Editor’s Note: In light of the October summit in Reykjavik, Iceland — in which the matter of strategic defense was the chief bone of contention between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev — we thought it would be appropriate to identify once again the moral question that is at issue. In this month’s guest “Last Word,” … Read more
Your excellency, my brother priests and fellow religious, distinguished lawyers, and all my brothers and sisters in Christ. We have gathered at this Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in order to ask the Holy Spirit to bless and guide these, our fellow Catholics, whose vineyard is the law. This noble profession is no mean apostolic … Read more
Our Lord said that the substitution of human tradition for the divine law is a key element in the spiritual disease of Pharisaism. The message is pellucidly clear in Mark 7 and Matthew 15. He told the Pharisees: “You put aside the commandment of God to cling to human traditions.” The pseudo-reform following the Second … Read more
Editor’s Note: The incommensurability between occasion and reaction has been called the mark of genius. Mary Daly’s new work, Pure Lust: Elemental Feminist Philosophy (Beacon Press 471 pp., $18.95), is not, a first blush (we speak advisedly) the kind of book we would want to review, let alone devote a symposium to. It reaches a … Read more
Absolute or doctrinal pacifism is incompatible with the Catholic faith, because it directly attacks the significance of Christ’s crucifixion. That is why it is popular with secularizing forces in our day. I believe it is urgent that Catholics understand this incompatibility. First, we should note that not everything called “pacifism” today is absolute or doctrinal … Read more