Notes: Friday, January 1-Monday, March 28, 2016

1. Some changes to this blog's sidebar

Just before posting this issue of "Notes", I added

• a "Search services" section, containing links to Google and to Trove, between my "Discussion links" and "Reference links" sections

• a link to Theological Studies' website to my "Miscellaneous links" section (whence I moved my Trove link)

• a link to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy's website to my "Reference links"

Labels: blogs

2. Mr. Alexander on two theories of how political authority is transferred from God to the sovereign:

… Ever since Suarez and Bellarmine, this theory[, that is, "the theory of the social contract and the transfer of power by the people as a whole",] had been the subject of violent dispute between the partisans of the formal and conservative interpretation of the doctrine of Thomas Aquinas which found the origin and the bearer of state power to be in the state community, and the partisans of a realistic interpretation and its further development in the tradition of Suarez and the others. According to the first concept, the people in a state are only indirectly the bearers of political power and all they can do is to designate (designatio) or elect the immediate bearer of political power to whom this power is then transferred “by the grace of God.” According to the second concept the people in a state are themselves the bearers of state power which they transfer directly (delegatio) to the organs of the state in the name of the natural rights of the people, whereby they do not by any means dispose of these rights permanently by the contractual act of delegation, but on the contrary remain the perpetual and original possessors of political power. This difference between the so-called “designation theory” and the “translation theory” has significant consequences for the doctrine of the social contract and the active, i.e., revolutionary, right of resistance. Those who hold fast to the designation theory necessarily reject the democratic theory of the social contract and people’s sovereignty and, by the same token, deny the existence of a direct right to resist and to make revolutionary constitutional changes. Those who believe in the translation theory, on the contrary, not only defend the Suarist concept of people’s sovereignty but also deduce from it the right of active resistance. …
[my ellipsis symbols and square-bracketed interpolation,
pp. 506 f., sub-section 2. "The Doctrine of the State", section 2. "The Political Doctrines", Chapter VI "Political Doctrines and Social Theories", in "Church and Society in Germany. Social and Political Movements and Ideas in German and Austrian Catholicism 1789-1950" by Edgar Alexander, translated by Dr. Toni Stolper; "Church and Society in Germany" is Part IV of Church and Society: Catholic Social and Political Thought and Movements 1789-1950, edited by Prof. Joseph N. Moody in collaboration with twelve others, published by Arts, Inc., New York, 1953]

Labels: morals, St. Robert Bellarmine, St. Thomas Aquinas

3. Mr. Smith on Mr. Nile's involvement in the New South Wales Parliament's extension, to all shops, of permission to trade on Boxing Day 2015 and ’16:

… You[, that is, Shop, Distributive, and Allied Employees' Association, New South Wales Branch (S.D.A.N.S.W.) "members, Delegates and supporters",] sent in thousands of emails and made hundreds of phone calls to the Rev Nile. Every major Christian religious group wrote letters of support calling on Parliament to leave the day for families. Despite all of this, the Rev Nile broke his election promise to you and he voted with the Baird Government to allow all shops to trade on Boxing Day.
[my ellipsis symbol and bracketed interpolation,
"A Challenging Year Draws to an End", by Mr. Bernie Smith (S.D.A.N.S.W. Secretary), p. 3, SDA NEWS (the "OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE SHOP, DISTRIBUTIVE AND ALLIED EMPLOYEES’ ASSOCIATION, NEW SOUTH WALES BRANCH"), Summer 2015, available at the S.D.A.N.S.W.'s website here:

https://www.sdansw.org.au/news/sda-news-summer-2015-edition

Or go straight hither:

http://issuu.com/sdansw/docs/sda_news_summer_2015_so?e=9746493/31899528]

But see also the Media Release "Boxing Day Trading – Let’s Keep with the Facts", dated November 12, 2015, downloaded from the Christian Democratic Party's website here:

http://www.christiandemocraticparty.com.au/media-releases/boxing-day-trading-lets-keep-with-the-facts/

In particular, in connection with Mr. Smith's statement that "[e]very major Christian religious group wrote letters of support calling on Parliament to leave the day for families", see the message from the leader of the Sydney branch of the Anglican sect, available for download at that Media Release's webpage, or go straight hither:

http://www.christiandemocraticparty.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/151110-Archbishops-letter-to-FN-and-PG.pdf

Labels: Fred Nile, work

4. In the conclusion to H.H. The Pope's brief homily during a New-Order Mass (the Solemnity of the Baptism of Our Lord, January 10, 2016), His Holiness "invited mothers to feel free to feed their babies in the Sistine Chapel if necessary."

