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

Notes: Thursday, December 1, 2016-Monday, April 17, 2017 (part 3 of 3)

8. Mr. French on 'the rule of law'

See the transcript of "Rights and Freedoms and the Rule of Law" (Victoria Law Foundation's 2017 Law Oration), by The Hon. Robert French A.C., available at the "Law Oration" webpage of Victoria Law Foundation's website:

https://www.victorialawfoundation.org.au/law-oration

or go straight hither:

http://www.victorialawfoundation.org.au/sites/default/files/attachments/rights_and_freedoms_and_the_rule_of_law_-_victorian_law_foundation_oration.pdf

Labels: Democratism, law, liberalism

9. H.M.A. Government's latest Multicultural Statement is available here:

https://www.dss.gov.au/settlement-and-multicultural-affairs/australian-governments-multicultural-statement/australian-governments-multicultural-statement

or go straight hither:

https://www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/03_2017/multicultural_policy_2017.pdf

The Statement was released on March 20, 2017, judging by the Media Release "Multicultural Australia: United, Strong, Successful", issued jointly by the Prime Minister (The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull M.P.) and the Federal Assistant Minister for Social Services and Multicultural Affairs (The Hon. Sen. Zed Seselja), dated March 20, 2017, available at the Prime Ministerial website:

https://www.pm.gov.au/media/2017-03-20/multicultural-australia-united-strong-successful

and Sen. Seselja's Ministerial website:

http://zedseselja.dss.gov.au/media-releases/multicultural-australia-united-strong-successful

For information about past Federal multicultural statements, see the editorial "Turnbull evokes Howard on multiculturalism", dated March 21, 2017, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-editorial/turnbull-evokes-howard-on-multiculturalism-20170319-gv1ofu.html?deviceType=text

Labels: Democratism, feminism, liberalism, multiculturalism

10. That Atheist straw-man again, this time from Mr. FitzSimons: "I place no credibility in "faith" – belief without evidence to support it – as a reason to guide actions"

The quotation in that headline comes from the article "Congratulations to golf, a shining example of everything that is right with sport", under the sub-heading "Please explain, Sonny", by Mr. Peter FitzSimons A.M., dated April 14, 2017, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/the-fitz-files/congratulations-to-golf-a-shining-example-of-everything-that-is-right-with-sport-20170413-gvkv1b.html?deviceType=text

(That quotation came to my attention via the version of the article in question printed as last Saturday's installment of the same writer's "The Fitz Files" column, headlined "Garcia and Rose set par for fair play", under the same sub-heading, on p. 51 in the "WeekendSport" section of The Sydney Morning Herald, weekend issue, April 15-16, 2017, Issue No. 56008, published by Fairfax Media Publications, Pyrmont, N.S.W.)

Labels: atheism

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Easter Monday, A.D. 2017

Notes: Wednesday, March 27-Tuesday, April 23, 2013 (part 1 of 2)

1. A couple of items regarding the religious duties of the State

1.1 Pius XI. on the religious duties of society, as society:

… For human society as such is bound to offer to God public and social worship. It is bound to acknowledge in Him its Supreme Lord and first beginning, and to strive toward Him as to its last end, to give Him thanks and offer Him propitiation. …
[Encyclical Letter Ad catholici sacerdotii, December 20, 1935, translation downloaded from the Vatican's website:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19351220_ad-catholici-sacerdotii_en.html
For an alternative translation, see Roy J. Deferrari's translation of Dz. 2274 on p. 608 of The Sources of Catholic Dogma, published by Loreto Publications, Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, U.S.A., 2007:
[society] is obliged in very fact to cherish religion publicly, to acknowledge God as the Supreme Lord and first beginning, to propose Him as its last end, to offer Him immortal thanks, and to offer him propitiation. …
The original Latin of Ad catholici sacerdotii is available in AAS 28 (1936), pp. 5-53 (the quotation in question is on p. 8, in the first paragraph of §I), and is also available in HTML format here.]

Labels: Confessional State, morality, natural law

1.2 St. Melito of Sardis (died c. A.D. 180), Bishop, Confessor, and Father of the Church, is the author of a "discourse recommending that Marcus Aurelius adopt Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire."

The quotation in that headline comes from the installment of the "SAINT FOR TODAY" column which (installment) was headlined "Canonised two years after dying" (the article profiled two saints; the headline refers to the first-profiled of them, namely St. Hugh of Grenoble), no byline, p. 48, the Sydney Catholic Weekly, March 31, 2013, Vol. 72, No. 4666 (presumably the volume and number are as I've given; the issue in question had neither printed on it, but the issue for the following Sunday (April 7, 2013) was Vol. 72, No. 4667), published by The Catholic Press Newspaper Company Pty. Ltd., available on-line but behind a paywall here:

http://catholicweekly.realviewtechnologies.com/?iid=75394&startpage=page0000048

The source for that profile was presumably this Catholic Online webpage. For other sources of information about St. Melito, see his profile in The Catholic Encyclopedia and the one in the Encyclopædia Britannica.

That quotation was especially interesting to me because I read at AQ a couple of years ago a post whose author mentioned that some early Christians—he might have referred to them as martyrs—wrote to the pre-Constantinian Roman Emperors in order to convert them and the Empire to Christianity. I wanted to ask that post's author for his source for what he wrote—not because I doubted it, but in order to learn more about it, and to defend it against those who would doubt it—but never got round to it. The Catholic Encyclopedia's article "Apologetics" says that

To vindicate the Christian cause against … attacks [from] paganism, many apologies were written. Some, notably the "Apology" of Justin Martyr (150), the "Plea for the Christians", by Athenagoras (177), and the "Apologetic" of Tertullian (197), were addressed to emperors for the express purpose of securing for the Christians immunity from persecution. …
[hyperlinks in the original,
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01618a.htm]

and its article "Fathers of the Church" contains the following:

The [Greek ]apologists[ of the second century, after the Apostolic Fathers,] are most of them philosophic in their treatment of Christianity. Some of their works were presented to emperors in order to disarm persecutions. …
[hyperlinks in the original, my interpolations,
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06001a.htm]

and goes on to mention St. Melito and other Fathers and their respective works.

Labels: Confessional State, Roman Empire, St. Melito of Sardis

2. "Around a quarter of all Australian children aged up to 12 years were now in child care, a record amount, the report[, namely, Child Care Update, June quarter 2012] found."

