'Higher Law' in the Quotidian Practice of Law: Herein of Practical Reason, Natural Law, Natural Rights, and Sex Toys Patrick McKinley Brennan Villanova University School of Law Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy, Forthcoming Villanova Law/Public...
"Catholic Social Thought and Citizenship"
Posted on July 26, 2009That's the title of the symposium published in the Summer 2009 issue of Villanova's Journal of Catholic Social Thought (Vol. 6, No. 2). Many interesting papers--including one by MOJ blogger John Breen and another by former MOJ blogger Greg Kalscheuer,...
Health Care Rationing continued
Posted on July 23, 2009Villanova law professor, Ellen Wertheim, responds to previoius postings on health care rationing with this: The exchange on health care rationing has been particularly fascinating, as I teach in the areas of law and medicine and bioethics. If you ask...
"What Truths We Hold"
Posted on July 23, 2009Bernard J. Coughlin, S.J., former president and current chancellor of Gonzaga University, has an excellent essay "on the square" on President Obama's call for common ground on abortion. Here is a taste: In the nineteenth century it was the right...
Charity is not the same as being generous
Posted on July 23, 2009A reader responds to another reader who wrote "government mandated health care may decrease the amount of charity given to those in need by generous strangers." The second reader responds: Being charitable is not being generous. It is a duty....
Health Care Rationing Part X
Posted on July 23, 2009A reader responded to my posting of Prof. Wertheim's comments on health care rationing. The reader seems skeptical (perhaps less skeptical than me) of the government's ability to ration health care in a better manner than the market. But, the...
"What Truths We Hold": Reflections
Posted on July 23, 2009This morning, I posted Bernard Coughlin, S.J.'s essay "What Truths We Hold," referring to it as an excellent essay. After a back and forth email exchange with one of our readers, my opinion of the piece has been downgraded from...
NYT, July 23, 2009 House Democrats
Posted on July 23, 2009NYT, July 23, 2009 House Democrats Seek Moderate Ground on Abortion By Bernie Becker Democratic House members from both sides of the abortion debate are introducing legislation aimed at trying to reduce the number of abortions around the country. Introduced...
"As U.S. troops withdraw, Iraqi Catholics targeted"
Posted on July 22, 2009"Analysts say Islamic militants are trying to drive out last of naion's Christian minority." For this OSV story, click here.
Leader of the Free World
Posted on July 22, 2009A reader responds: Thanks for posting the D'Agata essay. One very minor thing jumped out at me, but something I've never really thought of before. The president of the United States is often described as "the leader of the free...
Over at The Immanent Frame, a new
Posted on July 22, 2009Over at The Immanent Frame, a new post this morning of interest to MOJ readers: Religious and sexual freedoms are not opposed Read it here.
I agree, Religious and Sexual Freedoms are not opposed
Posted on July 22, 2009Michael P., you are right, religious and sexual freedoms are not opposed. And, it is fitting that you would have so titled your post on this the memorial of Mary Magdelene. As Fr. Raymond-Leopold Bruckberger, O.P. said: "There must have...
OMG: Obama is not a U.S. citizen!!!!!
Posted on July 22, 2009Please reassure me, Rick, that this is not a critical mass of the base--or "base"--of the Republican Party. See here.
Political Reduction of the Church's Reality
Posted on July 21, 2009Dino D'Agata concludes his essay, The Pope and the President: From Notre Dame to Vatican City and Back, with these words: [T]he Church?s claim?that it is the bearer of Christ Himself in the world despite many of the highly glaring...
Responding to my post on health
Posted on July 20, 2009Responding to my post on health care rationing, Denise Hunnell writes: I responded to Peter Singer's article here. The problem with rationing is that it judges the patient, not the treatment. Catholic teaching is that we must determine what is...
More on Health Care Rationing
Posted on July 20, 2009From a reader, responding to my post on health care rationing. I think you're correct regarding the rationing question. In my opinion (and in the opinion of others more interesting than myself), the term rationing is being misused. Because resources....
Her Choice, Her Problem: How Abortion Empowers Men
Posted on July 20, 2009FIRST THINGS has a short essay by me with the above title, in which I explore the effect of choice on solidarity. Since that essay is a bit truncated, and is not available online in any event, I am providing...
As the world turns ...
Posted on July 20, 2009[From a news release dated July 20, 2009:] On 2 July 2009, the Constitutional Court of Slovenia held that Article 22 of the Registration of Same Sex Partnerships Act (RSSPA) violated the right to non-discrimination under Article 14 of the...
Jimmy Carter on the Religious Subjugation of Women
Posted on July 20, 2009The magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church, with its patriarchal conception of the priesthood, is certainly not immune to Carter's critique, here. One of the commentators at dotCommonweal writes: The Bible is meant to be used. but in an enlightened...
Ross Douthat on "Race in 2028"
Posted on July 20, 2009I'm inclined to agree with Douthat. And you? See what he has to say, here.
From the St. Louis Post Dispatch
Posted on July 19, 2009Editor's Note: This image contains graphic content that some viewers may find disturbing. Click to view the image, or use the buttons above to navigate away.
Healing Polarization & Focolare?s Economy of Communion
Posted on July 18, 2009A few thoughts on John Allen?s ?gut check for American Catholicism.? I know you will all be shocked to read that I?d agree with his assessment that among the ?winners? in the encyclical is Focolare and its Economy of Communion...
Abortion-funding and the Health Care Plan
Posted on July 18, 2009According to the National Right to Life Committee (fact-sheet here), the proposed plan "will result in federally mandated coverage of abortion on demand in virtually all of America's health plans" and could also pre-empt (FOCA-style) many state laws that currently...
the place to be this fall
Posted on July 18, 2009When planning your itinerary (I'm tempted to say itinerarium mentis . . . ) for this fall, don't forget to come to Villanova. We've got lots of very good stuff on offer, and Philadelphia is especially beautiful in the autumn....
Mountain man or new urbanist
Posted on July 17, 2009Will the real Rick G., please stand up. Are you a mountain man or a new urbanist at heart?
Rocks vs. People
Posted on July 17, 2009Welcome back to Rick! His trip sounds (and looks) like it was a wonderful experience. From a visual standpoint, it looks especially enticing to those of us here in the flatlands of the Middle West which, when it comes to...
"Til Joint Assisted Suicide Do Us Part"
Posted on July 17, 2009More on health care and the culture of death: British conductor Sir Edward Downes died last week, alongside his wife, at an assisted-suicide facility in Switzerland. Lady Downes was in the final stages of terminal cancer; Sir Edward was ailing...
Blog rankings
Posted on July 17, 2009Uber-law-blogger Paul Caron has posted the latest law-blog rankings here. MOJ is doing very well, but . . . it is a bit tough to be lagging behind the Wills, Trusts, & Estates Profs blog. So, tell all your friends...
St. Bernard comes through
Posted on July 17, 2009As I mentioned here, I spent this week climbing in the Tetons. It was a sublime, if exhausting, experience. Thanks to all for the prayers and e-mails. Here is Teewinot, which I climbed on Wednesday: Does this have anything to...
"Making Men Moral" at 15
Posted on July 17, 2009At Public Discourse, Micah Watson has posted an essay on Robert George's Making Men Moral, which was published 15 years ago. A bit: The work of Princeton professor Robert P. George has now spanned three decades and addressed several subjects,...
Allen's gut check
Posted on July 17, 2009Thank you Michael P. for posting John Allen's latest. I wanted to highlight two bits of Allen's essay: [T]he real "losers" from Caritas in Veritate are Catholics who operate as chaplains to political parties, cheerleaders for political candidates, and spin...
More on Health Care
Posted on July 17, 2009At the end of his discussion of Peter Singers call for rationed health care, Fr. Araujo says: "If the treatment is available and will do good for that person, it should be made available." Is this always true? Two further...
A gut check for American Catholicism
Posted on July 17, 2009A gut check for American Catholicism A gut check for American Catholicism By John L Allen Jr NCR, Jul 17, 2009 A broken wrist notwithstanding, Pope Benedict XVI is relaxing in Valle d?Aosta in northern Italy from July 13 to...
The Cubs, the White Sox, and A Kind of Redemption
Posted on July 16, 2009Michael S. was kind enough to respond to my post on the President being a lefty, yet still having the virtue of being a White Sox fan. In his post, he boldly claims that ?the truly Catholic (and catholic, BTW)...
"The New Yorker" and its "repellent" treatment of nuns ...
Posted on July 16, 2009Those who write this kind of crap are culpably ignorant. I concur in what James Martin, SJ, says in America, here.
Peter Singer on Health Care Rationing
Posted on July 16, 2009This coming Sunday?s The New York Times Magazine, July 19, will have a fascinating article on the rationing of health care authored by Princeton University?s Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics Peter Singer. The article is HERE ??Why We Must...
Survey of religion at America's colleges and universities
Posted on July 16, 2009First Things is taking a survey (online) about the state of religion on America's campuses both private and public. If you are intersted please click here and fill out the survey.
Health Care Debate
Posted on July 16, 2009Thank you Fr. Araujo for linking us to Peter Singer's article on health care. I hope to have more to say on that later. Denise Hunnell, who has a certification in health care ethics with the National Catholic Bioethics Center...
"The Government Want YOU .... to stay in Love .... What?"
Posted on July 15, 2009MOJ friend and alum, Helen Alvare, has a thoughtful post on the Culture of Life Foundation website. It begins: Several columns ago, I addressed the worry that our country?s nearly 40% out of wedlock birthrate might represent some sort of...
Investigation of Women Religious: A Reader Responds
Posted on July 15, 2009A reader responds to the posts on the investigation of women religious: ?I have read with interest the posts on MOJ about the Vatican investigation of women's religious orders. I have noticed that some of the nuns who have commented...
Institute of Bioethics
Posted on July 15, 2009Check out the Institutue for Bioethics at Franciscan University. Patrick Lee is the director of the Institute and many of his articles and lectures are available here.
Bring it on Breen!
Posted on July 15, 2009You and Barack and your fellow Democrats can have the White Sox and their success. But, the truly Catholic (and catholic, BTW) baseball team in Chicago is the Cubbies. With our crucifixes, Catholics remember and embrace Good Friday everyday in...
Homosexuality and Slavery in the Bible
Posted on July 14, 2009Sightings 7/13/09 Homosexuality and Slavery in the Bible -- Martin E. Marty Annually I write the report on "Protestantism" for World Book and other yearbooks. For a dozen or score of years now, the lead story always has to be...
Distributivist ideas on the current economic crisis
Posted on July 14, 2009Allan Carlson reports on an interesting conference organized by the G.K. Chesterton Institute and held last weekend in Oxford, England. Carlson's report is well worth the read: here.
Sotomayor Hearings
Posted on July 14, 2009[I received this a little while ago.] Thought this may be of interest to your readers? As Judge Sotomayor's confirmation hearings get under way today, Beliefnet bloggers Barry Lynn and Jay Sekulow, the two leading voices of the church-and-state battle...
Barack: A Lefty . . . But a White Sox Fan!
Posted on July 14, 2009To anyone who ever doubted, the video here proves indisputably that President Obama is a confirmed lefty. Props to the Prez for showing his support for Chicago?s premier baseball team ? the White Sox (AL Central Division champs in 2008...
The Status and Value of Stare Decisis
Posted on July 14, 2009With the nomination hearings of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to fill the vacancy on the United States Supreme Court underway, it is inevitable that the issue of stare decisis will eventually be addressed. Judge Sotomayor has anticipated the inevitability by raising...
Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice award winner nominated for Surgeon General Post
Posted on July 13, 2009From Whisper in the Loggia: ...the President drew further from the US church's diverse ranks this morning with the nomination of his Surgeon General -- this time, an African-American Catholic. Founder of a rural Alabama health clinic for the poor...
