Wojtyla on social ethics, capitalism

"The main task of the Catholic social ethic is to introduce the principles of justice and love into social life," Wojtyla wrote in the first volume, on politics.

He explicitly embraced Marx's essential theory that "the economic factor...explains, rather substantially, the different facts of human history.... Criticism of capitalism the system of exploitation of human beings and human work is the unquestionable 'part of the truth' embodied in Marxism."

"The church realizes that the bourgeois mentality, and capitalism with its material spirit, are contradictions of the Bible. According to the tradition of...monastic/religious life, the church also can appreciate the idea of communism.... Communism, as a higher ethical rule of ownership, demands from people higher ethical qualifications."

The entire tradition and teaching of the church is clearly opposed to capitalism as the socioeconomic system of life, and as a general value system.

Follow this link to the whole article

Maurice O'Sullivan on atheism, atheists

Maurice O'Sullivan writes in the Wall Street Journal:

Why should believers welcome this emergence of unbelief? Why not? We should be glad that there are people, even the devil's disciples, who take religion seriously enough to attack it, especially in these days when God seems to appear only in quarrels over holiday displays, during political campaigns or on the self-help shelves of Barnes & Noble. Should the primary goal of religion really be to fund municipal crèches, allow politicians to end every speech with the tag "And God bless America," or inspire works like "Tea With God: A Divinely Inspired Self-Help Book" and "The Christian Entrepreneur: How to Profit From Your God-Given Idea"?

In attacking the cloistered monks and nuns of my Roman Catholic Church, the brilliant, if occasionally logorrheic, John Milton wrote in his defense of free speech, "Areopagitica," that "I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed." And what will possibly make us exercise and breathe more fully than challenges by intelligent, thoughtful opponents?

Her hopeful optimism for atheism's effect on the general public's view of religion is questionable, though fundamentally positive.

Follow this link to the whole article.

FOCA

Amy Sullivan writes in Time Magazine how the Freedom of Choice Act is not as looming of a threat as it has been presented by Catholic and right-wing groups.

She writes,

The U.S. Catholic Church's crusade against the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) has all the hallmarks of a well-oiled lobbying campaign. A national postcard campaign is flooding the White House and congressional offices with messages opposing FOCA, and Catholic bishops have made defeating the abortion rights legislation a top priority. In the most recent effort to stop the bill, Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia sent a letter to every member of Congress imploring them to "please oppose FOCA."

There is only one hitch. Congress isn't about to pass the Freedom of Choice Act — because no such bill has been introduced in the current Congress.

Follow this link to the whole article

Kavanaugh mentions morality, Kant

John Kavanaugh, professor of philosophy at Saint Louis University, writes in America the Magazine about apparent "moral exceptionalism". This exception is not, "You're exceptionally moral," but rather, "Your morals are full of exceptions." He recalls the categorical imperative of Kant by writing,

It is this principle of universalizability that seems lost in contemporary discourse. About the only place it is practiced, at least ideally, is in sport contests—perhaps because it is only sport that we really take seriously. But in matters of the nation, the church, the economy and the world, moral exceptionalism holds sway. We seem unable to extend the rules we live by to others.

He cites excommunications of bishops who support women's ordination alongside the reconciliation of schismatic members of the Society of Pius X. America's request for Iran to refrain from nuclear armnament alongside the United States' stockpile of nuclear weaponry. Further, he mentions Tom Daschle not paying his taxes and President Obama not holding his line on bringing lobbyists into his staff.

On Psalm 62

I.
Only when my life, only when there is space within me for God to call out for me, do I find rest. Within me is no continuity. I change with the second, and my glancing vision leads me everywhere, though I am only here. My trust needs a point around which it can settle and find itself. My trust can only find stability in the ever growing and expanding point of God's presence. If I cannot find a place of trust within myself, if there is no room for God to dwell within me, then I am lost, doomed to bounce between thin foundations and poeple who would make me theirs.

II.
I cannot just wait for God. I must clear Him a space. I must prepare Him a room. Within me is room enough. I can hope in His coming. When He comes He will not leave. He can make a dwelling in my presence and fill me with His love. My great hope is Him, who trades His life for mine. Through Him I am granted life. I wait, then, and my soul begins to clear and prepare for his arrival.

III.
In His presence, the evils in my life are thing and lifeless; they seem dull and uninteresting. Without Him they control my person and destroy the love which I so desperately wish to give. God metes power and kindness, and His will invites me to share in both. With my Rock, my life roots deep in love. Without it, I am blown like dust without another life.

Finding the world in poetry

I had a hard time choosing only one of Billy Collins' poems to post. Collins served at the poet laureate for the United States from 2001 to 2003. His poetry introduces the reader to a more real experience of the life by moving through utterly fantastic situations and reflective thought.

Some photography.

Immaculate Heart of Mary Chapel, Kent State University Ohio


Cerro Grande, El Salvador


Kent, Ohio


Akron, Ohio


Brooklyn Bridge, New York


Akron Art Museum, Ohio


Aguacate Farm, Dominican Republic


Kendall Elizabeth Leigh, December 25 2008