The quotation in that headline comes from the article "A quarter of all Australian children under 12 are using childcare services, the latest Child Care Update report says", no byline (A.A.P. is credited as the source), dated March 31, 2013, downloaded from The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/a-quarter-of-all-australian-children-under-12-are-using-childcare-services-the-latest-child-care-update-report-says/story-e6frg6nf-1226609852452

Child Care Update, June quarter 2012, ISBN: 978-0-642-78735-4, © Commonwealth of Australia, 2013, produced by the Department of Education, Employment, and Workplace Relations (D.E.E.W.R.) on behalf of the Australian Government, and published by the D.E.E.W.R., is available online here:

http://mychild.gov.au/pages/ResourcesReports.aspx

Labels: childcare, families, social trends

3. "ACON was founded by the gay community for the gay community in response to the HIV epidemic"; ACON's "very essence is as a gay organisation"

The quotations in that headline were attributed to Mr. Nicolas Parkhill, "the chief executive of ACON, a community-based gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender health organisation", in the article "Gay slurs take AIDS fighter by surprise", by Heath Aston, dated April 2, 2013, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/gay-slurs-take-aids-fighter-by-surprise-20130401-2h33h.html?skin=text-only

Labels: ACON, G.L.B.T.

4. That Atheist straw man again: "Who needs proof when you have belief?"

The quotation in that headline comes from a letter by one David Farrell published under the sub-heading "Pastafarians join Bert's teapot in atheism debate" on the letters webpage of April 4, 2013, headlined "Shortsighted superannuation plan is also extremely naive", at The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/shortsighted-superannuation-plan-is-also-extremely-naive-20130403-2h795.html?skin=text-only

Labels: atheism

5. Dr. Wetherell on priesthood in anthropology and in theology

See the article "Women priests and bishops: Anglicanism's crisis of identity", by Dr. David Wetherell, pp. 10, 11, and 18, AD 2000, March 2013, Vol. 26, No. 2, published by Mr. Peter Westmore for the Thomas More Centre of Balwyn, Victoria, Australia, available under the same headline and with the same byline and date at AD 2000's website:

http://www.ad2000.com.au/articles/2013/mar2013p10_3973.html

Labels: Priesthood

6. "thanks to collaboration by Google, a project has been launched to make all the issues[ of La Civiltà Cattolica] published from 1850 to 2008 accessible on the web. In fact, Google had digitalized the volumes for their Google Books project, through agreements with several libraries in Europe and the United States. The issues still protected by copyright law will now be made available by our authorization."

The quotation in that headline was attributed to The Rev. Fr. Antonio Spadaro S.J., director of La Civiltà Cattolica, in the Vatican Information Service daily e-mail bulletin item "CIVILTA CATTOLICA: NEW FORMAT, NEW SECTIONS, AND OPENNESS TO INTERNET AND SOCIAL NETWORKING", dated April 5, 2013:

http://www.news.va/en/news/civilta-cattolica-new-format-new-sections-and-open

Labels: Civilta Cattolica

7. Mr. Andrades on some gatherings in Rome in late October 2012 in connection with the seventeenth centenary of the conversion of Constantine the Great

See Mr. Lionel Andrades' blog posts "1700 th ANNIVERSARY FOR THE APPARITION TO KING CONSTANTINE AND HIS VISTORY AT THE MILVIAN BRIDGE CELEBRATED IN ROME" and "It was Christ himself who told Constantine the Great to fight in his name. God is not indifferent but active in our history- Roberto de Mattei", dated respectively Sunday, October 28, 2012 and Tuesday, October 30, 2012, downloaded from his "eucharistandmission" blog. (The gatherings in question are not to be confused with the congress of mid-April 2012 about which I blogged in item 2 of this Notes post.)

(Those blog posts came to my attention via this True Catholic post.)

Labels: Constantine the Great

Reginaldvs Cantvar
St. George's Day, A.D. 2013

Notes: Tuesday, May 22-Monday, June 25, 2012 (part 1 of 2)

1. "Twenty-two US states after the Second World War supported past motions that supported world Government."

The quotation in that headline comes from Dr. (at the time, Senator) Bob Brown as recorded in the transcript for the Monday, April 23, 2012 episode of ABC TV's Q&A programme, which (transcript) is available here:

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3478779.htm

It came to my attention via the opinion piece "Brown displays special version of free speech", by Andrew Bolt, p. 13, the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Thursday, April 26, 2012, Vol. 1, No. 2525, available on-line here:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/brown-displays-special-version-of-free-speech/story-e6frezz0-1226338208014

Labels: U.S.A.

2. The text of the questions to, and answers from, Msgr. Coleridge at a press conference on April 4, 2012:

http://www.catholicleader.com.au/news.php/features/leading-a-missionary-church_79228

Labels: Mark Coleridge

3. More from Prof. Feser in relation to A Universe from Nothing:

http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/steng-operation.html

http://www.firstthings.com/article/2012/05/not-understanding-nothing

(The last of those came to my attention via this blog post by Prof. Feser.)

Labels: atheism, God's Existence, philosophy, theology

4. "I[ , Dr. Robert Brown,] have little use for the theology (and its method) that dominated the Church from 1500 to 1950"

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2012/05/hans-kung-wont-celebrate-50th-of-vatican-ii-prefers-funeral-service/#comment-341431

Labels: Robert Brown

5. How heterosexual degeneration is a precondition for the implementation of the Gay agenda

5.1 A "child, born in April, 2010, now has [a Gay couple] as parents, with the birth mother agreeing to no longer be recognised on the birth certificate"

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-news/two-dads-and-a-surrogate-create-legal-landmark/story-e6freuzi-1226377828528

(That came to my attention via the version of it which was published as "Two dads and a surrogate create legal landmark", by Amy Dale, p. 04, the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Friday, June 1, 2012, Vol. 1, No. 2555.)

Presumably, birth certificates for I.V.F.-conceived and surrogate-carried babies record, and have recorded for some time, as parents the opposite-sex couple which commissioned the surrogacy and the I.V.F. conception rather than recording the surrogate mother and the respective sperm and ovum donors as parents, so there would have been, from a legal positivist perspective, no great logical, legal, or practical difficulty in doing likewise for a same-sex couple.

Labels: birth certificates, G.L.B.T., law

5.2 The legalisation of divorce as a precondition for so-called Gay marriage:

[John ]Pilger's same-sex marriage blind spot is not uncommon among left-wingers his age. Many older lefties retain an outdated view of marriage as an instrument of male domination over women, the middle class's domination over workers, and God's domination over us all.

They refuse to see that the institution has been reformed, at least in the West, so that women, workers and non-believers now have much more autonomy to decide how, when and if they wed, how they conduct their marriage (including whether or not they have kids), and if and when their marriage will end.