An MOJ reader from Europe on "Caritas in Veritate"
Posted on July 13, 2009This from Pasquale Annicchino: A Progressive-Conservative Pope? Prof. Scarpelanda posted the article authored by Ross Douthat on Caritas in Veritate and published by the New York Times. According to Douthat: ?Benedict?s encyclical is nothing if not political...
Now, Notre Dame's Fr. Richard McBrien weighs in ...
Posted on July 13, 2009In his column today for NCR, "Women religious leadership conference has been faithful to its mission," here. An excerpt: [I am amazed] that there could be any "doctrinal" concerns about the organization and its leadership. Some of the finest women...
Is there an echo in here?
Posted on July 13, 2009In yesterday's NYT: What the Sisters Are Up To By FRANCIS X. CLINES Across 30 years, the modern version of the Sisters of St. Joseph has been revolutionizing the treatment of imprisoned women in New York. Thanks to the nuns?...
"The Audacity of the Pope"
Posted on July 13, 2009Yesterday?s New York Times ran a thought provoking op-ed by Ross Douthat on Caritas in Veritate and the need for political re-imagination. Here are parts of it: Papal encyclicals are supposed to be written with one eye on two millenniums...
Reply to Rick G.
Posted on July 13, 2009Reply to what? This. Jab? Jab?! I don't do no stinking jabs! (Any "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" fans out there? Rick?)
Disorientation
Posted on July 13, 2009I am very disoriented, after reading Michael S.'s post, immediately preceding. $1,000,000 to the first MOJ blogger or reader who can explain why (i.e., other than Rick Garnett). :-) ;-) :-) ;-) :-) !!!!!
St. Bernard, pray for us
Posted on July 12, 2009St. Bernard of Montjoux is the patron saint of alpinists. I'll be invoking him next week, when I'm climbing here:
Picking the Pope
Posted on July 12, 2009In response to Michael's jab, a few things: First, with all due respect to Fr. McBrien, and notwithstanding the fact that Michael and I like many of the same books, Eamon Duffy's is a better history of the Popes. Second,...
John Allen, Notre Dame's Cathy Kaveny, and Others on Obama and the Vatican
Posted on July 11, 2009New York Times July 10, 2009 Does Obama Have a Friend in the Vatican? By The Editors Photo: Chris Helgren/Associated Press President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama met with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Friday. President...
Blessed John Newman on Catholic universities
Posted on July 11, 2009Thanks to my colleague and MOJ-friend John O'Callaghan for sending this along: Here, then, I conceive, is the object of the Holy See and the Catholic Church in setting up Universities; it is to reunite things which were in the...
Obama is "more Catholic than the Pope"?
Posted on July 11, 2009The claim that Pope Benedict XVI is a "liberal" was, I thought, implausible. Now Kathleen Kennedy Townsend is upping the ante. She contends, here, that "Barack Obama represents American Catholics better than the pope does." "Notre Dame awarded the president...
Welcome back to "Evangelical Catholicism"
Posted on July 11, 2009After a two-year-or-so hiatus, the very interesting blog "Evangelical Catholicism" is back. (Contributors Michael and Katerina had been blogging at Vox Nova. More here.)
A follow-up to Michael
Posted on July 11, 2009Thanks to Michael Perry who has brought our attention to The New York Times article posted this afternoon regarding President Obama?s stirring speech given to the Ghanian Parliament. As Michael?s reference to the speech itself and to The New York...
Should a faithful Catholic who is rich--i.e., "very rich"--be willing to pay more taxes to fund universal health care?
Posted on July 11, 2009Here, here, and here.
Whether you voted for or against Obama, ...
Posted on July 11, 2009... whether your name is Rick Garnett or John O'Callaghan or whatever--and even if you believe that the Holy Spirit picked Joseph Ratzinger to be pope (cf. here; BTW, Joseph Ratzinger himself [!] suggested, in effect, that for one who...
"When Benny Met Barry"
Posted on July 10, 2009Rick's friend David Gibson is at it again, over at dotCommonweal, here.
Family Ties: What do we think?
Posted on July 10, 2009Over at Prawfsblawg, Dan Markel, Ethan Lieb, and Jennifer Collins have put up their "intro freaky post" describing their recent book project, "Privilege or Punish." As much as I like the authors, I have to agree that the post --...
Robert George on the marriage debate
Posted on July 10, 2009Here, at Public Discourse, is an interview with Prof George, about the state-of-play in the debate over re-defining marriage to include same-sex relationships. A taste: [An] insidious and brutal way in which many advocates of sexual liberalism deploy cultural power...
Ninth Circuit rejects pharmacists' religious-conscience claims
Posted on July 10, 2009The Los Angeles Times has the story, here: The right to freely exercise one's religion "does not relieve an individual of the obligation to comply with a valid and neutral law of general applicability," the 9th Circuit panel wrote. "Any...
Hibbs on the new encyclical
Posted on July 10, 2009Here is philosopher Thomas Hibbs, commenting on the encyclical: ?Democracy in good faith no longer has any essential reproach to make against the church. From now on it can hear the question the church poses, that it alone poses, the...
Horizonal Catholicism & the Economy of Communion
Posted on July 10, 2009Thanks, Michael P., for the link to John Allen?s latest, in which he discusses, among other things, John Coleman?s analysis of the ?paradox? that ?Roman Catholicism should be the religious actor best positioned to engage the issues raised by globalization,...
Back to Honduras ...
Posted on July 10, 2009Very interesting piece in The New Republic (7/10/09), by David Fontana of George Washington Law, here. Honduras and Constitutional Democracy Here in the United States, the removal of President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras has prompted disparate reactions from the political...
Well, as usual, Rick is right and I was not ...
Posted on July 09, 2009There is one "really big" (cf. Ed Sullivan, if any of you are old enough to remember him) thing that Rick and I disagree venehmently about, and it's much more fundamental that theology or politics: namely, whether one should root...
Agreeing with Michael P.
Posted on July 09, 2009Not only do I also agree with Michael -- or, the Michaels -- that skepticism is appropriate regarding the "claim that every human being has inherent dignity and is inviolable can be embedded in a secular world view", I want...
Still more on Caritas
Posted on July 09, 2009Here is a short blurb, by me, on the new encyclical: It was predictable, but is nevertheless regrettable, that many pundits and partisans would respond to Caritas in Veritate not so much by engaging Pope Benedict?s profoundly Christian humanism but...
A Thicker Liberalism
Posted on July 09, 2009Responding to our discussion on liberalism (here, here, here, and here), Brad Lewis, a professor of Philosophy at CUA, offers a more thickly textured liberalism: It's true that liberalism as a kind of normative philosophical theory assumes or promotes a...
One woman and judge?s view
Posted on July 09, 2009This coming Sunday?s The New York Times Magazine will publish an interview with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg entitled The Place of Women on the Court. [HERE] In part, it offers her exhortation encouraging the confirmation to the Supreme Court of...
Death with Dignity
Posted on July 09, 2009Recommended reading: Jane Gross, "Facing Death with Dignity," NYT, 7/9/09. The byline: "A congregation of sisters outside of Rochester offers a model for successful aging and a gentle death." An excerpt: "A convent is a world apart, unduplicable. But the...
I've retired, so what else should I be doing ...
Posted on July 09, 2009The Pew Forum, The Tablet, Commonweal, NCR ... Unlike Rick, after all, and alas, I'm an old man, surely incapable, unlike Rick, of rock-climbing in the Tetons. National Catholic Reporter The $64,000 question from Benedict's encyclical, and other Vatican goings-on...
Fraternity and the modern ageClifford
Posted on July 09, 2009Fraternity and the modern ageClifford Longley Released on the eve of the G8 Summit, the Pope?s encyclical calls for a new world financial order guided by ethics, with a concern for humanity and a focus on justice. It emphatically unites...
CARITAS IN VERITATE
Posted on July 09, 2009COLUMNISTS Does Obama Have a Friend in the Vatican? E. J. Dionne Jr. Here.
Liberalism and CST
Posted on July 09, 2009At the risk of being a shameless self-promoter (hey . . . Rick taught me everything I know!), I would encourage anyone interested in the relationship between liberalism and Catholic legal theory to read my piece, recently published in the...
An Evangelical Christian as the New Head of NIH? Please Say It Ain't So!
Posted on July 09, 2009Obama Chooses Francis Collins To Head NIH: Resources on Faith and Science President Barack Obama has announced that he will nominate Francis S. Collins, the former director of the Human Genome Project, to be the new director of the National...
Categories: Real and Reductive?
Posted on July 08, 2009Amy asks"can we all agree that the categories are simultaneously real and reductive?" I'll give a qualified "yes" to that. They are certainly reductive and are real at least to the extent "that much of our political, social and legal...
"The Pope is a liberal"
Posted on July 08, 2009Michael has posted -- I just knew he would! -- a link to David Gibson's "The Pope is a Liberal" piece. No doubt, the Pope's views on many questions regarding the organization and regulation of the economy put him well...
"The Place of Women on the Court"
Posted on July 08, 2009In this Sunday's NYT Magazine, here. (As a law student, I took a class from then-Professor Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and if memory serves, it was the very first class she taught after joining the Columbia law faculty.)
Liberal Democracy and Moral Anthropologies
Posted on July 08, 20091. Liberal democracy, understood as democracy committed *both* to the inherent dignity and inviolability of every human being *and* to certain human rights, is something, I say again, we all here do affirm. 2. Liberal democracy, thus understood, does not...
An MOJ Reader Responds
Posted on July 08, 2009William Junker writes: David Gibson's misrepresentation of the encyclical resides chiefly in his claim that ?what is clear, whether one reads every word or just excerpts, is that the pope is a liberal, at least in American political terms.? This...
Liberalisms and the Scope of Catholic Social Thought
Posted on July 08, 2009To me it is clear that more than a thin conception of the good is needed to ground a just society. But I do not think that all liberalisms rely on a thin conception of the good. Martha Nussbaum?s conception...
Caritas in Veritate & the Trinity as a Social Model
Posted on July 08, 2009Over at the America magazine blog, Austen Ivereigh takes issue with George Weigel's system for parsing Caritas in Veritate, and surmises that there might have been at least one other major influence in the drafting: Chiara Lubich, the founder of...
Are all MOJ-bloggers proudly liberal?
Posted on July 08, 2009Michael P. says: "there *is* an important sense in which we MOJ-bloggers are all liberals - and proudly so" in the sense that most "conservatives" and "liberals" on the US political scene today are merely two sides of the same...
On "liberalism"
Posted on July 08, 2009A brief comment on Rick's post--in particular, on the question of political labels. In my judgment, the heart of the problem--and it is a serious problem--with the labels "liberal" and "liberalism" is that they mean such different things to different...
The Michaels Agree??!!! (Updated)
Posted on July 08, 2009Say it ain't so, Rick--er, I mean Joe. [Cf. here.] Surely it's all downhill from here on out. God knows that Michael P. and Rick G. will never agree! Maybe, at this moment--this mind-boggling? holy? even providential? moment--MOJ should just...
Hold the Presses, the Michaels Agree
Posted on July 08, 2009Michael P. says, "I have expressed skepticism, in much of my work over the past several years, that the claim that every human being has inherent dignity and is inviolable can be embedded in a secular world view." I too...
Some MOJ Readers May Enjoy This "Fable"
Posted on July 08, 2009From our friends at Vox Nova: Catholic Perspectives on Culture, Society and Politics. The Good Pope and the Bad Advisers ? A Fable by George Weigel Read it, here.
Michael S & Michael P: Categories
Posted on July 07, 2009Seems like there are two things going on in your exchange: first, the need to acknowledge that much of our political, social and legal landscape is working with these categories (liberal-conservative, right-left), and so we do need to watch for...
