On leaving my parish
This post is sort of related to the recent post on Trump’s election, but it is much more personal. Let me start with a story. About forty-five years ago, when I was six or seven, my family quit our...
View ArticleOn married priests
At least since Vatican II there has been discussion about married clergy in the Western Church, with many people advocating for it to address the vocations crisis, and with equal numbers arguing in...
View Article#IamaStranger
This is not a long post. This is not a critically reasoned post. Rather, it is an attempt to explain, partly to myself, why I have decided participate in a bit of Facebook activism. I don’t usually...
View ArticleWhat Should a Pastor Say?
The presence of so many people on Easter (like at Christmas and on Ash Wednesday) is, shall we say, the 800 pound gorilla in the room.
View ArticleA short prayer
Lord, what is man that you are mindful of him? Or the son of man that you should care for him? For you have made him little less than the angels, setting him over the wonders of Your creation, to tend...
View ArticleDid Your Pastor Say Anything Today about Racism?
It is all over the news, of course: one dead and 19 injured during a riot by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia. Between 500 and 1000 white nationalists, neo-Nazis and alt-right...
View ArticleHappy and Blessed Feast of the Assumption!
Our choir at mass this evening really got into Hail Holy Queen, and so, in honor of our Blessed Mother, I want to share with you the most rocking version of all, from Sister Act: This version is by the...
View ArticleOpposing Universal Basic Income
Resolved: Catholics should oppose plans for a universal basic income as being contrary to Catholic Social Teaching. This resolution can be read in a lot of ways, so let me clarify: I am not opposing...
View ArticleDominion, Stewardship and Smallpox
I want to return to a post I wrote six years ago, on the question of what to do with the last remaining samples of smallpox. In that post I was wrestling with the distinctions between dominion and...
View ArticleResolved: the Pope is not a Heretic
Resolved: Pope Francis is not a heretic, and is not spreading or promulgating heretical ideas. For two years a debate has been raging about Amoris Laetitia, or more precisely, the correct...
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