They refuse to acknowledge that it is precisely this change which has made same-sex marriage an issue: now that marriage is a choice for the majority, it makes sense to ask why it isn't a choice for the minority.
[http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4023802.html]

(That article came to my attention via this Australian article.)

See also the letter by one John Challis here.

Labels: divorce, G.L.B.T., marriage

5.3 "Only when husbands and wives have legal equality and are approaching economic parity does it make sense for there to be a household made up of two husbands or two wives."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/defenders-of-marriage-risk-jumping-at-shadows/story-e6frgd0x-1226368648235

Labels: economics, G.L.B.T., law, marriage

5.4 Prof. Bouma on the recent history of marriage

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/churchs-fight-to-control-marriage-20120618-20k81.html?skin=text-only

Labels: divorce, G.L.B.T., history, law, marriage

6. Ms Bryce summarises the victories of Feminism:

AS the first female Governor-General and former federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner, you've been a trailblazer for women. What do you regard as the biggest steps forward for women during your lifetime?

The most important steps have been in education - girls completing secondary education and going on to tertiary education and training in every field. Family planning advice, maternity leave, the Sex Discrimination Act and childcare have been the others.
[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/quentin-bryce-governor-general-69/story-e6frg8h6-1226362579263]

(That came to my attention via the version of it which was published as "10 Questions", Greg Callaghan interviewing "Quentin Bryce, Governor-General, 69", in the "Foreword" ("People & Observations") section, p. 8, The Weekend Australian Magazine, May 26-27, 2012, The Weekend Australian, May 26-27, 2012, Second Edition, No. 14819, ISSN 1038-8761.)

Labels: feminism

7. "the federal Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon, is holding an inquiry into consolidating the Commonwealth's four separate anti-discrimination laws. Her Department's position paper says that there will be exemptions for churches, schools and other oganisations. Yet, numerous GLBTI and radical human rights groups have told the Attorney General's inquiry that there must be no such exemptions."

http://www.ad2000.com.au/articles/2012/jun2012p3_3790.html

Labels: discrimination

8. Dr. Wiker on 'Gay marriage' in ancient Rome

http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/1367/gay_marriagenothing_new_under_the_sun.aspx

(That came to my attention via this AQ post.)

Labels: G.L.B.T., history, marriage, Roman Empire

9. Some recent releases from the Australian Bureau of Statistics

9.1 Some figures regarding childcare

http://www.smh.com.au/national/grandparents-bear-greater-share-of-childcare-duties-20120516-1yr9w.html

Labels: childcare

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. William, Abbot, A.D. 2012

Notes: Wednesday, April 11-Tuesday, April 24, 2012

1. "the texts of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church are essential tools which serve as an authentic guide to what the Church believes on the basis of God’s word"

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2012/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20120405_messa-crismale_en.html

Labels: Benedict XVI. Ratzinger, C.E.C., Vatican II

2. "CONSTANTINE THE GREAT: RELIGION AND THE STATE AT THE DAWN OF EUROPE"

That is the title of this Vatican Information Service report; here is an excerpt from that report:

Vatican City, 17 April 2012 (VIS) - "Constantine the Great. The Roots of Europe" is the title of an international academic congress to be held in the Vatican from 18 to 21 April. The event has been organised by the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences to mark the 1700th anniversary of the battle of the Milvian Bridge and the conversion of the Emperor Constantine.
[… ]This congress is the first of two, the second of which will be held in Milan in 2013 for the 1700th anniversary of the promulgation of the Edict of Milan, which established freedom of religion in the Roman empire and put an end to the persecution of certain religious groups, particularly Christians. While the 2013 congress will concern itself with what is known as the "Constantinian revolution", tomorrow's event will focus on the environment in which Constantine lived and on relations between Christians and the Roman empire prior to the year 313. …

To me, the second congress sounds like the more interesting of the two.

At the (Italian-language) website of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences' website, some more information on the first congress is available; some papers, presumably presented at the congress, are available in Italian here, and a one-page English-language flyer (?) is available here.

Labels: Church and State, Confessional State, Constantine the Great, history, religious liberty, Roman Empire

3. That Atheist straw man again:

… a debate between a believer for whom evidence is superfluous and a scientist who insists upon it would always provide an impossible conversation, and it was not a pleasant lift in which to be trapped. …
[my emphasis,
I transcribed that from "From fight and flights to sinking feeling"/"THE WEEK", by Matt Buchanan, on page three of the "News Review" supplement in the April 14-15, 2012 edition of The Sydney Morning Herald, available on-line here.]

Labels: atheism

4. "Researchers originally attributed the cohabitation effect [whereby "[c]ouples who cohabit before marriage (and especially before an engagement or an otherwise clear commitment) tend to be less satisfied with their marriages — and more likely to divorce — than couples who do not" ]to selection, or the idea that cohabitors were less conventional about marriage and thus more open to divorce. As cohabitation has become a norm, however, studies have shown that the effect is not entirely explained by individual characteristics like religion, education or politics. Research suggests that at least some of the risks may lie in cohabitation itself."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/opinion/sunday/the-downside-of-cohabiting-before-marriage.html

(That came to my attention via the posting of this LifeSiteNews.com article in this AQ thread.

Labels: divorce, marriage, vice

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Martyr, A.D. 2012

Notes: Wednesday, March 21-Tuesday, March 27, 2012

1. "There were 44 million abortions worldwide in 2008 according to last month’s issue of The Lancet."

http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=3&subclassID=7&articleID=9733&class=Features&subclass=Cardinal's Comment

Labels: abortion

2. Prof. Albert on Lawrence M. Krauss's A Universe From Nothing

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/books/review/a-universe-from-nothing-by-lawrence-m-krauss.html?_r=2

(That came to my attention via this blog post by Prof. Feser.)

Labels: atheism, God's Existence, Lawrence Krauss, philosophy, physics, theology

3. The Royal Irish Academy's website on the historical St. Patrick:

http://www.confessio.ie/

(That came to my attention via this comment at Fr. Zuhlsdorf's blog.)

Labels: St. Patrick

4. "[A Catholic-Voices-commissioned ComRes] poll also found overwhelming majority support (70%[ "of British people", presumably]) for retaining the current definition of marriage as a between a man and a woman"

http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/03/15/3454073.htm

(That came to my attention via this blog post by Mr. Schütz.)

Labels: Catholic Voices, marriage, U.K.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. John Damascene, Confessor, Doctor of the Church, A.D. 2012

Notes: Tuesday, February 7-Monday, February 27, 2012 (part 2 of 2)

9. Dr. Weigel on, among other things, the teachings of Leo XIII. and Fr. Murray on religious liberty and Church-State relations

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/291455/catholic-betrayal-religious-freedom-george-weigel

(That came to my attention via this AQ post.)