Dear Michael S.,
Posted on July 07, 2009Why the colon (:) rather than a comma (,)? I think that more than labels, self-righteousness makes dialogue difficult, and self-righteousness is something that we must all be on guard to avoid--myself certainly no less than anyone else. Please God....
Dear Michael P.:
Posted on July 07, 2009That still leaves my two questions: What constructive purpose do these categories serve in the present context? And, Michael, would you concede that even if they do serve some constructive purpose, there is the real possibility that they also have...
Boxing in Papa Ratzi
Posted on July 07, 2009Thank you Michael P. for pointing us to David Gibson's column titled "The Pope is a Liberal. Who Knew?" It amuses me in a sad sort of way that people like Gibson and others attempt continually to paint the Pope...
Caritas in Veritate: "The Pope Is a Liberal. Who Knew?"
Posted on July 07, 2009So says dotCommonwealer David Gibson, here. "Cardinal Cottier's confusion" (here) is bad enough. But Benedict XVI (a.k.a. "Pape Ratzi" [here]) a liberal--i.e., a L*I*B*E*R*A*L ... at least, of the *economic* variety? Please, Rick, say it ain't so. SAY IT AIN'T...
Cardinal Cottier's confusion
Posted on July 07, 2009A few days ago, Michael P. linked to some recent, highly complimentary remarks by Cardinal Georges Cottier about President Obama, abortion, politics, Notre Dame, etc. Others have also noticed and welcomed these remarks. I expressed, here, some skepticism...
Caritas in Veritate & The Economy of Communion
Posted on July 07, 2009It's rare for a specific project to get a shout-out in a papal enclyclical, but here's an exception: As John Allen connects the dots here and here, this paragraph of Caritas in Veritate: 46. When we consider the issues involved...
Papa Ratzi Gives a Shout Out to MOJ
Posted on July 07, 2009At the close of his new encyclical Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict offers a prayer to the Blessed Mother: ?May the Virgin Mary ? proclaimed Mater Ecclesiae by Paul VI and honoured by Christians as Speculum Iustitiae and Regina Pacis...
Law School and the Freedom of the Church
Posted on July 07, 2009Over at Prawfsblawg, Howard Wasserman has what is for MOJ-ers a must-read post on church-autonomy, the ministerial exception, Catholic law schools, and the latest from Ave Maria School of Law. He asks, among other things: 3) I would love to...
Politics, morality and original
Posted on July 06, 2009Politics, morality and original sin The speeches by US President Barack Obama at the University of Notre Dame and at the Al-Azhar Islamic University in Cairo can be usefully compared with elements of the faith and of Christian social doctrine...
Pope Benedict on "following the prevailing winds"
Posted on July 06, 2009From the American Papist blog, a recent statement -- made in the context of the Year of St. Paul -- by Pope Benedict (emphasis not mine): "Paul wants the Christian faith have a 'responsible', an 'adult faith," said the Holy...
"The Alternative Tradition in America
Posted on July 06, 2009Patrick Deneen has an interesting post at Front Porch Republic critiquing the conservative and liberal strands of American liberalism.
From MOJ Friend Gerry Whyte
Posted on July 06, 2009Trinity College (Dublin) Law Prof Gerry Whyte sends this our way: Welcome, Obama. The Vatican Plays Him a Fanfare On the eve of the visit of the president of the United States to the pope, Cardinal Cottier, for many years...
"On Catholic Journalism, Abortion, and Obama"
Posted on July 06, 2009Another informative post by Drew Christiansen, SJ, editor of America, here.
Drew Christiansen, SJ, editor of America, on his recent meeting with Obama
Posted on July 06, 2009Interesting reading, here.
Rev. Robert J. Araujo, S.J. Joins the Law Faculty at Loyola Chicago
Posted on July 06, 2009I am pleased to announce something of which many, but not all, members of MOJ are already aware, namely, that Rev. Robert J. Araujo, S.J. has joined the faculty at Loyola University Chicago School of Law as the inaugural chair-holder...
Our prayers, love, and support are with Mark Sargent
Posted on July 04, 2009Our friend and colleague, Mark Sargent, resigned this week as dean of Villanova University School of Law under very painful circumstances. Our prayers, love, and support are with Mark and his family in this difficult time. We pray for healing...
Dear Michael S.,
Posted on July 04, 2009In response to your post: I'm sorry that what I said was not clear. Of course, the Vatican's own explanation for its investigation is non-patriarchal, non-sexist, whatever. (By the way, by "sexist" I do *not* mean "misogynistic".) The question I...
Non-sexist explanations for scrutiny
Posted on July 04, 2009The New York Times article (U.S. Nuns Facing Vatican Scrutiny) linked by Michael P., his comments (?I doubt there is a non-patriarchal (non-sexist?) explanation for??), and the response by Fr. Araujo (Sr. Brink said that the Religious Life she proposes...
Happy 4th
Posted on July 04, 2009WE, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People...
Dear Robert, John, and Rick,
Posted on July 04, 2009Thanks very much for your posts (here, here, and here). MOJ-readers are, of course, much better off--much better informed--hearing from all of us than just from some of us. And thank God friendship--including even that special friendship we call marriage--doesn't...
Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder . . . But All that Glitters Is Not Gold, Even When It Is Described As Such
Posted on July 03, 2009In offering an alternative headline to the one put forth by Rick Garnett describing President Obama?s policies with respect to abortion overseas, Michael Perry reminds us of what we all learned on the first day of law school ? that...
A Fourth of July mistake
Posted on July 03, 2009With respect to Michael's post, recommending some "Fourth of July reading", "Swiss Cardinal George Cottier, 87, former theologian of the papal household under Pope John Paul II," is, unfortunately, mistaken about what the views, policies, and plans of President Obama...
Beauty is not ALWAYS in the eye of the beholder: A response to Michael
Posted on July 03, 2009Michael is right, of course, to imply that words matter and that it is often the case that a particular state of affairs can be described in different ways, to different effects. As we all know, sometimes, things are described...
Scavi Tour
Posted on July 03, 2009Visiting the Necropolis under St. Peter's is one of the highlights of my past two trips to Rome, and I recommend anyone going to Rome contact the Scavi office well in advance for tickets. Now, this tour is also available...
Some Fourth of July Reading ...
Posted on July 03, 2009Former papal theologian praises Obama's 'realism,' even on abortion By John L. Allen Jr. Swiss Cardinal George Cottier, 87, former theologian of the papal household under Pope John Paul II,has praised Obama's "humble realism" and compared the president's approach to...
Faith and Doubt on the Feast of St. Thomas
Posted on July 03, 2009On this Feast of Doubting Thomas, I reread the words of Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) on pages40-41 of Introduction to Christianity: [B]oth the believer and the unbeliever share, each in his own way, doubt and belief, if they...
A Literary Key to the New Encyclical
Posted on July 03, 2009John Allen's latest, A Key to Reading Benedict's Social Encyclical looks like a super-helpful guide and warmup for the release of Caritas in Veritate, due out this Tuesday.
The Feast of St. Thomas, the Apostle
Posted on July 03, 2009Today is the feast of St. Thomas, the Apostle. I was taken by a passage from St. Paul?s letter to the Ephesians, the first reading. Saint Paul exhorts: ?You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens...
"Let's end disposable marriage"
Posted on July 02, 2009Leah Ward Sears, former Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, writes from a gut wrenching personal persptective: The coupling and uncoupling we've become accustomed to undermines our democracy, destroys our families and devastates the lives of our children, who...
I doubt there is a non-patriarchal (non-sexist?) explanation for ...
Posted on July 02, 2009... the state of affairs described in the article referenced below. (But then, God knows, the membership of the men's club known as magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church is nothing if not ... patriarchal.) For a while this afternoon,...
Beauty, and ugliness too, seem to be in the eye of the beholder ...
Posted on July 02, 2009This is the way my buddy Rick Garnett sees it (here): "The Obama Administration calls for increased abortion access at UN Story here." By contrast, this is a different way of seeing it: The Obama Administration opposes the criminalization of...
We are such a broken, fallible church ...
Posted on July 02, 2009"We are, after all, the church of the Medicis and the Borgias, the Papal States and the Avignon Papacy, the Documents of Discovery and anti-Modernism, the condemnation of "mixed" marriages and the rejection of the U.S. policy of separation of...
I second Michael S's recommendation
Posted on July 02, 2009I was going to recommend that MOJ-readers read an op-ed, and then noticed that Michael S had already done so (here). So let me just second Michael's recommendation. The author of the op-ed, Leah Ward Sears, "stepped down this week...
The Obama Administration calls for increased abortion access at UN
Posted on July 02, 2009Story here.
Place, flourishing, mobility, meritocracy, etc.
Posted on July 02, 2009It's too big to summarize well here, but I think MOJ readers would enjoy the fascinating conversation that is rollicking along at First Things' "Postmodern Conservative" blog (here) and "Front Porch Republic" (here). Take a look also at Jody Bottum's...
Welcome to Greg Alexander
Posted on July 02, 2009I am pleased to announce that Prof. Greg Alexander, an accomplished Property scholar at Cornell -- and the colleague of our own Steve Shiffrin and Eduardo Penalver -- has agreed to join our merry MOJ band of Catholic Legal Theory...
"Honduras Defends its Democracy"
Posted on July 01, 2009From a WSJ op-ed yesterday: Hugo Chávez's coalition-building efforts suffered a setback yesterday when the Honduran military sent its president packing for abusing the nation's constitution. It seems that President Mel Zelaya miscalculated when he tried to emulate the success...
Forgiveness
Posted on July 01, 2009I have just posted a new paper in which I try to develop a Thomistic account of interpersonal forgiveness. Aruging that forgiveness is the form love takes on the part of a person who has been offended, I resist the...
Congratulations and Best Wishes to Dean Patricia O'Hara
Posted on June 30, 2009Today is the last day of Dean Patricia O'Hara's deanship at the Notre Dame Law School. I joined the faculty of the Law School in the summer of 1999, at the same time that she became our dean. Ten years...
Can property crimes be "extraordinarily evil?"
Posted on June 30, 2009Hofstra law prof (and MoJ-friend) Ron Colombo and his friends at The Conglomerate are having an interesting debate about whether Bernie Madoff's actions are properly labeled "extraordinarily evil."
President (Obama) Will Soon Meet Pope (Benedict XVI)
Posted on June 30, 2009Doug Kmiec's reflections on the upcoming meeting are here.
"Discrimination Under God"
Posted on June 30, 2009Wendy Kaminer has an essay, at The Atlantic, about the various lawsuits involving challenges to the application of schools' and universities' non-discrimination rules to religious associations and clubs that restrict leadership or voting privileges to co-religionists...
What the Nixon tapes tell us
Posted on June 30, 2009According to Christopher Hitchens (here), the recently-much-remarked recording of Pres. Nixon discussing Roe and abortion are instructive with respect to the Republican Party. Perhaps. It seems to me (and maybe this is Hitchens's point) Nixon's (loathesome) statement, "There are times...
A life ?not worth living??
Posted on June 30, 2009I would like to follow up on Rick?s comment to Rob?s post regarding the recent Cahn-Carbone posting on Prawfsblawg. I have read this posting, and it appears that the Cahn-Carbone argument rests in large part on the attempt to justify...
Abortion as the "pro-life" option, cont'd
Posted on June 30, 2009Following up on Rob's post, it seems to me that Naomi Cahn's proposed "redefin[ition]", at Prawfsblawg, of the abortion debate is one that involves excising from that debate precisely the matter in controversy, i.e., whether or not a human being...
Deference, Authority, and Human Frailty
Posted on June 29, 2009Rob's post raises important questions and points to a tension that has been present since the beginning of the Church. The Gospel reading for today, on this Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, brings part of the picture into bold...
Marriage equality: what should we expect from government?
