Notes: Tuesday, July 23, 2019-Monday, November 30, 2020 (part 1 of 2)

1. That Atheist straw man again: "Faith can require a conviction that defies evidence"

That quotation comes from the opinion piece "It's all a question of faith", by Dr. Andy Marks (at the time, "assistant vice-chancellor at Western Sydney University"), p. 21, The Daily Telegraph, Tuesday, September 17, 2019, published by Nationwide News, Surry Hills, N.S.W. (The article seems to be unavailable at that newspaper's website.) See also that article's last paragraph:

Conviction of belief might tell them otherwise, but the evidence can't be ignored.

["them" refers to those whom Dr. Marks perceives to be "The political defenders of re-ligion" (the last word spanned two lines in print, hence the dash)]

Labels: atheism

2. Some recent pronouncements by The Pope

2.1 Another of The Pope's near-annual calls for breastfeeding in church during Mass

See the text of "the impromptu homily the Holy Father pronounced after the reading of the Holy Gospel" during a New-Order Mass on the New-Order Feast of The Baptism of The Lord, Sunday, January 12, 2020, available in its original Italian here:

http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/homilies/2020/documents/papa-francesco_20200112_omelia-battesimo.html

and in The Holy See Press Office Daily Bulletin item "Santa Messa nella Cappella Sistina con il rito del Battesimo dei Bambini, 12.01.2020" here:

https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2020/01/12/0022/00040.html

and in English translation here:

http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2020/documents/papa-francesco_20200112_omelia-battesimo.html

and in The Holy See Press Office Daily Bulletin item "Holy Mass in the Sistine Chapel with rite of Baptism of babies, 12.01.2020" here:

https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2020/01/12/200112a.html

(For independent confirmation, see the Crux news report "Baptizing babies, Pope Francis defends practice of infant baptism", by Elise Harris, dated January 12, 2020; according to the reporter, during that homily His Holiness was "telling parents not to be anxious if their child cries or whines, but to make them feel comfortable and to nurse them if needed":

https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2020/01/baptizing-babies-pope-francis-defends-practice-of-infant-baptism/)

Labels: breastfeeding, Francis Bergoglio, morals

2.2 The Pope against life imprisonment and the death penalty

See the last paragraph of the text of H.H. The Pope's Address, on Saturday, September 14, 2019, to the Penitentiary Police and staff of the Prison and Juvenile and Community Justice Administration, available in its original Italian here:

http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/speeches/2019/september/documents/papa-francesco_20190914_polizia-penitenziaria.html

and in The Holy See Pres Office Daily Bulletin item "Udienza alla Polizia Penitenziaria, al Personale dell’Amministrazione Penitenziaria e della Giustizia minorile e di comunità, 14.09.2019" here:

http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2019/09/14/0698/01435.html

and in English translation here:

http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2019/september/documents/papa-francesco_20190914_polizia-penitenziaria.html

and in The Holy See Press Office Daily Bulletin item "Audience with the Penitentiary Police and staff of the Prison and Juvenile and Community Justice Administration, 14.09.2019" here:

http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2019/09/14/190914d.html

But that translation seems to downplay how emphatically His Holiness denounced life imprisonment; presumably "Life imprisonment is not the solution to problems - I repeat: life imprisonment is not the solution to problems, but a problem to be solved" translates "L’ergastolo non è la soluzione dei problemi - lo ripeto: l’ergastolo non è la soluzione dei problemi -, ma un problema da risolvere" more accurately than "Life imprisonment is not the solution to problems, but a problem to be solved" does. (The first translation is given in the Catholic News Agency news report "Pope Francis: Life imprisonment forgoes the ‘right to start over’", by Courtney Mares, dated September 16, 2019:

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-francis-life-imprisonment-forgoes-the-right-to-start-over-69915)

See also paragraphs 263-270 of The Pope's latest Encyclical Letter, Fratelli tutti, dated October 3, 2020:

http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20201003_enciclica-fratelli-tutti.html

Labels: death penalty, Francis Bergoglio, morals

3. "… Brian Tierney has shown that the idea of powers originating from God but coming through a body of people goes back at least to the thirteenth century and figures prominently in the conciliarism of Nicholas of Cusa, among others. See Tierney, Religion, Law, and the Growth of Constitutional Thought, 1150–1650 (Cambridge: CUP, 1982)."

That quotation, including its italics but with my ellipsis symbol, comes from note eighteen of "Resistance and Romans 13 in Samuel Rutherford's Lex, Rex", by Ryan McAnnally-Linz, in The Scottish Journal of Theology, Vol. 66, Issue 2, May 2013, pp. 140-158, available online (but with the body of the article behind a paywall) here:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/scottish-journal-of-theology/article/resistance-and-romans-13-in-samuel-rutherfords-lex-rex/E91ECA30D294829A6CFFDC478B5B69B3

Labels: Democratism, morals, politics

Reginaldvs Cantvar

St. Andrew's Day, A.D. 2020