Labels: Church and State, Confessional State, George Weigel, John Murray, Leo XIII. Pecci, religious liberty

10. "WEL[, the Women's Electoral Lobby,] took over the Family Planning Association [in or before 1972]"

http://www.smh.com.au/national/obituaries/longserving-on-front-line-for-womens-rights-20120215-1t67c.html?skin=text-only

Family Planning NSW is now, according to this web-page at its website, an independent organisation, however.

Labels: F.P.A., W.E.L.

11. "The Holy See and Her Majesty’s Government agreed on the urgent need for action to strengthen the universal commitment to religious freedom as a fundamental human right, and to its practical application with a view to promoting respect for all religions in all countries. The Holy See and the British government look forward to working together to combat intolerance and discrimination based on religion, wherever it is manifest."

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/secretariat_state/2012/documents/rc_seg-st_20120215_comunicato_en.html

http://ukinholysee.fco.gov.uk/en/news/?id=729615482&view=News

"HOLY SEE AND UK GOVERNMENT, UNITED IN THE STRUGGLE FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM"
http://www.news.va/en/news/holy-see-and-uk-government-united-in-the-struggle-

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=432399#432399

Labels: Diocese of Rome, religious liberty, Roman Curia, U.K.

12. "CFN Launches New Web Page!"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40567

Labels: C.F.N.

13. That Atheist straw man again

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/last-post-january-25/story-fn558imw-1226252815530
(the contribution from one Brian D. Lee)

Labels: atheism

14. "Advocates of President Obama’s contraception mandate should admit that its main purpose is sexual liberation and not “women’s health,” according to a feminist author[, viz., Dr. Pamela Haag,] who supports the mandate"

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2012/02/free-contraception-is-good-for-big-business-abortion/

Dr. Haag's essay is available here.

Labels: contraception

Reginaldvs Cantvar
27.II.2012

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

Notes: Saturday-Wednesday, November 27-December 1, 2010

1. The Spirit of Vatican II, home Masses, and child abuse

From an article in today's Herald:

From January 1981 Spillane joined a "renewal team" led by the provincial of the order, Father Keith Turnbull, which visited Vincentian parishes around Australia promoting what Spillane called "the teachings and the spirit of the Second Vatican Council". ...

[...] The day after the friend was killed in a car crash, Spillane turned up uninvited at T's house to celebrate a home Mass for the distraught young woman and her friends. ...
[http://www.smh.com.au/national/god-help-me-former-priest-found-guilty-of-child-abuse-20101130-18fe9.html?skin=text-only]

2. Classic Atheist straw man

In a letter in yesterday's Herald:

I am disturbed by the lack of logic in Cardinal Pell's view that atheists are ''frightened by the future'' and that our lives are ''without purpose, without constraints''.

Pell's religious faith is based on the idea that no evidence is required. In fact evidence, or reasoning contrary to religious ideals, is considered a challenge to faith. As such the rejection of that evidence or reasoning is treated as a virtue.

Unfortunately, by religious logic, reason and faith do live in an ''ideological apartheid''. I assume that when Pell says atheists have ''nothing beyond the constructs they confect to cover the abyss'', he is referring to the evidence-based logic of scientific process that I applied in coming to the conclusion that the God of the Bible does not exist.

Is he really asking me to replace my hard-fought epiphany with the vacuousness of faith? I wish he'd told me earlier. It would have saved me a lot of time and money on education.

Bill Bannister Castle Cove
[bold type in the original, my italics,
http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/frightened-no-finding-meaning-in-our-lives-20101129-18duq.html?skin=text-only]

Why would an Atheist erect such an obvious straw man as "Pell's [or any believer's] religious faith is based on the idea that no evidence is required"? (A similar thing was discussed in recent issues of Sydney Alumni Magazine.) I always want to put the best construction possible on whatever anyone of presumably good will says, so while on the one hand I don't want to infer that it's a lie (i.e., a falsehood which he knows to be false, which would require abandoning the presumption of good will), on the other hand the ignorance involved in thinking that "Pell's [or any believer's] religious faith is based on the idea that no evidence is required" is so gross that it seems not that much less an insulting alternative to the first possibility. Or is there a third possibility which I haven't considered? (And I don't ask that rhetorically. Can anyone think of a third possibility?)

3. "Wong backs SA Labor push on gay marriage"

http://www.smh.com.au/national/wong-backs-sa-labor-push-on-gay-marriage-20101128-18cfu.html?skin=text-only
See also
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/alp-must-support-same-sex-marriage/story-fn59niix-1225962378391
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/alp-brawls-over-gay-unions-greens/story-e6frg6nf-1225962962744

4. "Russian Orthodox Church okays use of condoms"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34925

5. Fr. Kelly on morality

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=24350

A weak article, because although factors other than the object of an act (what Fr. Kelly seems to call the intention involved in an act) influence the morality of an act, even when the other factors are good they cannot, of course, make an act with an evil object good.

6. H.H. The Pope on, among other things, the natural law, the death penalty, and the distinction (but not separation) between Church and State

Obviously it's always disappointing to see a Papal endorsement of opposition to the death penalty, but the disappointment is all the more acute, not to mention perplexing, when such an endorsement is proffered immediately after talking about the natural law:

CHURCH IN PHILIPPINES: CONTINUE TO BE A LEAVEN IN SOCIETY

VATICAN CITY, 29 NOV 2010 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican, the Holy Father received prelates from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, who have just completed their "ad limina" visit. Addressing them in English, the Pope referred to the close ties that for four centuries have united the Philippines and the See of Peter, highlighting the benefits the leaven of faith has brought to the Filipino people and their culture.

"To be such a leaven, the Church must always seek to find her proper voice, because it is by proclamation that the Gospel brings about its life-changing fruits", he said. "Thanks to the Gospel's clear presentation of the truth about God and man, generations of zealous Filipino clergymen, religious and laity have promoted an ever more just social order. At times, this task of proclamation touches upon issues relevant to the political sphere. This is not surprising, since the political community and the Church, while rightly distinct, are nevertheless both at the service of the integral development of every human being and of society as a whole".