Posted on June 29, 2009In the past, I've expressed skepticism about reasons offered for excluding same-sex couples from the institution of marriage. I've also expressed concern that same-sex marriage brings a potentially expansive role for the state given the lack of social, cultural, biological,...
Abortion as the "pro-life" option
Posted on June 29, 2009Over at PrawfsBlawg, Naomi Cahn and June Carbone assert that women who have abortions do so not because of concern that the pregnancy will interfere with their own life paths, but because they care deeply about the unborn child's future,...
What deference does a Catholic owe to the Church's social teaching?
Posted on June 28, 2009Along with Lisa, I'm teaching in the St. Thomas-Villanova summer program in Rome. This is only my third visit to Rome, so I still have a lot to explore, but one recurring theme is the extent to which the city...
Judge Wilkinson in the CTA4 partial-birth-abortion case
Posted on June 26, 2009On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (barely) upheld that state's partial-birth-abortion ban. (Or, as the Washington Post puts it, the "'partial birth' ban".) The widely respected and not-at-all-prone-to-partisan-hackery Judge J...
A Coherent Politician
Posted on June 25, 2009When I saw this headline in ZENIT: "Pope Benedict Honors a Coherent Politician", my first thought was, boy, have the shenanigans of Governors Spitzer and Sanford, and Senators Edwards and Ensign, lowered the bar for the honoring of politicians! But...
Zamir and Medina on Public and Private Morality
Posted on June 24, 2009Two Hebrew University law profs have posted a new paper, "Public and Private Morality," that may be of interest to MoJ readers. Here's the abstract: This is a chapter of a book titled Law, Economics, and Morality, which proposes to...
Peter Lawler's reflections on the killing-off (for now?) of the President's Council on Bioethics
Posted on June 24, 2009Here. He concludes: The rule of experts might be fine if they were philosopher-kings who had united in themselves not only technological power but perfect wisdom. But of course, it's much more clear that the human power over nature and...
Is the abortion debate over?
Posted on June 24, 2009Micah Watson has some thoughts, here, at Public Discourse: The lines of disagreement in the philosophical debate over abortion have never been clearer. While the politics of abortion remain as tumultuous and contested as they have ever been, the underlying...
Live in Indiana? Read this!
Posted on June 24, 2009The Indiana General Assembly is currently considering an important school choice program as part of its 2010 budget bill. The Indiana School Scholarship Tax Credit plan would create a state tax credit for donations by corporations and individuals to scholarship...
God, Philosophy, Universities
Posted on June 24, 2009I am reading Alasdair MacIntyre's new book, "God, Philosophy, Universities: A Selective History of the Catholic Philosophical Tradition." Check it out. It's conversational and accessible, but also provocative and profound.
Property and Virtue
Posted on June 24, 2009The latest issue of the Cornell Law Review has some very interesting-looking papers on Property, obligation, and virtue by, inter alia, my friend and natural-rights expert Eric Claeys, and our own Eduardo Penalver. Check it out.
In this article, "Why Care About
Posted on June 22, 2009In this article, "Why Care About Caregivers: Using Communitarian Theory to Justify Protection of "Real Workers," Nicole Porter presents a communitarian theory of greater support for caregivers. From the abstract below, it certainly sounds very compatible with the Catholic theory...
Is an attorney's moral deference a problem?
Posted on June 22, 2009In light of our conversation about the Catholic legal thought project being too disconnected from the practice of law, I thought readers might be interested in this exchange about how lawyers should view their professional roles. The Northwestern Law Review...
Saints John Fisher and Thomas More
Posted on June 22, 2009It strikes me that today -- the Feast of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More -- the Church invites us to reflect on two Catholics whose llives and witnesses could not be more relevant to this blog's project. As I...
Procreation and Homosexuality: A question
Posted on June 22, 2009Michael P. posted an abstract to an article subtitled Same-Sex Couples and the Rhetoric of Accidental Procreation. In the article, the authors argue that same-sex couples "only procreate after considerable effort and forethought." I have a serious question that will...
Procreation and the Battle Over "Marriage"
Posted on June 22, 2009Rob Vischer called our attention to David Novak's piece on same-sex marriage (here). As I read Novak's piece, I was reminded of a different piece I read recently, in the current issue of the Yale Journal of Law & the...
Why should we respond to SSM by having the state get out of marriage?
Posted on June 21, 2009Over at Public Discourse, David Novak has a typically thoughtful take on same-sex marriage, and while I find the various elements of his analysis reasonable, I have a hard time connecting all the dots. He argues that a child has...
An SAT analogy? The election of JPII to the papacy is to the Soviet Union as the election of BHO to the U.S. presidency is to the Iranian theocracy
Posted on June 21, 2009Well, just a thought, prompted by this piece.
Thoughts and Action?Catholic Legal Theory
Posted on June 20, 2009I am grateful to the previous interveners who have presented some important points regarding the role of Catholic legal theory in the daily work and lives of Catholic lawyers. I intend my small contribution today to complement what has already...
DeGirolami on Catholic legal thought and "theory"
Posted on June 19, 2009Marc DeGirolami responds to my earlier post relating a Catholic attorney's concern that the Catholic legal thought project is too focused on theory: The fact (at least for me it is a fact) is that "theory" is not a special...
Thoughts about the Catholic Legal Theory Project on the Feast of the Sacred Heart
Posted on June 19, 2009When I went to mass this morning, and heard the readings to celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart, I was taken by the beauty of the selection from the letter to Ephesians 3:8-12.14-19. Here?s a snippet: ??that Christ may...
What do lawyers need from Catholic legal thought?
Posted on June 19, 2009Marc DeGirolami adds these further comments to our discussion of CLT's focus on theory: Part of the trouble with these sorts of discussions is that it is difficult to know exactly what lawyers "need" from Catholic legal thought. Sometimes what...
Relevant Work in Property Law and Theory
Posted on June 19, 2009Cornell Law Review Volume 94 Issue 4 May 2009 SPECIAL ISSUE Property and Obligation A Statement of Progressive Property Gregory S. Alexander, Eduardo M. Peñalver, Joseph William Singer & Laura S. Underkuffler Articles The Social-Obligation Norm in American Property Law...
St. Gregory's University and Catholic Higher Education
Posted on June 19, 2009Recently, I was appointed to St. Gregory's University's Board of Directors. Yesterday, I attended my first board function - an all day retreat, And, I came away inspired and very hopeful about the future of Catholic higher education, at least...
Theory and Practice
Posted on June 19, 2009Two quick responses to the practicing lawyer's concernsthat our conversations may be too theoretical and too disconnected from the issues that matter to Catholic lawyers. As Marc DeGirolami's comments suggest (to me anyway) the issue isn't theory vs. practice so...
A clarification on CLT and "theory"
Posted on June 19, 2009The Catholic attorney who has raised questions about the direction of the Catholic legal thought project offers this clarification in response to Marc DeGirolami's post: At one level I agree with Marc that the issue isn't whether CST is too...
Is the Catholic Legal Thought project too focused on theory?
Posted on June 18, 2009My recap of the Conference on Catholic Legal Thought prompted a reader (and practicing lawyer) to express his concern that our conversations may be too theoretical and too disconnected from the issues that matter to Catholic lawyers. Here's an excerpt...
Women Religious Tackle Human Trafficking
Posted on June 18, 2009I've just arrived in Rome, where I'll be spending the summer teaching at the joint University of St. Thomas/Villanova law school summer law program, after a wonderful but exhausting five days treking through Germany, showing my kids where I grew...
Others on Noonan on Paslgraf
Posted on June 18, 2009It's true that Judge Noonan did us all a great jurisprudential favor by telling the story of Helen Palsgraf. I'm not sure it's quite true, though, that Judge Noonan regarded Judge Cardozo as "mechanically following [the] rule," as has been...
Notre Dame's Cathy Kaveny on John Noonan, judges, and "empathy"
Posted on June 18, 2009Here, in the new issue of Commonweal. An excerpt: Obama?s critics worry that ?empathy? is not merely undesirable, but inconsistent with the fundamental obligations of a judge. Republican Senator Orrin Hatch fears it is a code word for judicial ?activism,?...
"there must be a lot of Catholic law schools where"
Posted on June 18, 2009So says (Georgetown Law's) David Luban here in explaining his voting in Leiter's recent survey concerning "which philosophers have had the most impact on legal scholarship." Must there? "I found myself placing Aristotle and Aquinas high on the list because...
The illusion of consensual marriage
Posted on June 17, 2009Over at First Things, Andrew Peach has written a beautiful reflection on fatherhood in the context of lamenting its demise. You should read the whole thing, but here's a snippet: Faith in fatherhood, when such faith has existed, has always...
Some News About Michael Perry
Posted on June 16, 2009From America, June 22, 2009: News Briefs Franciscan Father Michael Perry of the United States was elected June 5 as vicar general of the Order of Friars Minor.
Catholicity of Sotomayor Comment
Posted on June 15, 2009So far, the most controversial revelation regarding the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor is her comment in a 2001 speech at Berkeley which included the following statement: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her...
Redding on "the mausoleum of majoritarian marriage"
Posted on June 15, 2009St. Louis law prof Jeffrey Redding has posted an essay titled Proposition 8 and the Future of American Same-Sex Marriage Activism. The essay underscores my concern that the exclusion of same-sex couples from the institution of marriage would eventually stop...
International Theological Commission on the Natural Law
Posted on June 15, 2009Contributors and friends of the Mirror of Justice may recall that last December I posted a brief synopsis of the International Theological Commission?s (ITC) anticipated document on ?The Search for Universal Ethics: A New Look at Natural Law.? [HERE ]...
papers
Posted on June 13, 2009I have recently posted at SSRN a new paper titled The Place of "Higher Law" in the Quotidian Practice of Law: Herein of Pratical Reason, Natural Law, Natural Rights, and Sex Toys. It can be viewed here. Though the paper...
Catholic Legal Thought: Live at the Dubliner!
Posted on June 12, 2009The Catholic Legal Thought Conference rolled into Washington, D.C. this week, and our nation?s capitol will undoubtedly never be the same. The conference?s growing and rollicking cacophony of personalities, friendships, and booming ideas brings to mind a larger-than-life 1970s rock...
Torture, Morality, and Law
Posted on June 12, 2009I haven't read this paper yet, but it looks to be of interest to MOJ readers--and I want to post it before I hit the road for a few days. Torture, Necessity and Supreme Emergency: Law and Morality at the...
The Wages of Hate
Posted on June 12, 2009That's the title of on online piece by Judith Warner in today's NYT. Some passages: Like Scott Roeder, the man charged in the shooting of the Wichita, Kan., doctor George Tiller nearly two weeks ago, James von Brunn, the white...
Breen on "Neutrality in Liberal Legal Theory and Catholic Social Thought"
Posted on June 11, 2009I imagine someone has linked to John Breen's recent paper, "Neutrality in Liberal Legal Theory and Catholic Social Thought" but, even if someone has, the paper is worth (at least) two mentions. If you haven't read it yet, drop the...
What does Catholic legal theory have to say about this??!!!
Posted on June 11, 2009NYT, June 11, 2009 Fla. Cop Suspended After Running Over Sunbather JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- A rookie police officer has been suspended for seven days for running over a woman sunbathing on a north Florida beach. An internal affairs...
Call for Papers: "The Summons of Freedom"
Posted on June 10, 2009The Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture is putting together its annual Fall Conference. This year's theme is "The Summons of Freedom: Virtue, Sacrifice, and the Common Good." Here (Download Center CFP) is the call for papers. And here...
"The Nature of a Catholic Law School"
Posted on June 10, 2009It's an oldie but, I think,a goodie (Download St Ives Lecture): Prof. Steven Frankino's "St. Ives Day Lecture", from a while back, on "The Nature of a Catholic Law School."
