Monday, November 30, 2020

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

4. Prof. Brungardt on recent online discussion about Catholic integralism

See the blog post "The Question of Catholic Integralism: An Internet Genealogy", by Assistant Prof. John G. Brungardt, dated May 22, 2020, available at the author's eponymous blog:


(That post came to my attention via the blog post "The links you’ve been longing for" by Prof. Edward Feser, dated Saturday, August 8, 2020, at that author's eponymous blog:


which (blog post) links to a cross posting, by J AUGUSTINE on May 29, 2020 at The Josias, of Prof. Brungardt's blog post under its original title:


Labels: Americanism, Church and State, Confessional State, Dignitatis Humanæ, law, liberalism, morals, politics, religious liberty, secularism, Social Reign of Christ

5. Some recent culture-shaping activity by H.M.A. Government

5.1 Mr. Tudge on Australian values again, this time with a stronger-than-usual emphasis on Secularism (in particular, error no. forty-two of the Syllabus)

(Error no. forty-two of the Syllabus of Pius IX. is the proposition that "In a conflict between the laws of both powers, the civil law prevails" (the other power in question is, of course, the ecclesial power):


The original Latin of that error is "In conflictu legum utriusque potestatis, ius civile praevalet." and is available by clicking the little "LATIN" thumbnail at the lower right-hand-side corner of that error's section or by going hither:


See the media release "Focus on values in updated Australian Citizenship Test" and the transcripts "Interview with Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft, 3AW Breakfast", "Interview with Basil Zempilas and Steve Mills, 6PR Breakfast", "Interview with Leon Byner, 5AA Mornings", "Door stop, Australian Citizenship Test", "Interview with Deb Knight, 2GB", "Multicultural press conference, 17 September 2020", and "Interview with Patricia Karvelas, ABC Afternoon Briefing":









(All those documents were dated Thursday, September 17, 2020 and issued by The Hon. Alan Tudge M.P. (at the time, Federal Acting Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services, and Multicultural Affairs).) Mr. Tudge's list of Australian values was much the same as his previous one(s), but what seems remarkable to me this time around is his emphasis on his principle that parliamentary enactments override religious ones; in every one of those transcripts except "Door stop, Australian Citizenship Test", he highlights that principle, and of the transcripts in which that principle is raised, only in "Interview with Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft, 3AW Breakfast" is Mr. Tudge not the one who raises it first. Presumably most members of Mr. Tudge's intended audience would connect that principle firstly to the relationship between Australian laws and the Islamic Shariah, but it is also relevant to enactments introduced or being introduced by Australian jurisdictions against the Seal of Confession.

In those texts, Mr. Tudge also referred to
  • the Australian citizenship test resource booklet Australian Citizenship: Our Common Bond, available here:


    (Go straight hither for the testable section:


    Its p. 19 (21 in my document reader) is about "Our freedoms", and the last sentence—under the sub-heading "Freedom of religion"—on that page expresses Mr. Tudge's principle, with much the same diction and syntax as in the translated error at the beginning of this item: "Where there is a conflict between an Australian law and a religious practice, Australian law prevails." Again, on p. 35 (37 in my document reader), under the same sub-heading (this time in the context of, as the previous page indicates, "Our values"), the second sentence of the penultimate paragraph is "Australian law must be followed by everyone in Australia, including where it is different from religious laws." (And on the next page, in the same context but under the sub-heading "Equality of all people under the law", the booklet is also noteworthy for its promotion of Gay Marriage with the last sentence of the second paragraph: "Under our laws, two people can marry each other, including marriage between two men or two women.")
  • the Australian Values Statement, both the versions for temporary and provisional visa applicants and for permanent visa applicants whereof express the principle, among other "values", of "parliamentary democracy whereby our laws are determined by parliaments elected by the people, those laws being paramount and overriding any other inconsistent religious or secular “laws”" and require each of those applicants to make this engagement: "I undertake to conduct myself in accordance with these values of Australian society during my stay in Australia and to obey the laws of Australia." (See the webpage "Meeting our requirements[: ]Australian values":


    The parliamentary democracy quotation is also on the "Australian values" page:


    And at the "Australian citizenship[: ]Learn about being an Australian citizen" page, the "Our freedoms" section has, under the sub-heading "Freedom of religion", this for its penultimate sentence: "You are free to follow any religion you choose, as long as your religious practices do not break Australian laws.":

Labels: Church and State, Confessional State, G.L.B.T., law, liberalism, marriage, morals, politics, secularism

5.2 H.M.A. Government plans to give "$3.0 million over four years from 2020-21 to the Anti-Defamation Commission to create a Holocaust education platform" plus the same sum over the same period "to the Islamic Museum of Australia to develop educational resources and online learning platforms", both as part of the Students Support Package in the Education, Skills, and Employment component of the 2020-2021 Federal Budget.

Those quotations and other information come from p. 82 (100 in my document reader) of Budget Paper No. 2, Budget Measures 2020-21, circulated by The Hon. Josh Frydenberg M.P. (at the time, de facto Federal Treasurer) and The Hon. Mathias Cormann (at the time, a Senator and the Federal Minister for Finance), dated October 6, 2020, available at the official Federal Budget website:


or go straight hither:


(It seems that another Federal grant of three million dollars (over four years from 2019-20) for the Anti-Defamation Commission (in this instance, for the expansion of its "Click Against Hate" programme) had already been announced; see p. 237 (255 in my document reader) in the "Education, Skills and Employment" section of Budget Measures 2020-21's "Appendix A: Policy decisions published in the July 2020 Economic and Fiscal Update" (both sets of italics in the original).) The same information is given in the October 6, 2020 Media Release "Budget 2020-21: Investing in Education and Research", issued by The Hon. Dan Tehan M.P. (at the time, Federal Minister for Education), available at the Ministers' Media Centre at the official website of the Federal Department of Education, Skills, and Employment:


Similar information is given in the last bullet point under the sub-heading "Schools" at the latter website's "Budget 2020-21" page:


and further information is given on the "Support for Social Cohesion" page of the former Federal Department of Education website:


Labels: Freemasons, Islam, Jews

5.3 The new Adelaide Holocaust Museum—located at Church-owned Fennescey House, and said to be "the latest addition to a national network of Holocaust museums"—will get two-and-a-half million dollars of Federal funding.

The information, including the quotation, in that headline comes from the news report "Boost for new Holocaust museum", by Jenny Brinkworth, dated Friday, October 16, 2020, downloaded from The Southern Cross's website:


See also the transcripts "Interview with Ditts and Roo, Triple M Adelaide", "Interview with Leon Byner, 5AA Adelaide", and "Doorstop interview, Norwood, Adelaide", all dated October 15, 2020, and issued by The Hon. Josh Frydenberg M.P. (at the time, de facto Federal Treasurer):




As for the rest of that network, Ms Brinkworth wrote that
With well-established Jewish museums in Melbourne and Sydney, the Federal Government has also provided $3.5m for a Holocaust museum in Brisbane while Perth’s Jewish Community Centre received funding for a major redevelopment last year.
Labels: Adelaide, Jews

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

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:


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:


and in English translation here:


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:


(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":


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:


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:


and in English translation here:


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:


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:


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


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:


Labels: Democratism, morals, politics

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