"At the same time, the Church's prophetic office demands that she be free 'to preach the faith, to teach her social doctrine ... and also to pass moral judgments in those matters which regard public order whenever the fundamental human rights of a person or the salvation of souls requires it'. In the light of this prophetic task, I commend the Church in the Philippines for seeking to play its part in support of human life from conception until natural death, and in defence of the integrity of marriage and the family. In these areas you are promoting truths about the human person and about society which arise not only from divine revelation but also from natural law, an order which is accessible to human reason and thus provides a basis for dialogue and deeper discernment on the part of all people of good will. I also note with appreciation the Church's work to abolish the death penalty in your country. [...]
AL/ VIS 20101129 (600)

7. "Relations between Church and State: theological and historical perspectives": Theme of Catholic-Orthodox Forum

I was very interested to read the second-last paragraph of the following Vatican Information Service daily e-mail bulletin item:

MESSAGE TO BARTHOLOMEW I FOR THE FEAST OF ST. ANDREW

VATICAN CITY, 30 NOV 2010 (VIS) - As is traditional for the Feast of St. Andrew, a Holy See delegation, led by Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, has travelled to Istanbul to participate in the celebrations for the saint, patron of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Every year the patriarchate sends a delegation to Rome for the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul Apostles, on 29 June.

This morning the Holy See delegation attended a divine liturgy presided by His Holiness Bartholomew I, at the Church of St. George at Fanar. At the end of the ceremony Cardinal Koch delivered a special Message to the patriarch from Benedict XVI.

"In a world characterised by increasing interdependence and solidarity", the Pope writes, "we are called to proclaim the truth of the Gospel with renewed conviction, and to present the risen Lord as the response to the most profound spiritual questions and aspirations of the men and women of today.

"In order to carry out this great enterprise", he adds, "we must continue along the path towards full communion, showing that we have already united our strengths for a shared witness of the Gospel before the people of our time. For this reason I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Your Holiness and to the Ecumenical Patriarchate for the generous hospitality you offered to delegates of the European Episcopal Conferences who - on the island of Rhodes in October - met with representatives of the Orthodox Churches of Europe for the Catholic-Orthodox Forum on the theme: 'Relations between Church and State: theological and historical perspectives'".

Benedict XVI concludes his Message by assuring the patriarch of the interest with which he follows "your wise efforts for the good of Orthodoxy and for the promotion of Christian values in many international contexts".
MESS/ VIS 20101130 (320)

I would like to read the proceedings of that Forum (but only with the permission of its participants, of course).

Reginaldvs Cantvar

1.XII.2010

Notes: Saturday-Monday, October 30-November 1, 2010 (part 2 of 2)

5. Fr. Zuhlsdorf on, among other things, another deficiency of the N.O.M. (this time in the changes to the main orations for the Mass of the Feast of the Kingship of Christ):

Again, the first part of the prayer [NEWER SUPER OBLATA (2002MR)] is same as the older. In the Latin there are minor changes, but it is effectively the same. The second part, however, shows the theological change desired by the snipping and pasting experts of Fr. Bugnini’s Consilium. In the older prayer there is an explicit appeal to “sacrifice” with also a strong verb “immolate”. This sacrificial language was removed from the newer prayer. But this prayer retains the reference “nations” (gentes).
[http://wdtprs.com/blog/2010/10/wdtprs-christ-the-king-1962mr-no-hugs-and-fluffy-lambs/]

See also the comments of Mr. Keener here for more on the Kingship of Christ.

6. An interesting observation by Dr. Brown on The Catechism of The Catholic Church's treatment of the death penalty

If I'm not mistaken, this is something which I too had noticed:

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2010/10/archbp-card-burke-on-the-obligation-to-vote-properly/#comment-231304

7. Interesting books reviewed/mentioned in the weekend papers

The Verso Book of Dissent
Preface by Tariq Ali
Verso 366pp, $29.95

[...] In Praise of Copying
By Marcus Boon
Harvard University Press285pp, $42.95
[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/another-side-of-pakistan/story-e6frg8nf-1225943750917]

Also from The Weekend Australian:

HOW to write a press release with a straight face, a lesson in one sentence courtesy of Scribe publishers: "Scribe will be publishing The Australian Book of Atheism, edited by Warren Bonett, on November 22, just in time for Christmas."
[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/senators-tryout/story-e6frgdk6-1225945334827]

Plus one book reviewed today at a blog:

A Review of Politics According to the Bible. By Wayne Grudem.

Zondervan, 2010. (Available in Australia at Koorong Books)
[http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2010/11/01/a-review-of-politics-according-to-the-bible-by-wayne-grudem/]

Reginaldvs Cantvar
All Saints' Day, A.D. 2010

Notes: Friday, September 17, 2010

"Complaint of anti-Semitic articles is dismissed"

http://www.smh.com.au/national/complaint-of-antisemitic-articles-is-dismissed-20100916-15er8.html?skin=text-only

Excerpts:

In the column on June 12 Mr Carlton said that the previous column had led to ''hundreds of Jewish emailers'' responding to him. He added: ''It is a ferocious beast, the Jewish lobby. Write just one sentence even mildly critical of Israel and it lunges from its lair, fangs bared.'' And: ''The Israel lobby, worldwide, is orchestrated in Jerusalem by a department in the Prime Minister's office.'' In the item on June 19, Mr Carlton wrote: ''With bottomless irony, the Jewish lobby spent much of last week assuring anybody who would listen that there is no such thing as the Jewish lobby.''

[...] The Sydney Morning Herald replied by emphasising that the writers of opinion articles are entitled to express their views and to do so in a forceful manner. It referred to ''hundreds of emails, some of them crude and racist'', being received by Mr Carlton and to his use of ''strong and colourful language … to describe the ferocity of those who wrote''. It denied the allegations of anti-Semitism but said that Mr Carlton believed many of the email responses showed very clear evidence of co-ordination and that ''there is such a thing as a 'Jewish lobby' ''. It provided details on a department in the Israeli government it said was the originator of many of the arguments used in emails to him. The newspaper provided the council with some quotations from emails and press releases supporting his assertions about co-ordination of responses, and also with copies of the 12 letters that it had published, many of them critical of Mr Carlton, in which the issues raised by Ms Maynard were canvassed.

Here is Mr. Carlton's opinion piece of June 12. That "department in the ['Israeli'] Prime Minister's office" is called the "Ministry for Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs", by the way. (Perhaps publishing this article was Fairfax's way of appeasing the beast.)

