Recently the National Catholic Register ran a brief news story with the headline, “‘Consistent ethic’ theory clarified.” The story ran: “Answering critics of his ‘consistent ethic of life’ philosophy, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago said August 8 that in the final analysis Catholics can vote against a political candidate because of the candidate’s support for … Read more
The greatest pagan philosopher, Aristotle, thought that it was impossible to love one’s enemies or to love a wicked man. On this last point he is frank and explicit: it is impossible to love what isn’t loveable; a wicked man is not loveable; so it’s not possible to love him. We might think that this … Read more
Dissenting Catholics are often accused of practicing “pick and choose” Catholicism. This immediately raises the question: Is there some unified point of view that is adopted by dissenters? At first glance, it would seem not. Different dissenters select not to believe in different doctrines, presumably for different reasons. It is sometimes said that the problem … Read more