The quotation in that headline comes from the item "Baptisms in the Sistine Chapel: offer your children the legacy of faith", dated January 10, 2016, in the Holy See Press Office's Vatican Information Service daily e-mail bulletin of January 11, 2016, Year XXVI, No. 5; that item is available online under the same headline and with the same date at News.va:

http://www.news.va/en/news/baptisms-in-the-sistine-chapel-offer-your-children

An English version of the text of the homily in question is available here:

http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2016/documents/papa-francesco_20160110_omelia-battesimo-signore.html

and in what was presumably its original Italian here:

http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/homilies/2016/documents/papa-francesco_20160110_omelia-battesimo-signore.html

Labels: breastfeeding, Francis Bergoglio, morals

5. Five points of interest in connection with the Safe Schools Coalition's All of Us "teaching resource"

The text immediately after each of the following bullet points is a quotation from the article "Sexual politics in the classroom", by Natasha Bita, on p. 17 in the "INQUIRER" section of The Weekend Australian, February 13-14, 2016, First Edition, No. 15961, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited. I transcribed the quotations myself (though the article is also available online (behind a paywall, which you might be able to circumvent if you Google part of one of the following quotations and click the resulting link), at The Australian's website, under the headline "Safe Schools Coalition: sexual politics in the classroom", with the same author, dated February 13, 2016, here); each dash is the result of a word spanning two lines, and any bracketed interpolations are mine.

• Victoria has ordered all govern-ment schools to sign on[ to the "Safe Schools Coalition program"] by 2019[ sic—twenty nineteen].

• Taxpayers are funding the pro-gram, which the Safe Schools Co-alition devised based on advice from a “curriculum consultant” and a group of Melbourne teach-ers

• Safe Schools Coalition national pro-gram director Sally Richardson tells Inquirer the Federal Edu-cation Department approved the All of Us teaching manual

• The de-cision to target the teaching to the youngest high school students, she[, namely Sally Richardson,] says, was made by education con-sultant Janice Atkin, a former Aus-tralian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority project officer who managed the develop-ment of the national health and physical education curriculum.

• “We worked closely with the federal Department of Education and Training to ensure all the les-son plans and videos were appro-priate for years 7 and 8,” Richardson says. “All of our re-sources are being fully funded by the Australian government.”

You can download the All of Us unit guide from the Safe Schools Coalition's website here:

http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org.au/all-of-us

or go straight hither:

http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org.au/app/theme/default/design/assets/all-of-us/documents/unit-guide.pdf

On seeing Mr. Marco Fink credited (under his assumed named "Margot Fink") on p. 2 under "DIRECTOR", "EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS", "SPECIAL THANKS", "PHOTOGRAPHY", and "CAST MEMBERS", I couldn't help but think of Little Britain's parody of Dennis Waterman refusing to accept work on a T.V. show unless he could "star in it, write the feem toon, sing the feem toon".

Regarding H.M. Victorian Government's putative plan to make all State-run Victorian schools take part in the Safe Schools programme: Two possible sources for that piece of information are the Media Release "All Victorian Government Schools to Be Prouder, Safer", dated February 2, 2015, downloaded from the Premier of Victoria's official website here:

http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/all-victorian-government-schools-to-be-prouder-safer/

and "Victoria’s 10-year mental health plan", authorised and published by H.M. Victorian Government, Melbourne, November 2015, available here:

http://mentalhealthplan.vic.gov.au/

According to the "SNAPSHOT OF ACTION" on p. 4 (p. 3 in your reader) of the latter,

We have increased support for the resilience and wellbeing of young people through:
• expanding the Safe Schools program to all secondary schools across the state

and according to the former,

a successful program that creates safe and supportive classrooms for same-sex attracted and gender diverse students will be implemented at every Victorian Government secondary school.

(and the "successful program" is "The Safe Schools Coalition Victoria program".) It was also interesting to see, under the sub-heading "Quotes attributable to Deputy Premier and Minister for Education, James Merlino", 'respectful relationships' popping up again:

this program is about working with teachers to provide a respectful and safe environment where every young person can belong.

Labels: A.C.A.R.A., education, G.L.B.T., sex ed, Victoria

6. Pius XII. on world federal government

See the text of the French-language Allocution of April 6, 1951 to the delegates to the fourth annual congress of the World Movement for World Federal Government in Acta Apostolicæ Sedis 43 (A.D. 1951), pp. 278-280 (to which the index refers on p. 891):

http://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/documents/AAS-43-1951-ocr.pdf

The text of that Allocution is also available in HTML format here:

http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/fr/speeches/1951/documents/hf_p-xii_spe_19510406_confederaz-mondiale.html

Apparently, an English translation, though with no translator credited, was printed in the "THIS CHANGING WORLD" column (no byline) on p. 4 of the Sydney Catholic Weekly, Vol. X, No. 480, Thursday, May 10, 1951:

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/17409103

Labels: morals, Pius XII. Pacelli, U.N.O.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Easter Monday, A.D. 2016

Notes: Tuesday, July 26-Monday, August 8, 2011 (part 2 of 2)

1. Dr. Feser on a review by Sir Anthony (Kenny) of the former's The Last Superstition

http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2011/07/kenny-on-tls-in-tls.html

Labels: atheism, philosophy, theology

2. Yet more evidence of the Sodomites' League's success in diverting public discourse on homosexuality away from a focus on behaviour to a focus on 'identity'

From a Herald letter from one David Harris of Manly:

Fred Nile ... entered the NSW Upper House in 1980 with a single issue - to stop members of the gay community from celebrating their own identity.
[http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/dilemma-solved--abolish-the-upper-houses-20110801-1i8df.html?skin=text-only]

That seems inaccurate in at least two points: Mr. Nile was never a one-issue politician, and in 1980 New South Wales law did not, as far as I know, prohibit anyone "celebrating their own identity" (though it did, of course, prohibit buggery until, if I'm not mistaken, 1984, but that prohibition applied irrespective of whether the sodomite was homosexual or heterosexual and irrespective of whether the catamite was male or female, so clearly it involved discrimination neither on the basis of sex nor of sexual disorientation).

Labels: Fred Nile, G.L.B.T.

3. Fortunately, it seems that the background of one of the main participants in Ireland's planning for an attack on the Sacrament of Penance has not gone completely unnoticed there

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=414425#414425

Labels: Alan Shatter

4. Point-counterpoint in the Herald letters page:

4.1 In discussion on N.S.W. State school "ethics" classes

One Philip Cooney of Wentworth Falls wrote that

Surely it can't threaten our children to ask why there was not open access to the curriculum material prior to its introduction ...
[http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/little-virtue-in-labors-games-with-education-20110802-1i9si.html?skin=text-only]

I too had the impression that there was a lack of open access to the 'ethics class' material before its introduction, but then the next day a letter was published which said that

[t]he ethics course syllabus was reviewed and approved by the NSW Education Department.
[http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/dont-play-russian-roulette-with-our-aquifers-20110803-1ibl2.html?skin=text-only]

Did the "ethics" folks give access only to the Department, then? (I don't ask that rhetorically; does anyone know the answer?)

The day after that, Mr. Nile had a column published on the matter, in which he wrote that there are some who

wrongly believe that when Sir Henry Parkes introduced free and ''secular'' state education, he meant ''non-Christian'' or ''non-religious''. That was never his intention. In the 1880s, ''secular'' was used to prohibit denominational teaching in NSW classrooms, not scripture classes, which Parkes decreed should fill one hour per day.

But I thought that 'secular' as in 'secularist' was precisely what the likes of Parkes intended. One Keith Parsons of Newcastle affirmed my point of view in a letter published, with others, under the heading "Reason v dogma: Fred's no Socrates" here:

The only reason Sir Henry Parkes, almost 130 years ago, supported religious instruction in public schools was to get the churches that dominated school education to support the concept of a universal, free, public, secular education system.

Are any readers here knowledgeable on the motives and intentions of Australia's late-nineteenth-century proponents of 'free, compulsory, and secular' schooling (I won't say education)?

Labels: education, Henry Parkes, secularism, St James Ethics Centre

4.2 In discussion on the birth certificates of donor-conceived children

Last week the Herald gave us a reminder of the insanity of some of New South Wales's laws:

Sperm donors have no legal parental status even if they are on a birth certificate and even if they have court-ordered access visits.

But retrospective laws introduced in 2008 gave lesbian partners of women who conceive through artificial insemination legal parenting status.
[http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/keep-me-named-as-father-donor-begs-court-20110802-1i9yf.html?skin=text-only
Or alternatively:
http://www.smh.com.au/national/sperm-donor-could-lose-his-status-20110802-1i9wq.html?skin=text-only]

The coverage elicited a terse little letter, published under the heading "Donor delisting" here, from one Samantha Chung of Newtown, but the next day one Eva Elbourne of Gordon provided quite a good rejoinder (though I'm not sure that I agree with it completely), published under the heading "Donor parents must remain on record" here.

Labels: families, G.L.B.T., parenthood

5. "Russia is Most Religious Nation In Europe"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38415

Labels: R.O.C., Russia

6. Mr. Verrecchio on homosexuality, narcissism, and their influence on liturgy

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38404

Labels: G.L.B.T., liturgy, narcissism

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. John Mary Vianney, Confessor, and of Sts. Cyriacus, Largus, and Smaragdus, Martyrs, A.D. 2011