1917 Code of Canon Law and commentary available on-line:

http://www.archive.org/stream/newcanonlaw00woywuoft/newcanonlaw00woywuoft_djvu.txt
(Discovered here: http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=379745#379745)

The atheist non-murderer as coward

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=379684#379684
http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=379703#379703

Mr. Rowney on Dr. Hawking's "stunning lack of philosophical subtlety"

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=23217

For once, an interesting 'CathBlog'. Particularly interesting was this section:

Hawking fails to grasps Leibniz's great insight that the universe must have a contingent cause. Without positing a contingent cause everything is necessary. For example the fact of "high winds in NSW on Fathers' Day" is just as necessary as "the law of gravity". Of course this is just bizarre and goes against our ordinary intuitions. It is also contrary to much of modern science. Leibniz was brilliant enough to discover a contingent cause in God's free choice to create the universe. Hawking doesn't have a contingent cause, he offers a (physically) necessary cause and so fails Leibniz's criterion. This error is again common to many recent physicists.

Two comments by me at AQ:

The first regarding Egypt's court ruling that the Coptic Orthodox Church must have divorce-'n'-remarriage:

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=379848#379848

The other regarding the socio-political doctrine of St. Robert Bellarmine:

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=379851#379851

H.H. The Pope praises Saints of the Confessional State and their patrimony

Excerpts from the item in today's Vatican Information Service daily e-mail bulletin:

POPE PRAISES DEEP CHRISTIAN ROOTS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

VATICAN CITY, 16 SEP 2010 (VIS) - [...]

"The name of Holyroodhouse", [the Holy Father] said, "recalls the 'Holy Cross' and points to the deep Christian roots that are still present in every layer of British life. The monarchs of England and Scotland have been Christians from very early times and include outstanding saints like Edward the Confessor and Margaret of Scotland. ... Many of them consciously exercised their sovereign duty in the light of the Gospel, and in this way shaped the nation for good at the deepest level. As a result, the Christian message has been an integral part of the language, thought and culture of the peoples of these islands for more than a thousand years. Your forefathers' respect for truth and justice, for mercy and charity come to you from a faith that remains a mighty force for good in your kingdom, to the great benefit of Christians and non-Christians alike".

[...] "Today, the United Kingdom strives to be a modern and multicultural society. In this challenging enterprise, may it always maintain its respect for those traditional values and cultural expressions that more aggressive forms of secularism no longer value or even tolerate. Let it not obscure the Christian foundation that underpins its freedoms; and may that patrimony, which has always served the nation well, constantly inform the example your government and people set before the two billion members of the Commonwealth and the great family of English-speaking nations throughout the world. [...]
PV-UNITED KINGDOM/ VIS 20100916 (1050)

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of the Impression of the Holy Stigmata on the Body of St. Francis, Confessor, A.D. 2010

Notes: Friday, September 3, 2010

"Same-sex adoption bill passes House"

In today's Herald:

BIRTH parents who do not want their children to be adopted by a same-sex couple will be able to make their preference known without fear they will breach anti-discrimination laws by doing so.

A bill granting gay and lesbian couples the same rights under adoption law as homosexual individuals and heterosexual couples was passed narrowly by the NSW Legislative Assembly by a vote of 45 to 43 yesterday.

It will be considered by the Legislative Council next week, where the vote is expected to be similarly close.

Christian adoption agencies, which have lobbied strongly against the bill, welcomed the amendment to allow people involved in each case to freely express their preferences about prospective adoptive parents' faith, ethnicity, family situation and sexuality.

The Minister for Climate Change and the Environment, Frank Sartor, said the preference of birth parents would not be binding, but would be assessed against the best interest of the child.

''Why should not the values of the community, whether expressed by donor parents or service providers, be given their due consideration?'' he said.

[...] The chief executive of Anglicare, Peter Kell, said while he was ''disappointed'' the bill had passed through the lower house, the decision to exempt adoption from anti-discrimination laws would allow the agency to continue providing infant adoptions in Sydney.

The independent MP Clover Moore had agreed on Tuesday to include a clause in the Adoption Act to allow church adoption agencies to refuse to provide services to gay and lesbian couples without breaching anti-discrimination laws.

''It means the faith-based organisations like us can continue to operate within our understanding of what is in the best interests of the child without fear of being sued,'' Mr Kell said.

The Bishop of Wollongong, Peter Ingham, said CatholicCare would also continue to provide adoption services. ''From our perspective these amendments provide greater certainty, thus enabling faith-based agencies to continue to provide this service,'' a spokesman for the bishop, Jude Hennessy, said.

Labor and the Coalition allowed their members a conscience vote. The Premier, Kristina Keneally, and the Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, supported the bill.

MPs who voted in favour included the Deputy Premier, Carmel Tebbutt, the opposition health spokeswoman, Jillian Skinner, the Community Services Minister, Linda Burney, and her opposition counterpart, Pru Goward. The leader of the Nationals, Andrew Stoner, voted against, as did the shadow treasurer, Mike Baird, who said in future he might consider voting in favour of ''known'' adoptions, where the child already has a relationship with the parent.

''I am not convinced that the research before us justifies a move to legislate against the time-honoured practice of placing children with both a mother and a father,'' Mr Baird said.
[http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/samesex-adoption-bill-passes-house-20100902-14rpt.html?skin=text-only]

See also

" 'What matters is loving parents, not their sexuality' "
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/what-matters-is-loving-parents-not-their-sexuality-20100902-14rpw.html?skin=text-only

And also The Australian's coverage, which gives different figures for the vote count:

Forty-six MPs voted for the historic bill and 44 voted against it yesterday, after a two-day debate.
[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/bill-passed-in-nsw-allowing-gay-couples-to-adopt/story-fn59niix-1225913516368]

And for text of Ms Keneally's Parliamentary speech on the Bill and for related discussion:

http://members7.boardhost.com/CathPews/thread/1283427449.html
(Full Day Hansard Transcript for September 1 available here:
http://www.nswbar.asn.au/circulars/2010/sept/ssa.pdf
More discussion:
http://coo-eesfromthecloister.blogspot.com/2010/09/cmon-george-anthony-pat-geoffrey.html)

And finally: Cardinal Pell in the Sydney Catholic Weekly, via CathNews:

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=23096

Mr. Smeaton on some points in Mr. Blair's memoirs which (points) are interesting from a Catholic/pro-life perspective:

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=33505

Two interesting excerpts from two items in today's Vatican Information Service e-mail bulletin:

First item and excerpt:

ACTIVITIES OF POPE BENEDICT XVI IN AUGUST

VATICAN CITY, 2 SEP 2010 (VIS)
- Following is a list of Pope Benedict's activities during the month of August. It includes the Angelus, general and private audiences, other pontifical acts, letters, messages, telegrams and other news. The activities are presented in chronological order under their respective headings.

