Whither Notre Dame University?

Francis J. Beckwith, the evangelical scholar who reverted to the Catholicism of his youth, has written a thorough article on the Notre Dame controversy over at the First Things website. Included is these gems from Dr. Martin Luther King's "A Letter from a Birmingham Jail":

I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.” Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.

And,

There was a time when the church was very powerful—in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators.” But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were “a colony of heaven,” called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be “astronomically intimidated.” By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests. Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent—and often even vocal—sanction of things as they are.

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth [and twenty-first] century.

Read the full article at: http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=1355

Liberalism is a corruptio mentis

Not only do leftists on our campuses not have a sense of humor, they apparently have little sanity.

As many have maintained, liberalism is a corruptio mentis (corruption of the mind). From a Christian perspective this is easy to understand. Owing to the sin of Adam, we are conceived without the integrity of human nature which God intended, and in which our first parents were created, body and soul unified by divine grace. The consequence of original sin is that our passions, which are seated in our animal nature, are in rebellion against our intellect and will, which are seated in our soul. The result is that while we grasp material concepts well (one need only look at the advance of math and science), the acquisition of, reasonning about, and judgment among spiritual principles is accomplished with difficulty.

Through the operation of grace, however, the believer is assisted in restoring the integrity of his nature, and with it, his ability to reason CORRECTLY about spiritual principles, especially moral issues. Not surprisingly the greatest thinkers in philosophical and moral sciences tend to be those who earnestly seek God. On the other hand, the eshewing of God inevitably leads to further and further DISintegration of one's spiritual faciulties. Not surprisingly, this is often accompanied by a morally and intellectually dissolute life.

In an article on OneNewsNow.com conservative columnist Don Feder tells about his recent experience on the campus of the University of Massachusetts. Mr. Feder's article points out the reliance on passion over reason among the socialists and other liberal cabalists who disrupted a speech he was to give at this institution where the cogency of one's idea's, not one's militant ideology, ought to reign.

Read it at: http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=464908

Our Lady of the Incarnation, pray for us.

SPQR

Plan B for babies

A federal judge has thrown-out as politically motivated a FDA decision under the Bush Administration that the so-called Plan B contraceptive pill or morning-after pill may not be sold over-the-counter to minors (17 and under). The FDA allows it to be sold over-the-counter to those 18 and over. This means that the Obama administration will revisit, and likely allow, Plan B, which uses the same chemicals used in contraceptive pills requiring a prescription but at higher doses, to be sold to minors.

Naturally, the Bush administration could not have been thinking about the natural law rights of parents to oversee the medical care of their minor children, or the known risks of unsupervised use of the Plan B pill or its acknowledged abortifacient effects. And, of course, the Obama administration will not take politics, that is, its overwhelming ties to the so-called "reproductive rights" movement and abortion industry, into account in its review of Plan B rules.

It so nice to know that the federal courts and the nanny state have the best interests of families at heart.

St. Gabriel, protect us from the enemies of life, from conception to natural death!

SPQR

The Long March

This is the title given a dream by St. John Bosco in which he foresaw a time when the Church would seem to march away from Rome, then resolutely, and victoriously, march back.

It is the name given to the Chinese Communist Army's 1934 escape from encirclement, which traversed thousands of miles of rough terrain and enabled the eventual military victory of Chinese communism. Both of these marches represent heroism, spiritual in the former, material in the latter.

For me, the Long March is acquiring another significance, however, one of indecision, vacillation, temporizing and expediency. We are not even a hundred days into the new presidency and already I'm exhausted by the lack of direction, the lack of principle (except on abortion where Obama is resolute), flip-flops, testing of the political winds, Pelosoisms, Reidisms ... My God, America, Bush was wrong on Iraq, but at least the guy had principles, could make a decision, and then stick to it.

Let's see, 62 days down, 1398 days to go. Please, Lord, let it be over!

SPQR

The Pope is Wrong on Condoms. NOT!

The New York Times and other liberal media, as well as the promiscuity industry, are having a feeding frenzy attacking the Pope.

In a Q&A with reporters on the way to Cameroon, Benedict XVI dared to challenge the all-holy condom, sacrament of the gay lifestyle and fornicators the world over, as the answer to HIV/AIDS. With ruthless precision, the statistics have been trotted out which allege to show that condoms reduce the transmission of HIV and slow, and even reverse, the spread of AIDS. Never mind that as independent a group as Harvard University's "AIDS Prevention Research Project" states that no real evidence of the claimed causality has been demonstrated. Rather, the use of condoms is negated by the human phenomenon of "risk compensation", by which a user increases the frequency and riskiness of behavior since he or she is now "protected".

The media, of course, has little regard for the facts, and even less that as a Shepherd of Souls it is the duty of the Pope to encourage virtue, abstinence before marriage and monogamy within it, as the only true preventative for individuals. Human beings are not mere points on a statistician's graph, but souls whose earthly and eternal life are at stake. Look for continuing attacks on the Pope and the Church by the house organs of the culture of death.

AIDS Prevention Research Project

Kathryn Jean Lopez article

St. Joseph, example of authentic masculinity, pray for us!

SPQR

Kathleen, we know you

President Obama has concluded his search for a replacement nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services. This cabinet level department is the one perhaps closest to Catholic interests, since the Catholic Church is the largest provider of hospital services and other health and life-needs services in the United States, indeed the world. So, after the failed nomination of pro-abort Catholic Tom Daschle, it seems natural that President Obama should seek another Catholic for the position. But did the President go looking for someone professionally knowledgeable in health care? No, he sought and chose an even more extreme abortion supporter, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius - one whose extreme record in defense of unfettered abortion bears resemblance to his own. She has, as well, the dubious distinction of being the only major Catholic politician to be reprimanded by her bishop and denied Holy Communion for the manifest grave sin of supporting abortion.

See George Weigel's excellent comentary of this story on First Things.