Useful reading for those seeking "common ground" on abortion
Posted on June 10, 2009This op-ed, by Ross Douthat, is, it seems to me, a useful reminder to those purporting to desire "common ground" and "dialogue" on abortion that: If abortion were returned to the democratic process, this landscape would change dramatically. Arguments about...
Catholic Judges and Justices, Recusal, Etc.
Posted on June 10, 2009Two postings at dotCommonweal well worth reading, here and here. The titles of the posts: Historian?s verdict: Catholic justices can?t be trusted A Catholic Judge?s Response to a Motion To Recuse Himself
Against Agape as (Even the Highest Kind of) Self-Love
Posted on June 09, 2009Rob quotes Josef Pieper (criticizing Anders Nygren) that "[t]he call for an utterly disinterested, unmotivated, sovereign agape love that wishes to receive nothing, that is purged of all selfish desire, simply rests upon a misunderstanding of man as he really...
Fr. Reese, Notre Dame, and academic freedom
Posted on June 09, 2009With respect to the "Dog That Didn't Bark", and Fr. Reese's concluding paragraph: ?Whatever the cause of this presidential silence,? he concluded, ?it was shameful. The presidents owe Notre Dame and Fr. Jenkins an apology; they owe Catholic higher education...
The costs of blogging pseudonymously
Posted on June 09, 2009If Michael proposes to blog, going forward, as "Rick Garnett," that's fine. But, I expect him to also sign over his Woodruff Chair money, his book royalties, and his cite-count stats. Pay up.
Torture in American Schools?
Posted on June 09, 2009A recent James Taranto column in the WSJ reports that: Last month the Government Accountability Office issued a shocking report on "selected cases of death and abuse"--not at Guantanamo Bay or other detention facilities for terrorists, but at schools for...
David Gushee on white church-going Christians and torture
Posted on June 09, 2009Gushee is distinguished university professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University. His "Christian's lament over the Pew torture poll" is worth reading, here. -- "Rick Garnett"
The Future of the Catholic Church in America
Posted on June 08, 2009Reflecting on Fr. Cozzen's NCR article "The Church will submerge before any emergence, Cathy Kaveny, in a dotCommonweal post titled "A Generation or Two of Real Darkness" asks: "Are we basically headed toward a situation in which liberals and moderates...
The Dog That Didn't Bark
Posted on June 08, 2009NCR, 6/8/09 The silence of the presidents By Richard McBrien Created Jun 08, 2009 Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J., former editor-in-chief of America magazine, wrote an exceedingly important article for the National Catholic Reporter, May 29, on the silence of the...
Recommended Reading
Posted on June 08, 2009Conscience and Citizenship: The Primacy of Conscience for Catholics in Public Life" Journal of Catholic Social Thought, Vol. 6, No. 2, Summer 2009 Boston College Law School Legal Studies Research Paper No. 178 GREGORY A. KALSCHEUR, Boston College - Law...
Matthew 25:34-40
Posted on June 08, 2009Sightings 6/8/09 I Was In Prison, But... -- Martin E. Marty Sightings files bulge with clippings and printouts having to do with religion and prisons. Every year I ?do? one of the sixty synod assemblies of our cosa nostra, the...
Blogging Pseudonymously
Posted on June 08, 2009There's a raging controversy in the blogosphere about the ethics of blogging pseudonymously. Read about it here, in a post titled "The Outing of Publius". I've decided that from this point on, I'm going to blog pseudonymously at MOJ, under...
The Future of the Catholic Church in America?
Posted on June 07, 2009Here's a grim view--by someone who should know. (Fr. Cozzens' view resonates powerfully with me.) And here are some interesting comments at dotCommonweal.
A New Kind of Catholic Democrat?
Posted on June 06, 2009The Tablet June 6, 2009 A Catholic word in your ear, Mr PresidentMichael Sean Winters A new kind of Catholic Democrat is emerging in America?s corridors of power ? young, politically committed and often with the same community organising background...
Obama in Cairo
Posted on June 06, 2009My esteemed colleague at Emory Law, and at Emory's Center for the Study of Law and Religion, Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, had this to say in The Guardian (U.K.) yesterday: Muslims Have to Change for Themselves Whatever one might have been...
Jesus Interrupted
Posted on June 05, 2009I'm not a biblical scholar, but I'm fascinated by debates between biblical scholars. Bart Ehrman, Wheaton College grad turned agnostic, has been attracting a lot of attention (and readers) with his book, Jesus Interrupted. New Testament scholar Ben Witherington responds...
Lawyers and Vacations
Posted on June 04, 2009Check out this brief ABA Journal piece, ?Vacation or Not, Lawyers Should Be Available via E-mail, Cleary Partner Says.? ?An ?out of office? auto-reply saying that an attorney is unavailable is acceptable only in rare circumstances, such as when a...
The Foundations of (Women's) Religious Life
Posted on June 04, 2009If you're interested in the topic of women religious that was the subject of a recent flurry of posts, here's an interesting-looking book. It's called The Foundations of Religious Life: Revisiting the Vision, and consist of a collection of articles...
Habermas (or Michael Perry?)
Posted on June 03, 2009You make the call. Either way, it's a good point: Christianity, and nothing else, is the ultimate foundation of liberty, conscience, human rights, and democracy . . .. We continue to nourish ourselves from this source. Everything else is postmodern...
Don't eat the seedcorn!
Posted on June 03, 2009Sound advice, from Kenneth Anderson (American Univ.): As a believer in liberty and consent, I should greatly like to share Philip Bobbitt's hopes for the market-state. It does not take a conservative to wonder, however, whether this is enough to...
Massey on church autonomy
Posted on June 03, 2009Calvin Massey has a new paper on church autonomy (here is the link). Abstract: When the Supreme Court decided Jones v. Wolf it required courts to use secular criteria to decide church property disputes, yet there remains considerable uncertainty about...
An important question about "family policy"
Posted on June 03, 2009At "Front Porch Republic," Lew Daly asks, in this long, but very interesting, post: So the question I ask myself is this: is there a need and a desire for a family-centered politics that marries security-oriented economic progressivism with community-oriented...
The United States of New England (plus Iowa)
Posted on June 03, 2009[Lest MOJ readers misunderstand this post, let me be clear: I support the recognition, by state legislatures, of same-sex marriage.] NYT June 4, 2009 New Hampshire Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage By ABBY GOODNOUGH BOSTON ? The New Hampshire Legislature approved revisions...
Elizabeth Lev on Obama?s Speech at Notre Dame
Posted on June 03, 2009For a final post-script on the President?s speech at Notre Dame, I would encourage everyone to read Elizabeth Lev?s article, Obama Is No Uncle Tom, available here. She contrasts the simple but profound moral convictions of the main character from...
"Are Conscience Protections for Health Workers Endangered?"
Posted on June 02, 2009Susan Stabile responds in America, here.
Cross and Gavel
Posted on June 02, 2009Check out Regent law prof (and MoJ-friend) Mike Schutt's "Cross and Gavel" website, which is designed to be a "comprehensive resource for Christian lawyers and law students who believe that faith is central to law practice and study." He has...
Agape as (a type of) self-love, not creative love
Posted on June 02, 2009I recently asked whether Anders Nygren's view of agape love is consistent with Catholic teaching. As Fr. Araujo and Mike Moreland pointed out, it's not. Josef Pieper, in his remarkable Faith, Hope, Love, takes on Nygren directly. It is well...
Should Liberty University lose its tax-exempt status?
Posted on June 02, 20091. Liberty University's decision to revoke recognition of its chapter of the College Democrats is unwise and crazily short-sighted. 2. The suggestion that the university's action should jeopardize its tax-exempt status is unwise and crazily short-sighted...
Martin Marty on "Supreme Court Catholics"
Posted on June 01, 2009Sightings 6/1/09 Supreme Court Catholics -- Martin E. Marty If/when Judge Sonia Sotomayor is sworn in as a member of the United States Supreme Court, there would/will be six Roman Catholics on it. My trained and focused eye -- trained...
Meilaender on stem-cell research and torture
Posted on June 01, 2009This essay is long, but well worth the time. I particularly liked this: If human beings were simply members of our species, it might sometimes make sense to sacrifice one or another of them for the sake of the species...
More from Robert George, regarding science and the abortion debate
Posted on June 01, 2009Responding to Michael Sean Winters's review of his recent National Press Club conversation with Doug Kmiec, Prof. George writes: . . . [Mr. Winters] attribute[s] to me the very reverse of what I hold about whether science can resolve the...
Conference of interest at Baylor
Posted on June 01, 2009Click here to learn more about the "Third Annual Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture." This year's theme is "Secularization and Revival: The Fate of Religion in Modern Intellectual History". Check it out. The speaker lineup is fantastic.
Arbp. Chaput's Canterbury Award remarks
Posted on June 01, 2009This year's recipient of the Canterbury Award, given out by my friends at the Becket Fund (go here and give them money) is Archbishop Charles Chaput. His remarks on the occasion are here. A taste: My job tonight is to...
Linker's Question for George, and Dreher's answer
Posted on June 01, 2009It comes as no surprise, of course, that some are seizing on the murder of Dr. Tiller as an occasion to either blame those who insist on reminding the world that our legal regime does not treat unborn children justly...
Sola Scriptura and the Constitution
Posted on June 01, 2009This post, by Vox Nova's Blackadder, is well worth a read. A bit: Conservatives who advocate originalism or textualism when in comes to interpreting the Constitution are sometimes accused of advocating a ?sola scriptura? view of the Constitution. Since such...
"Religious Freedom Depends on Catholic Bishops"?
Posted on June 01, 2009An interesting (and, to me, persuasive) suggestion. Thoughts?
"The Moral and Legal Case for School Choice"
Posted on June 01, 2009If you are in or near Chicago, and especially if you need C.L.E., you might want to come to this event, sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute. Fr. Tim Scully (the man behind, among other things, Notre Dame's Alliance for...
"The New Civil Rights Struggle"
Posted on June 01, 2009Is school choice, explains Brendan Miniter, here. He has an interesting account of a new, promising coalition forming in South Carolina for education reform.
Christian Century Piece on Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty
Posted on June 01, 2009I have an article up on same-sex marriage and religious liberty in the online version of The Christian Century, the moderate-to-liberal Christian magazine. Sample paragraph, for the argument that exemptions should extend to religious organizations broadly and to small businesspeople...
Consistent Life statement on Tiller
Posted on June 01, 2009I did not draft this statement, but as someone on the Consistent Life national board, I voted for it. Richard Consistent Life, an international network of 200 groups and many individuals for peace, justice and life, condemns the assassination of...
Murder in Kansas
Posted on May 31, 2009George Tiller, one of the country's more well-known performers of late-term abortions, has -- it is being reported -- been murdered, at his church, in Wichita. This is horrible.
George, Glendon, and Kmiec at the Nat'l Press Club
Posted on May 31, 2009Last Thursday, the Catholic University of America sponsored an event which involved a discussion, moderated by Mary Ann Glendon, between Robert George and Doug Kmiec, on "life issues" and the Obama Administration. A version of Professor George's statement is available...
The new "First Things" site
Posted on May 31, 2009If you have not yet checked out the new "First Things" site, you should. It's really impressive -- a half-dozen blogs, plus "On the Square" and the material from the print-magazine. Joe Carter, the new web editor, has done a...
"Redeemed" and the Catholic Church in Ireland
Posted on May 30, 2009I have been reading Heather King's book Redeemed, which the Boston Globe says (accurately, I think) that "this memoir deserves to be as popular as Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray, Love. It is a wonderful book of finding Christ and His...
?So Catholic it forgot to be Christian?