[...] OTHER NEWS

- 31: Publication of the words pronounced by the Pope at the Mass which concluded his meeting with a group of his former students (Ratzinger Schulerkreis). The meeting took place at Castelgandolfo from 27 to 30 August. [...]
BXVI-ACTIVITIES AUGUST/ VIS 20100902 (1470)

Second item and excerpt:

HOLY SEE-RELATED ACTIVITY IN AUGUST

VATICAN CITY, 2 SEP 2010 (VIS) - Following is a chronological presentation of Holy See-related activities for the month of August:

[...] - 31: Declaration by Holy See Press Office Director Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. announcing that the Pope held a series of conversations at Castelgandolfo from 26 to 31 July with the German journalist Peter Seewald. The contents of their talks will be published - in German and Italian - in a book to be released before the end of the year.
.../ VIS 20100902 (230)

The first principle of Satanist ethics: The same as the first principle of atheist ethics

Here's an interesting comment in the combox of a post at Mr. Muehlenberg's blog:

[Comment author:] Dee Graf
[Comment date and time:] 1.9.10 / 6pm
Aleister Crowley, the great prophet of the hippy generation of the 60’s and of the satanic church had this to say, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law”. In other words “if it feels good, do it” or “just do it”. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? The essence of the spirit of the Age comes straight from the pit of hell.
Dee Graf
[http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2010/08/30/our-sensate-culture/]

Without God, there is no such thing as moral obligation, and since moral liberty is the absence of moral obligation, an atheist ethics is necessarily one in which one has the moral liberty to do whatever one pleases--murder, steal, lie, whatever takes one's fancy. Thus in the secularist moral precept of 'do whatever you want, no matter how self- or mutually-destructive, as long as the parties involved consent', there is no basis for the 'as long as the parties involved consent' bit; that bit simply does not follow from atheistic first principles. For Satanists as well as atheists, 'do whatever you want, no matter how self- or mutually-destructive' is the whole of the Law (a Law in name only, of course--not law, not even genuine liberty, but license).

CathNews featured website: Australian EJournal of Theology

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=23084
http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/research/theology/ejournal/

Obviously not a Traditional publication, but there might be some interesting reading in there nonetheless.

Reginaldvs Cantvar

Feast of St. Pius X., Pope, Confessor, A.D. 2010

Notes: Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Mr. Baker on the relatio to what became Dignitatis humanæ

http://www.superflumina.org/relig_liberty_doctrine.html

This is a detailed and vigorous rebuttal of the arguments which Dignitiatis humanæ's relator, Msgr. de Smedt, offered in defence of that document's theses.

Prof. Lumby on sex education in high schools

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ok-class-who-wants-teens-to-go-on-learning-sex-in-sheds/

Prof. Lumby writes that

The Victorian government – and let’s remember that state governments are chronically terrified of upsetting anyone about anything – recently made the bizarre decision to introduce sex education to students in Years 9 and 10 which asks them to actually discuss sex.

[...] Teachers are even encouraged to ask students to discuss their own experiences and views on sexual practices, sexual ethics and intimate relationships. Clearly, that’s ridiculously sane. On what planet do these evidence-based sex education policy makers live? Naturally there’s been an outcry.

In the first of those paragraphs Prof. Lumby is, of course, being ironic when she describes the decision as "bizarre". But bizarrely (and I am not being ironic) she is not being ironic when she describes as "sane" teachers enouraging their respective pupils to discuss their sexual experiences with the class. Does it not occur to her how easily that sort of thing could end in tears, or worse (has she forgetten last year's fiasco of Kyle Sandilands asking a fourteen-year-old rape victim, to whom a lie detector was attached, whether the alleged rape had been 'her only sexual experience'?)? Reading Prof. Lumby's article, I felt as though she and I inhabit different moral universes.

But the occasions of sin and embarrassment which such an exercise would generate are not the only problem. Another problem is that, as though 'personal development, health, and physical education' classes aren't a big enough waste of time, this would be a further dumbing down of the school curriculum and an advancement of a philosophy which evaluates schooling according to its 'relevance' and 'practicality' rather than according to how it cultivates intellectual excellence. Is it too much to ask that the school curriculum restrict itself to educating, and leave things like learning to drive (recently there was a serious proposal aired in the Sydney Daily Telegraph to teach driving in schools) to outside school hours where they belong?

Mr. Muehlenberg and others on moral obligation

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2010/08/02/the-politics-of-unbelief/

Here's an interesting extract from a recent comment by Mr. Muehlenberg at his blog:

People are moral and able to be moral because they are moral beings living in a moral universe created by a moral God. So for that reason atheists can live moral lives. It is just that moral motions and obligations make no sense in the atheist’s worldview. ... As I already said in the above quote, the honest atheists even admit to this. There are plenty more such quotes. Let me offer just one further example: “The concept of moral obligation [is] unintelligible apart from the idea of God.” (Atheist ethicist Richard Taylor).

One of Mr. Muehlenberg's interlocuters responded with, among other things, the following:

As for that quote about “moral obligation”, did you consider that that Richard Taylor was proposing that moral obligation equates to guilt? Your priests lay an obligation on their flocks to be moral, for fear of punishment. Atheists choose to be ethical because it is the right thing to do. Therefore, moral obligation only makes sense if you’re religious; the rest of us aren’t OBLIGED to be moral – we choose it freely.

Of that paragraph Mr. Muehlenberg wrote

Sadly your paragraph on moral obligation is completely incoherent, so I cannot even attempt to reply to such gibberish. I am afraid it is you who is completely out of your depth here, and you will have to come up with something much better if you hope to convince us that atheism is somehow a coherent and rational position. We are certainly not getting that from you so far.

Now it's clear that the interlocuter is confused in his understanding of the idea of moral obligation and its importance in ethical theory. But by saying that "the rest of us aren’t OBLIGED to be moral – we choose it freely" the interlocuter unwittingly indicates the problem with a Godless, and therefore lawless and obligation-less, (a)moral world--because if we choose freely to be moral, then whyever can't we choose freely to be immoral? Without moral obligation, we have, by definition, the moral liberty to do either. And so another commenter at Mr. Muehlenberg's blog did well to write the following:

You might deny the existence of God, but you can’t escape the inevitable conclusion that without a moral law giver as a foundation for moral reasoning you are left without a philosophical leg to stand on. The older atheists understood this, which was why they embraced a very nihilistic view of the universe. Sadly the preening pretentious frauds that claim to pick up their mantle today seem to have forgotten the lessons of the much wiser intellects that went before them.

If you want to claim to push a moral law giver out of the picture then at lest be intellectually honest enough to admit that you are left with nothing but a vacuum of moral nihilism.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Dominic, Confessor, A.D. 2010

Notes: Wednesday, June 30, 2010

An accurate reflection of present-day Australian views on marriage and family?

