Intellectual confusion resembling a smog of the mind has been a deadening presence in Catholicism in the years since Vatican Council II. But here and there amid the swirling mists of bad arguments and lame analogies, a small yet significant body of Catholic intellectuals has stood firm in defense of clear thinking and good sense.
For me at least, three stand out: Ralph McInerny, Germain Grisez, and Jude Dougherty. The news that Dougherty, longtime dean of the school of philosophy at the Catholic University of America, had died in early March moves me to pay tribute to them for their contributions to the Church they loved.
Echoes Three philosophers Published 4/7/2021 thebostonpilot.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thebostonpilot.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
On the “postliberal” future of the federal courts
Illustration by Michelle Rohn
The
New York Times published an opinion essay by Berkeley law professor (and law school dean) Erwin Chemerinsky originally titled “Amy Coney Barrett’s Originalism Threatens Our Freedoms.” Chemerinsky took aim at the fossilizing impact of “originalism,” the conservative theory of constitutional jurisprudence that declares that only the literal meaning of the Constitution’s text, along with what we know about the “intent” of the Founders, can guide the courts when they interpret laws.
The case against originalism is all too familiar. As Chemerinsky and other legal scholars have emphasized, arguments for an originalist jurisprudence have always rested on flimsy foundations, more in the realm of myth than of practical realities and vulnerable at all times to the charge of anachronism, that “rights in the twenty-first century should not be determined by the understandings and views o
A group of Argentine bishops (ABs) recently published pastoral guidelines for implementing Chapter 8 of
Amoris Laetitia (AL). The ABs tell their clergy that under certain circumstances divorced Catholics in sexually active second unions may receive the Holy Eucharist, even without receiving an annulment. The ABs sent their guidelines to Pope Francis to ask whether their pastoral approach was consistent with the meaning of AL. Pope Francis replied in a letter on papal stationary saying that their “document is very good and completely explains the meaning of chapter VIII of
Amoris Laetitia”; he then stated, “There are no other interpretations.” The authenticity of the pope’s letter was verified on Sept. 12 by the Italian edition of
Regarding the use of vaccines developed using cells from aborted human persons
By
On 21 December 2020,
Reuters reported on a document issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith announcing that the Vatican had signed off on the use of vaccines even if their production employed cell lines drawn from tissues of aborted fetuses.[1] Though the CDF document stresses that it strongly desires the use of ethically acceptable vaccines, the document also emphasizes that the common good and the protection of the weakest and most exposed also hold equal claim. While CDF laments the lack of ethically acceptable vaccination methods, it argues incorrectly that the use of ethically compromised vaccines using fetal cell lines is remote material cooperation with evil, precisely because we are dealing in questions of life and death.