Posted on May 29, 2009[From The Tablet, May 30, 2009. By Paul Keenan.] One priest's reaction sums up Ireland's increasing fury over the sexual and physical abuse suffered by so many of its children, and the cover-ups and paltry compensation offered by the religious...
University Faculty for Life conference at St. Thomas
Posted on May 29, 2009The annual conference of University Faculty for Life (UFL) will be held next week (June 5-6, 2009) at the University of St. Thomas Law School in Minneapolis. Gilbert Meilaender will be speaking at the banquet on Saturday evening. Rob Vischer...
Gerry Whyte Sends This Our Way ...
Posted on May 29, 2009After the truth David Quinn Published 29 May 2009 The Ryan Commission has revealed decades of child abuse within institutions run by the Irish Catholic Church. An Irish journalist explores where Catholicism in Ireland goes from here Justice Sean Ryan...
"With Diaz nomination [as U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican], Obama passes major Catholic test"
Posted on May 28, 2009So says John Allen, in an interesting piece, here.
Michael Perry v. Steve Shiffrin? And other Judge Sotomayor-related thoughts
Posted on May 28, 2009Gather round! Steve Shiffrin writes, here, that "activism" is "just an ideological term employed by conservatives, and it should be understood as such." (In recent years, actually, liberals have taken to the term, too.) Michael Perry's new book, though, Constitutional...
Cuban Born Liberation Theologian Obama's pick as Ambassador to the Holy See
Posted on May 28, 2009Catholic News Agency reports: In a surprising move, President Barack Obama announced on Wednesday evening that Miguel H. Diaz, Ph.D., a 45 year old lay Liberation theologian born in Havana (Cuba) is his pick to become the United States Ambassador...
Catholics and the Court
Posted on May 28, 2009A newspaper reporter just asked me a few questions about the whole "Catholics and the Court" issue. Here is what I said / wrote: 1. Why do you think there are so many Catholic Supreme Court justices? Part of the...
In response to Rick ...
Posted on May 28, 2009Rick asked (here), and, so, I answer. I don't like the term judicial "activism" (or judicial "activist"), because the term can and does mean different things to different people. As Rick, who has kindly read my new book, knows, I...
Sotomayor may not be so bad
Posted on May 27, 2009Sotomayor is being attacked by pro-lifers for two reasons: She is said to be pro-abortion, and she is said to be a judicial activist. But on each of the three past occasions when abortion was connected to the case before...
Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul
Posted on May 27, 2009I haven't finished grading yet, but I have finished the first book on my summer reading list - Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul by Tony Hendra. Andrew Sullivan writes: "Extrodinary, luminescent, profound ... I beg you to...
Sotomayor and religious freedom
Posted on May 27, 2009Prof. Howard Friedman, at the "Religion Clause" blog, has collected Judge Sotomayor's religious-freedom decisions, here. In my view, notwithstanding the (unsurprising) fact that my strong preference would have been for Justice Souter to have been replaced by someone selected by...
Reminder: Annual Meeting of the Conference of Catholic Legal Thought
Posted on May 27, 2009REMINDER: The 4th Annual Conference on Catholic Legal Thought, will be hosted at Catholic University?s Law School (Washington D.C.) from June 9 ? 11, 2009. If you are a law professor with an interest in Catholic Legal Thought, please join...
Father Joe and activism
Posted on May 27, 2009Two separate points. I too recommend Father Joe. It is an excellent book (though I found Father Joe's visitor annoying some of the time). I also appreciate Richard's point about Sotomayor. If she is pro choice, she can hardly be...
"On Sotomayor, Some Abortion Rights Backers Show Unease "
Posted on May 27, 2009According to an article in the NYT: "Judge Sotomayor has also ruled on several immigration cases involving people fighting deportation orders to China on the grounds that its population-control policy of forcible abortions and birth control constituted persecution...
Eduardo Peñalver on Sonia Sotomayor
Posted on May 27, 2009Read what former MOJ blogger Eduardo has to say, here. Very interesting indeed.
Six (!!!) Catholics on the Court?
Posted on May 26, 2009So, it sounds like President Obama will nominate Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace Justice Souter. Could it be that we will soon have a Supreme Court that is two-thirds Catholic (and 1/9th "White Anglo-Saxon Protestant")? Poor Chris Hitchens! And now....
Calo on CST and human rights
Posted on May 26, 2009Valpo law prof Zachary Calo has posted his new paper, Catholic Social Thought, Political Liberalism, and the Idea of Human Rights. Here is the abstract: As the dominant moral vocabulary of modernity, the language of human rights establishes significant points...
Scholars' letter re: SSM and religious liberty
Posted on May 26, 2009Download NY letter. Here (that is, back there
California Supreme Court Upholds Proposition 8.
Posted on May 26, 2009I haven't yet read the decision, but you can read it in full here.
Catholics on the Court
Posted on May 26, 2009Six down, three to go! We can't relax until we've captured every seat!
Taking the President at His Word
Posted on May 25, 2009A week ago at Notre Dame, President Obama indicated his willingness to ?honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause.? Given his actions to date, some, like Wesley Smith, are inclined to view...
The Church and the Abuse of Children, Con't
Posted on May 25, 2009[MOJ friend Gerry Whyte (professor of law and former dean of the law faculty, Trinity College Dublin) sends this:] Further to the child abuse scandal in Ireland, MOJ readers may be interested in this opinion piece in today's Irish Times...
More on religious freedom, exemptions, and SSM
Posted on May 24, 2009Picking up on Bill A.'s recent Prawfsblawg post (here), I thought MOJ readers might be interested in this piece, by Peter Steinfels, in the Times ("Same-Sex Marriage Laws Pose Protection Quandary"), and this post, by Andy Koppelman, at Balkinization ("Support...
Sex Abuse and the Church
Posted on May 23, 2009For discussion of the sex abuse report regarding the Irish Church, see http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=3213 including the comments section. For information about the problem generally, see bishopaccountability.org.
Sexual Abuse in the Irish Church
Posted on May 23, 2009Here, here, and here. UPDATE: The matter is so horrible. Some fairly wonder whether the institutional church isn't irredeemably corrupt. Consider this reflection (NCR, 5/22/09) by Dominican priest Thomas Doyle, a canon lawyer and advocate for those abused by priests...
Steinfels on Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty
Posted on May 23, 2009In this week's NY Times "Beliefs" column, Peter Steinfels writes about the efforts (involving three MOJers, Perry, Garnett, and Berg) to add meaningful religious-liberty protections to statutes recognizing same-sex marriage. He isn't enthralled with the literary style of our proposed...
Moreland on Nygren
Posted on May 22, 2009My guess regarding the compatibility of Bishop Nygren's view (that God's agape love creates human value, rather than recognizes human value) with Catholic teaching (a guess based on human dignity deriving from the Imago Dei, which itself can be seen....
Same-Sex Marriage, New Hampshire, and Religious Liberty
Posted on May 22, 2009To see a copy of the letter drafted by Doug Laycock (who supports same-sex marriage), co-signed by (inter alia) me (like Doug, I support same-sex marriage, and sent to the governor of New Hampshire today, click here.
The Vatican, Obama, and Abortion, Revisited
Posted on May 22, 2009[Excerpts from John Allen's Friday missive in NCR:] [T]he two most widely read news sources in and around the Vatican have commented on the Obama appearance: L'Osservatore Romano, the semi-official Vatican daily, and L'Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops'...
The Execution of John Fisher
Posted on May 22, 2009Thanks to a friend on Facebook for passing on this clip, from Showtime's "The Tudors," presenting (movingly) the execution of St. John Fisher.
Legally Right? Yes. But Morally?
Posted on May 22, 2009In my judgment, yes. Emphatically, yes! May 22, 2009 Wis. Mom Found Guilty of Letting Sick Daughter Die WAUSAU, Wis. (AP) -- A mother accused of praying instead of seeking medical help for her dying 11-year-old daughter was found guilty...
A Clash of Rights? Gay Marriage
Posted on May 21, 2009A Clash of Rights? Gay Marriage and the Free Exercise of Religion Thursday, May 21, 2009 With New Hampshire considering legislation that would make it the sixth state to legalize same-sex marriage, could religious individuals and institutions that oppose gay...
A reply to Rob on human dignity and the views of Anders Nygren
Posted on May 21, 2009Thanks to Rob for his posting regarding the Lutheran bishop Anders Nygren?s work. Rob has asked the question regarding Nygren?s potential influence on Martin Luther King, Jr. I am not commenting on that influence because we do not have what...
The Continuing SSM / Religious Liberty Debate in New Hampshire
Posted on May 21, 2009After the New Hampshire House narrowly refused yesterday to pass a same-sex marriage bill with reasonable religious-liberty protections demanded by Democratic governor John Lynch, there now appear to be negotiations to return to the issue. New Hampshire seems likely to...
Is this why human dignity arguments are so difficult today?
Posted on May 21, 2009I am not a theologian, but I occasionally play one in my scholarship. As part of a project exploring the theological sources that shaped Martin Luther King, Jr.'s work (and the lessons King offers for our understanding of a lawyer's...
"Sola Scriptura and the Constitution"
Posted on May 20, 2009Great post, and discussion, at Vox Nova. Check it out. Then, discuss.
Is there really an elephant -- or, at least, THAT elephant -- in the room?
Posted on May 20, 2009Michael P. suggests that there is an "elephant in the room", and that is is captured with this question: The sixty-four-dollar question: Who is more unreasonable: (1) One who denies that Christians (and others) can in good faith reasonably reject...
A Second Elephant in the Room (it?s getting crowded in here)
Posted on May 20, 2009A Michael P. rightly points out, we are deeply divided (even among Catholics) on the moral status of the unborn human. I should hasten to add that there are still a number of individuals who remain confused over the biological...
Obama at Notre Dame: The View from the Vatican
Posted on May 20, 2009Or, at least, the view in Italian. An MOJ reader--Pasquale Annicchino, who is a Junior Fellow in the Law and Religion Programme, Siena, Italy, and also Editor in Chief of the Human Rights Review, University College, London--sent me a piece...
At Least We Know It?s An Elephant
Posted on May 20, 2009Michael Perry is quite right to acknowledge and encourage everyone on MOJ to engage in the debate ? hopefully, a rigorous, respectful, and honest dialogue ? about the moral and legal status that should be accorded pre-born human beings. Michael...
Dan Philpott on ND graduation and ND Response event
Posted on May 20, 2009My colleague, Dan Philpott (Pol. Sci.), has shared these typically thoughtful reflections on the graduation and protests, and also on the constructive, student-led event put on by ND Response: Today the controversies here at Notre Dame came to a head...
A Test of Seriousness (Five Questions by Michael Paulsen for President Obama)
Posted on May 20, 2009In the aftermath of President's Obama's commencement address at Notre Dame, my University of St. Thomas colleague, Michael Stokes Paulsen, has posted a message at the Moral Accountability web site (here). Mike Paulsen poses five questions for the President "as...
NH Legislature Rejects Religious Exemptions, Likely Killing SSM Bill
Posted on May 20, 2009The New Hampshore legislature has narrowly refused to accept the governor's demand for a meaningful (but still pretty modest) religious exemption in the state's same-sex-marriage bill. I'm waiting on further reports, but it sure looks like we have a case...
The simple mistake at the root of our abortion disagreements
Posted on May 20, 2009I disagree with Michael P. about the nature of the elephant in the room. I maintain that many or most of those who support abortion, and the destruction of embryos for science, in fact believe in the dignity and equality...
on abortion reduction as common ground
Posted on May 19, 2009Reducing the numbers of those who need protection is no substitute for protecting those who need protection. Let's remember that as we accept the President's invitation to work together against abortion. Let's do everything legally possible under Roe and Casey...
Archbishop Chaput on Notre Dame and the issues that remain
Posted on May 19, 2009Here is the Archbishop's statement from yesterday.
