On August 23, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth issued an injunction prohibiting the use of federal funds to support human embryonic stem cell research (ESCR), because it violated federal law prohibiting the destruction of human embryos. Even if his ruling is overturned by the Supreme Court (it’s unclear which way Justice Anthony Kennedy, who … Read more
In February 1989, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a “Profession of Faith” and an “Oath of Fidelity,” to be taken by, among others, persons newly appointed as seminary professors of theology and philosophy and university teachers of disciplines dealing with faith or morals. The faculty of the Franciscan University of Steubenville … Read more
Many of my colleagues in the Theology Department have urged for acceptance of a “compromise” in the confrontation between Father Charles E. Curran and the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This compromise would require Father Curran to refrain from teaching sexual ethics at the University, require the SCDF to recognize Father Curran … Read more
Gregory Baum thinks that Pope John Paul II is a socialist (so, too, does Kenneth Woodward of Newsweek). Baum argues that in Laborem Exercens the Polish Pontiff “permits himself to be impressed by certain Marxist insights,” which he “opens up” and “expands toward new meaning,” thus producing “a social philosophy that transcends Marxism from within” … Read more