Today's Herald's letters page is leading with the reaction to an article (which I seem to have missed) by a well-known relationships counsellor who apparently suggested that living in sin is inferior to being married. Eight letters, to which two sections, and the first two, of the letters page have been devoted, were published on the matter, all of them from women, none of them supporting the counsellor's views, and some of them objecting to them quite vehemently. I wonder whether the coming days will see any supporters of the natural law's commands and prohibitions in domestic matters sending in their letters? Presumably they haven't already, or the Herald would have published them, if only for balance.

"How Far We Have Sunk- a case for censorship as a social good"

Mr. Michael Webb has posted at Cath Pews a link to an interesting Australian Catholic Truth Society pamphlet on censorship. The pamphlet is quite long but might be worth reading if you have the time.

Confirmed: Ms Gillard is an atheist

Until this disclosure The Hon. Julia Gillard M.P. apparently identified as a "non-practising Baptist", but clearly not any more:

Julia Gillard on Jon Faine ABC 774 yesterday:

Faine: Do you believe in God?

Gillard: No, I don't, Jon, I'm not a religious person. I'm of course a great respecter of religious beliefs but they're not my beliefs, Jon.
[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/the-prime-minister-was-the-great-pretender/story-e6frg6zo-1225885911523
See also
http://www.smh.com.au/national/pm-nudged-about-wrath-of-god-20100629-zjcw.html?skin=text-only
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/julia-gillard-risks-christian-vote-with-doubts-on-god/story-e6frg6nf-1225885897505
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/julia-gillard-respects-religious-beliefs-but-will-not-pretend-to-have-faith-for-votes/story-e6frgczf-1225885581225]

One wonders whence she thinks the binding force of the laws which she takes part in enacting comes. Or maybe, like any atheist who follows his or her beliefs to their logical conclusions, she does not think that laws impose any true obligation.

Blog comment by me:

At Coo-ees:

Cardinal Pole said...

"And all because "Jesus sat with the sinners and the saints"."

I'm having trouble working out the missing step/s in Ms Keneally's logical sequence:

Jesus sat with sinners and saints.
[Missing step/s]
Therefore we should legislate for adoption by same-sex couples.

"Is this an issue to remind Catholic politicians of the consequences in the life of the church?"

A very good question.

June 30, 2010 3:37 AM
Your comment has been saved and will be visible after blog owner approval.
[http://coo-eesfromthecloister.blogspot.com/2010/06/in-principle-support-for-gay-adoption.html]

Reginaldvs Cantvar

Commemoration of St. Paul, Apostle, A.D. 2010

Mr. Hitchens on morality

http://www.smh.com.au/national/heathens-above-gods-harshest-critic-smokes-in-the-shower-20091001-ger1.html?skin=text-only

The famous journalist, author and neo-atheist Mr. Christopher Hitchens said the following, among other things, when he spoke to The Sydney Morning Herald for a story in today’s issue:

''Most [believers] believe that without religion their children, and even they, would not know right from wrong. I have two arguments to which no answer has yet been received. One: Name me a moral kindness or action that they can do because of their belief but that I can't. Two: Can you think of one evil action done by a religion person? You can, and you can think of another, and another.''
[square-bracketed interpolation in the original]

There are three things to say about this. The first is in regard to his point one: it misses the mark, because there is no question that the unregenerate can (albeit usually with difficulty) perform acts of “moral kindness”, as Mr. Hitchens calls it. See, for instance, St. Robert Bellarmine, Doctor of the Church, writing in his magnificent Treatise on Civil Government:

… But this justification from sin is said to be a certain liberty, for he who is in sin cannot, until he is freed by grace, will that good which is ordained for eternal life; he has, indeed, free will, since he can choose one evil from among many, and he can even choose moral good, but he cannot choose salutary good unless he at least begins to be freed by the ... grace of God, since he is held captive by the Devil according to his will, as it is written. [Tim. II.]
[http://catholicism.org/oldsite/de-laicis10.html]

So infidels can choose moral good—that is, they can choose to perform acts which suit human nature—but this choice avails them nothing towards salvation, which one can only merit in union with Our Lord’s Passion.

The second thing to say is that Mr. Hitchens’s second point is also ill-conceived, because the contention which Mr. Hitchens is supposed to be refuting is that the irreligious cannot behave morally; whether or not the religious will necessarily behave morally is another matter. Furthermore, abuse does not detract from use: that religious folk do evil in defiance of the tenets of their respective religions does nothing to detract from the fact that the ‘ought’ of moral obligation can issue only from the will of a superior, usually enacted in law.

And that brings us to the third thing, and the most important thing, which needs to be said here. Now Mr. Hitchens says that

''Most [believers] believe that without religion their children, and even they, would not know right from wrong.

Perhaps he is right, and most believers think that without religion (however Mr. Hitchens defines that term) one is incapable of telling right from wrong, though I haven’t seen any data to support this contention. What matters, though, is not whether believers subjectively think that one cannot know right from wrong without religion, but whether, objectively, one can know right from wrong without religion. And one can indeed know right from wrong without being religious; one knows it by an intellectual consideration of the respective natures and ends of things. But the problem for Mr. Hitchens is not knowing what good is but, rather, knowing whether one ought to do good. And, as they say, one cannot derive an 'ought' from an 'is'. An ‘is’ imposes itself by the force of reason, but the ‘ought’ of unconditional obligation can only be imposed by the will of a superior. (I say “unconditional” because one can impose on oneself a conditional obligation—if I want to be good then I should do such-and-such—but a purely self-imposed obligation is not a true and proper obligation, and can be revoked at will.) An obligation obviously cannot be imposed by an inferior, and nor can it be imposed by oneself or one equal in authority to oneself, for reasons just mentioned. Without some being with authority over man who (the authority-figure) can impose upon him (man) the obligation to do good and avoid evil, we just have people following their tastes and preferences—those who have a taste for good do good, those who have a taste for evil do evil, and the two sides can only agree to disagree. (Now an atheist might retort: so only a superior can impose true and proper obligations. Well and good. But why would the superior necessarily impose an obligation to do good? If his authority is absolute, then is he not free to bind his subordinates to do evil if he so wills? The answer to this objection is: not if the superior is good by nature and all-perfect, in which case he would never abuse his freedom and authority by obliging his subjects to do evil.)

The Herald article was in connection with the so-called Festival of Dangerous Ideas, which begins tomorrow and whose opening address will be given by Mr. Hitchens. It will be interesting to see what he has to say. I would be fascinated to see how he elaborates on his moral philosophy.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of The Holy Guardian Angels, A.D. 2009