Cardinal Bernadin
Posted on May 19, 2009Much has been made, in the post-Obama-at-ND commentary, of his (shrewd) invocation of Joseph Cardinal Bernadin. (See, for example, this piece, at the wonderful site, The Immanent Frame.) (Cardinal Bernadin, I remember, filed a powerful amicus curiae brief in the...
Further thoughts on conscience in light of the Notre Dame commencement
Posted on May 19, 2009I am sure that many readers of the Mirror of Justice would concur that a lot has been said on these pages concerning the question of conscience?both from Catholic and other perspectives?over the recent past. I have offered my occasional...
The elephant in the room ...
Posted on May 19, 2009... namely, the disagreement, no less among Catholics than among others--the intractable disagreement--not about the *biological* status of unborn human--yes, HUMAN--life at the successiive stages of its development, but about its *moral* status. In the United States (and elsewhere), there...
What does Catholic legal theory have to say about this:
Posted on May 19, 2009"The 12-year-old faces a capital murder charge. He is not eligible for the death penalty but could face up to 40 years in prison if convicted." Here's the AP article, published today: HOUSTON (AP) -- A 12-year-old Texas boy accused...
Misusing Fr. Ted's Civil Rights experience
Posted on May 19, 2009In the Immanent Frame piece to which Michael links below, Michele Dillon writes: Obama was clearly attentive to the cultural and geographical significance of the site of his speech and, fortunately for him, was able to use the words and...
More (great stuff) from Cardinal Bernadin
Posted on May 19, 2009Here is a passage from Cardinal Bernadin's 1976 testimony before Congress in favor of the Human Life Amendment: I begin with a fundamental principle. Abortion is not wrong simply because the Catholic Church or any church says it is wrong....
Another, More Sympathetic View of Obama at Notre Dame ...
Posted on May 19, 2009... over at The Immanent Frame, here.
Health Care Reform
Posted on May 18, 2009According to a forthcoming Urban Institute study, in the absense of meaningful federal health care reform, "more than 60 million Americans could be uninsured within 10 years as insurance premiums increase to unsustainable levels for individuals, families, and businesses...
Response to Gibson
Posted on May 18, 2009Over at the Commonweal blog, in his "Notre Dame Reax Roundup", David Gibson writes, in response to this post of mine: Rick Garnett at MOJ is disappointed in Judge Noonan: I admire Judge Noonan immensely, but wish ? on this...
Res Ipsa Loquitur
Posted on May 18, 2009New York Times, May 19, 2009 Kept From a Dying Partner?s Bedside, by TARA PARKER-POPE When a loved one is in the hospital, you naturally want to be at the bedside. But what if the staff won?t allow it? That?s...
Obama's speech
Posted on May 17, 2009It was a beautiful day -- for me, a sad one, but also, strangely, a somewhat hopeful one -- at Notre Dame. There will be, in the days to come, a lot said and written about the various events and...
Religious liberty & SSM: establishing a baseline
Posted on May 15, 2009The New Hampshire governor has conditioned his support of the state's same-sex marriage bill on the inclusion of robust religious liberty protections, borrowing from a proposal made by our own Rick and Tom (along with three other law profs). As...
Finnis on Reason and Revelation, Universality and Particularity
Posted on May 15, 2009MoJ-ers will be (or at least should be) interested in a new paper from John Finnis titled Reason, Revelation, Universality and Particularity in Ethics. Here's the abstract: This address to a philosophical conference on truth and faith in ethics engages...
Abortion poll numbers
Posted on May 15, 2009It is striking that a majority of Americans consider themselves "pro-life" (though, like Rick, I'm not exactly sure what that means). Two aspects of the results are less cheery: no uptick in the percentage of Democrats identifying as "pro-life" and...
More Americans "pro-life"?
Posted on May 15, 2009Gallup says so. I wonder -- is this really true? If so, what does it mean? What are the implications?
A critique of the modern university
Posted on May 15, 2009Patrick Deneen has a bracing critique, here, of the modern "multiversity." It's something of a gut-check for people (like me) who have a lot invested in the "Catholic university" project. Are we on the wrong track entirely? (HT, again: Phil...
A powerful reflection on humanity, dependency, rights . . .
Posted on May 15, 2009by James Matthew Wilson, at the (excellent) "Front Porch Republic" blog. Check it out. (HT: MOJ-friend Phil Bess).
Peripheral Catholics
Posted on May 14, 2009For Damon Linker's strong reaction (in the New Republic) to Joseph Bottom's assertion (in the Weekly Standard) that "opposition to abortion is at the center of Catholic culture in this country," see http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/linker/default.aspx. Cathleen Kaveny links to this at dotcommonweal...
A new dean for St. John's
Posted on May 14, 2009Congratulations to Michael Simons, who has been named dean at St. John's, succeeding the late Mary Daly. This should be especially welcome news for MoJers, as Mike has shown a keen interest in the ongoing articulation of what Catholic legal...
"A Crisis of Character"
Posted on May 14, 2009Check out this essay, at Huffington Post, by Prof. Ronald Colombo, connecting the credit crisis (and related downers) with the development of (or failure to develop) the virtues. A taste: Unfortunately, since morality and virtue are developed over time, via...
"Learning from Ramsey"
Posted on May 14, 2009One of my all-around favorite thinkers and writers, Gilbert Meilaender, is the 2009 recipient of the Paul Ramsey Award. Here are his remarks. A bit: All of us, Ramsey would have said, whatever our particular vocations, are part of this...
Mary G. Leary on responses to "sexting"
Posted on May 14, 2009Prof. Leary (CUA) has an essay at Public Discourse that is worth reading.
Catholic legal theory and judicial empathy
Posted on May 14, 2009With President Obama's coming Supreme Court pick, there has been a lot of talk about judicial empathy. I found Orin Kerr's discussion of the concept to be very helpful. Here's an excerpt: I think there are two different ways to...
A strange take on church-state separation
Posted on May 13, 2009First Things has the story: A public school in California brings in a lesbian to speak to the students about her homosexuality. Parents, finding out about it after the fact, ask the school to reveal to them what was said....
Gerson on Putnam on American Religion
Posted on May 13, 2009I have not read any Harry Potter books, so I've never gotten to enjoy the midnight-bookstore-dress-up-as-Dumbledore scene, but I do get very excited for new Robert Putnam books, though I've never been able to inspire many followers to don bowling...
website comparison
Posted on May 12, 2009Here is an effort to respond to Susan's good question about what I had in mind with my reference to the websites of what I take to be two very different religious communities. I should haven't taken the lazy way...
?I was rooted in the story of Jesus, and it remains at my core, but I?ve also moved beyond Jesus.?
Posted on May 12, 2009The quotation above is from an unnamed woman religious recounted in a retreat address by Sister Laurie Brink, O.P., available here. Brink goes on to say that those communities of women religious ?who embraced the spirit of renewal of the...
Vatican Examination of Women Religious
Posted on May 12, 2009Re Richard's post: I may just be slower than others, but there was nothing in my quick perusal of the websites of the two communities to which he linked that gives me a clear indication of why the Vatican thinks...
women religious and the vatican
Posted on May 12, 2009I thought I'd make a quick comment about Michael P.'s recent post. I think Cathlics owe a debt of gratitude to the communities of sisters who helped build the Church. I was taught by Ursuline Sisters and I am grateful...
Society for the Study of Cardinal Newman
Posted on May 12, 2009A thoughtful and proactive MoJ reader has launched a website for the Society for the Study of Cardinal Newman. Here is the reader's explanation of the site's mission: Recent statements from a group operating under the name of the 'Cardinal...
Updates to Call for Papers on "Christian Realism and Public Life: Catholic and Protestant Perspectives"
Posted on May 12, 2009I've made updates to the Call for Papers for this conference, to be held at St. Thomas in Minneapolis on November 20-21, 2009, and sponsored by the Murphy Institute for Catholic Thought, Law, and Public Policy. Paper proposals are now...
Article on Religious-School Funding and Educational Pluralism
Posted on May 11, 2009Apropos of the discussion between Steve and Rick, I've just posted a short article on SSRN, based on a talk concerning school funding that I gave to a Rome audience in February. Here's an abstract: The pattern of church-state relations...
Op-ed on Notre Dame and President Obama
Posted on May 11, 2009Today, USA Today ran an op-ed of mine about the controversy surrounding Notre Dame's decision to give President Obama an honorary degree. A bit: Notre Dame's project is challenging and vulnerable, but it's also exciting and important ? and not...
Women Religious in the United States ... and the Vatican
Posted on May 11, 2009[There are three women religious in my family: a cousin, an aunt, and a great aunt--all Dominican sisters. Only my aunt is still living. I doubt many MOJ readers have been following the important events to which Sandra Schneiders' communication,...
Richard McBrien on the leadership deficit in the Church
Posted on May 11, 2009[From Fr. McBrien's column in NCR. For those who don't know: Fr. McBrien is the Crowley-O'Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame.] Something has changed since the election of John Paul II as Pope in 1978, namely,...
Georgetown's John Langan, SJ, on the Church's Credibility
Posted on May 11, 2009[From an article in NCR:] Calling the Obama presidency a new moment in U.S. history, Jesuit Fr. John P. Langan of Georgetown University warned April 27 of a current ?three-way impasse? on abortion. He urged U.S. bishops seeking real change...
Rick's Op-ed and Dialogue in the Catholic Community
Posted on May 11, 2009I was happy to see Michael Sean Winters link to Rick?s op-ed over at America Magazine?s group blog In All Things. In response to Rick?s comments MSW said the following: Readers will know where I stand on the controversy surrounding...
Response to Steve
Posted on May 10, 2009With respect to Steve's post, confessing doubts about financial aid to religious education: The fact (assuming for now that it is a fact) that, in Europe, "the Church has been tied to unpopular regimes and its moral witness muffled. Conditions...
Doubts About Financial Aid to Religious Education
Posted on May 10, 2009Rick tells us that we should all be pro choice on education (referring, of course, to state aid to Catholic schools in the form of vouchers). So the Church has thought in Europe (though there, I do not think the...
Gratitude and Ingratitude
Posted on May 09, 2009As you know, Thursday I found myself on a beach 10 miles from our hotel with my wife and youngest child. We had no shoes (imagine me shoeless at the police station), no money, phone, doucmentation. We were in a...
Pope Benedict and the Disabled
Posted on May 09, 2009Relevant to Michael S.'s recent posts on recognizing our own vulnerabilites, I find it striking that Pope Benedict's first stop on his pilgramage to the Holy Land was to Regina Pacis, a home in Amman, Jordan, for mentally- and physically...
Greg Sisk
Posted on May 09, 2009I want to express my heartfelt condolences to Greg Sisk on his "virtual" demise (here). Long live--and, more importantly, well and truly live--Greg Sisk!
Peter Steinfels on Abortion and the Catholic Civil War ...
Posted on May 09, 2009... in his Saturday "Beliefs" column in today's NYT: Roman Catholics? War Over Abortion By PETER STEINFELS Discord is nothing new for Roman Catholicism. But the controversy surrounding the appearance of President Obama at the University of Notre Dame?s commencement...
Archbishop Dolan is "proudly pro-choice" . . .
Posted on May 09, 2009. . . on education (as he, and we all, should be).
Response to Rick
Posted on May 09, 2009My response to Rick's question, in the immediately preceding post: I agree with you, Rick: Doug should tell us if, in his view, his constitutional philosophy has changed (as it certainly seems to have changed)--and if so, why it has...
"Kmiec" on "empathy"
Posted on May 09, 2009No one could have had any doubt, of course, that an op-ed -- to which Michael P. linked recently -- enthusiastically validating President Obama's call for judges with "empathy" was in the offing from (the post-Romney-exit) Prof. Kmiec. The pre-Spring-of-2008...
Dependant Rational Animals
Posted on May 08, 2009Today, most of us operate with the illusion that we are self-sufficient autonomous human beings. But life has a way of crashing in on us, sending us back again to the school of dependency. Sickness, financial difficulty, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes,...
Empathy and the Supreme Court
Posted on May 08, 2009In the new issue of America (5/11/09): Doug Kmiec, "The Case for Empathy: Why a much-maligned value is a crucial qualification for the Supreme Court" (here).
Protection for the "well formed" conscience
Posted on May 08, 2009I do think the point of disagreement between Fr. Araujo and me is coming into focus. I do not think that our law's protection of conscience is based -- or should be based -- on whether the conscience in question...
My response to Steve
Posted on May 08, 2009I thank Steve for his question and his patience in waiting for my response. It is clearly possible for the person who considers himself or herself Catholic to form conscience subjectively. But, as I have said before, this is not...
Angel or Demon? In the Vatican, Obama Is Both
Posted on May 08, 2009[MOJ-friend and Trinity College Dublin law prof (and former dean) Gerry Whyte thought that some MOJ-readers might be interested in this:] "L'Osservatore Romano" praises him. Two prominent scholars of the pontifical academy of social sciences rail against him...
A response to Rob, take two
Posted on May 07, 2009Thanks to Rob and Steve for their thoughtful views. I will have to defer addressing Steve's posting until tomorrow. But I shall attempt to answer Rob's last posting here. I have tried to present arguments that are legal and meta-legal...
"A Reprieve on [D.C.] Vouchers"
Posted on May 07, 2009The President supports extending the program's funding, but for current students only. The Washington Post comments here.
Clarification of my question to Fr. Araujo
Posted on May 07, 2009To follow up on Fr. Araujo's response (and to underscore Steve's comment), I am not asking about how the Church should treat the poorly formed conscience. I am asking whether the conformity of one's conscience to Church teaching should be...
Question for Father Araujo on subjective conscience
Posted on May 07, 2009I understand (but do not agree with) Father Araujo's apparent position that Catholics are required to follow Church teachings regardless of their subjective conscience. I am still not sure whether he thinks the quality of the formation of one's conscience...
Discussion of SSM, civil unions, and religious liberty at the U of Chicago blog
Posted on May 07, 2009As I mentioned the other day, Geof Stone, Martha Nussbaum, Doug Laycock, and others (including me) are having an online discussion about Stone's recent op-ed regarding civil-unions and religious liberty. Check out the latest posts by Geof, Doug, and me...
A response to Rob concerning his questions to me on conscience protection
Posted on May 07, 2009Thank you, Rob, for your questions and comments on my posting regarding conscience and its protection that I posted yesterday. As I mentioned then, the Mirror of Justice is a web log dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory,...
More on the Fleeting Nature of Life
Posted on May 07, 2009Michael Scaperlanda?s sobering reminder of the fleeting nature of life was poignantly timely for me. I have been thinking along similar lines over the past couple of days. For me, this increased awareness of mortality began with a comedic error...
The Fleeting Nature of ...
Posted on May 07, 2009For the past week my wife Maria and I have been in Athens (and now Italy) meeting our youngest at the end of her study abroad experience in Athens. The experience has given me time to reflect on the fleeting...
Obama cannot speak at Catholic prayer breakfast?
Posted on May 06, 2009From the Washington Times: [T]he president passed up the fifth annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, scheduled for the Washington Hilton and expected to have 1,300 participants. Joe Cella, a spokesman for the effort, said the White House never asked for...
"Matters of Conscience" Event
Posted on May 06, 2009Here's a link to the National Catholic Reporter's article which gives of nice snapshot of the Fordham Center for Religion and Culture "Matters of Conscience: When Moral Precepts Collide With Public Policy" discussion last week, featuring MOJ's own Rob Vischer,...
Kaveny on conscience
Posted on May 06, 2009Thanks to Michael for flagging Cathy Kaveny's column and post on conscience. They are both well worth reading. Cathy raises three areas that warrant more discussion: First, Cathy makes a very important point on our tendency to view conscience through...
PB16's message to social scientists, on human rights
Posted on May 06, 2009This is great. Seriously, check it out: Human rights became the reference point of a shared universal ethos ? at least at the level of aspiration ? for most of humankind. These rights have been ratified by almost every State...
David Brooks and Catholic Social Thought
Posted on May 06, 2009I thought that David Brooks's column in yesterday's New York Times, discussing the Republican Party, resonated strongly with Catholic social thought. As soon as I finished reading it, I wondered what MOJers who self-identify as Republican would say about it...
Conscience Protections, con't
Posted on May 06, 2009A couple of days ago I posted a link to Cathy Kaveny's article, in the new issue of Commonweal , on conscience protections (here). This morning Cathy continues the discussion with a post ("Conscience and Refusal") at dotCommonweal. Check it...
Question for Fr. Araujo on conscience
Posted on May 06, 2009I suspect that Fr. Araujo and I come out on the same side on many of today's conscience debates, but we might get there from different starting points. He writes: If the person who claims conscientious objector status to either...
A response to Prof. Cathy Kaveny?s thoughts on conscience protection
Posted on May 06, 2009I take this opportunity at the outset of this post to thank Michael Perry for drawing our attention to the two interesting, important, and thought-provoking Commonweal posts of Prof. Cathy Kaveny on conscience protection. Clearly, this issue of conscience protection...
"Conservative Catholics": Let Go!
Posted on May 06, 2009[From one of many--very many!--NYT blogs:] May 6, 2009, 6:34 pm A Daughter Responds to a Mother?s Anger Over a Co-Ed Dorm Room By Jacques Steinberg In less than six hours, we?ve gotten more than 200 responses to our post...
A Few More Thoughts on Conscience Protection
Posted on May 06, 2009I appreciate Cathy Kaveny's column and post and Rob's further post on conscience. A few thoughts. First, Cathy and Rob are absolutely right to emphasize that a commitment to conscience must be principled, not simply special pleading for, or a...
Now, the State of Maine ...
Posted on May 06, 2009NYT, 5/6/09 Maine Governor Signs Same-Sex Marriage Bill By ABBY GOODNOUGH BOSTON ? Gov. John Baldacci of Maine on Wednesday signed a same-sex marriage bill passed by the State Legislature, saying he had reversed his position on such marriages after...
Nuance: A reply to Rob
Posted on May 05, 2009Responding quickly to Rob's latest: I agree (and long have agreed) with Sr. Prejean that Texas's clemency-and-commutation procedures are a farce. Certainly, then-Gov. Bush could have worked to reform (but just as certainly had no interest in reforming) these procedures...
A Reader Responds to Richard McBrien
Posted on May 05, 2009[I post this response with permission.] Dear Professor Perry, Re your post of Fr. Richard McBrien's "Intrinsic Evil" column to Mirror of Justice yesterday: -- I'm one of the people whom McBrien would likely dismiss as a "certain type of...
Can a pro-choice (or pro-death penalty) politician ever be honored by a Catholic university?
Posted on May 05, 2009I am no expert on the death penalty in general, much less on the death penalty procedures in Texas, but not everyone agrees that the existence and statutory role of the pardons board minimizes George W. Bush's culpability for his...
SSM and religious liberty discussion at the University of Chicago blog
Posted on May 05, 2009Geof Stone, Martha Nussbaum, Doug Laycock, and others (including me) are having an online discussion about Stone's recent op-ed regarding civil-unions and religious liberty. Check it out.
More on "double standards"
Posted on May 05, 2009With respect to Fr. McBrien's piece -- to which Michael P. linked -- on the "double standard" he sees at work in some people's opposition to Notre Dame's decision to honor President Obama: Is it relevant that, in Texas (at...
Interesting Post by Eduardo Peñalver at dotCommonweal
Posted on May 05, 2009Check it out--the comments too--here.
Cathy Kaveny on Conscience Protections
Posted on May 04, 2009In the latest issue of COMMONWEAL, here.
John Allen on the Vatican on Obama
Posted on May 04, 2009News from NCRonline.org May 4, 2009 National Catholic Reporter This story has been posted to NCRonline.org Vatican's moderate line on Obama has deep roots Vatican balances competing interests on multiple fronts By John L. Allen Jr. When L'Osservatore Romano published...
What should a "mission course" look like at a Catholic law school?
Posted on May 04, 2009Marc DeGirolami raises some important questions.
Religious faith and corporate law in the blawgosphere
Posted on May 04, 2009Recently my colleague Lyman Johnson hosted a roundtable discussion on religious faith and corporate law here at St. Thomas. The discussion was lively and insightful, featuring contributions from our own Susan Stabile, along with David Skeel (Penn), Gordon Smith (BYU),...
Richard McBrien on Obama at Notre Dame -- and Double Standards
Posted on May 04, 2009This is Father McBrien's column from NCR, 5/4/09: Intrinsic evil vs. run-of-the-mill evil by Richard P. McBrien [the Crowley-O'Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame] As we approach the Notre Dame commencement ceremonies (on May 17) at...
Arguments for Religious Liberty Under Same-Sex Marriage: Latest Version
Posted on May 02, 2009Four of us legal academics (Garnett, Wilson, Esbeck, and Berg) who have been pressing legislators for religious liberty protections in same-sex marriage laws have a slightly revised version of our arguments in this letter. We sent it to the governor....
Next
Related Law Articles
Anna Nicole Smith's Legal Troubles
Court cases and legal issues related to Anna Nicole Smith
Related Law Questions
Personal information/online harassment?
Quit talking with people on message boards that support these activities. The se...
Is there a time limit where someone can't be convicted of a sexual crime after the child has told someone?
The statute of limitations can differ from state to state. Look into it by conta...
My children's school is falsely charging me with truancy. The local district justice works for the school in the most blatently open way. And his wife works for the district, too! They have violated private health record
I am no lawer by any means, so I would love for someone to verify what I have to...
#1 Online Legal Resource
On 08-28 at 21:13PM
Ten months later, Fed must reveal names of emergency lending recipients #FOIA
On 08-25 at 19:02PM
Squeaky Fromme, would-be Ford assassin and Manson devotee, released from prison
On 08-14 at 15:19PM
Likely unintended consequence of cash-for-clunkers stimulus is dampening of 2010 spending
On 08-14 at 14:34PM
Palm seeks to halt Palm Pre Android theme on copyright and trademark ground
On 08-12 at 17:30PM
Congressional investigation demonstrates Karl Rove lied about his active role in US attorney's firing
On 08-12 at 16:20PM
Family of New York City swine flu victim to sue city for failure to secure school #nyc #swineflu
On 08-12 at 12:59PM
Real Network's DVD copying software deemed to break DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions
On 08-12 at 12:57PM
Prepaid funeral operators indicted for $100 Million fraud
On 08-12 at 12:53PM
NY Jets join Cincinnati, Dallas, Green Bay, Houston & Seattle #NFL teams offering branded state lottery games
On 08-12 at 12:43PM
Are you the author of this blog? Adding USLaw.com to your Blogroll increases relevance. You qualify to display a USLaw Network badge.
Suggest changes to this blog's description or nominate another for inclusion. Register for updates.
Personal information/online harassment?
Quit talking with people on message boards that support these activities. The se...
Is there a time limit where someone can't be convicted of a sexual crime after the child has told someone?
The statute of limitations can differ from state to state. Look into it by conta...
My children's school is falsely charging me with truancy. The local district justice works for the school in the most blatently open way. And his wife works for the district, too! They have violated private health record
I am no lawer by any means, so I would love for someone to verify what I have to...
 |
|
Contact Us | About Us | Celebrity Law Blog |
Our Partners | Disclaimer
| Law Blog Directory
| Law Jobs
| Law Tweets
| GoDaddy Hosting
All original material © 1999-2009 by USLaw.com. |