Catholic social doctrine sheds light on how to combat gun violence

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/catholic-social-doctrine-sheds-light-how-combat-gun-violence
MGB:_Prayer can be used to unify a movement, as long as it is inclusionary. It can build solidarity as long as it is not a bar to membership. We certainly will not pray away the NRA nor should it be cheapened as protest tool, whether at NRA HQ or an abortion clinic.

It is true that subsidiarity has failed us in treating mental health, especially when we give individuals the right to refuse treatment when they are obviously sick. Hierarchical mental hygene, which included eugenics, went too far early in the century and we have overcorrected, which helped decrease spending on healthy but has filled the jails. Kafka rules. We need long term treatment for some before they offend, recognizing that many offenses occur due to lack of shelter and income (petty theft, public urination, lashing out when meds are gone). Disability needs to go to a living wage level, be easier to get and not be dependent on prior earnings, appropriations or the health of a trust fund.

It is not mental illness that causes school shootings, it is social isolation. Shootings at work and school are an extreme form of social protest for people who are tired of ”using their words.”It has become ”a thing” a very lethal fad. You cannot medicate that away.

Having popular students get national attention for trying to ban guns will not stop any school shooter unless they succeed in getting the guns and the ammunition (they tell me with no ammo, guns are useless). That type of ammo should no longer be sold outside of military contracts. Indeed, police should not even be able to get it, since using it on a suspect is death sentence.

Treat assault weapons the same way and use military contracts and mandatory buybacks (as in ATF goes to a gun shop or show and buys it and its contents, which are destroyed, except the collectors pieces).

Will this stop school shootings? As long as it slows them down and makes them less leathal, including for the shooters. Then maybe, instead of burying the shooters, we can ask them what went wrong in their lives. After about 20 years of prison, they will have the words to tell us.

Links for 2/27/18

https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/distinctly-catholic/links-22718
MGB:_Pro-life Democrats are targeted by the Susan B. Anthony Fund in a big way. They are not considered welcome in the movement either. Try running for Maryland’s open seat as a pro-life Democrat and see what I mean. The question I have for the congressman is ”what makes him pro-life?” Is it just a label for him or will he be willing to outlaw abortion at some point or have the Court do it and then, who gets to go to jail?

No manufacturer who sells AR-15s to the public should get a military contract. Any who have who want to keep their contracts should recall them.

Unions violate the reactionary credo that rich people obviously are superior.

Being pro-life is being the GOP at prayer to orange faced god. See comments on Lipinski. Gutting the ACA means the insurance market will collapse and a future Democratic POTUS will use their bankruptcies to impose single-payer in each state, will all premiums and subsidies going to a central fund that funds a single insurance provider who must cover everyone.

Executives and owners send jobs to China because when taxes are low, they get more for doing so than when they are higher (because then the government gets the savings and the cuts are simplyh not made).

Sadly, Billy Graham lived long enough to see the harshness return to his Church. All hopes of universalism are gone in favor of propserity gospel megachurches. Trump is the result.

I am sure Napa writes a nice check. So much for Francis’ idea of a poor church. The Rector probably is not a big fan of meatloaf.

LifeSiteNews does harm with stories like 'Vatican financial scandal'

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/lifesitenews-does-harm-stories-vatican-financial-scandal
MGB:_Don’t call them a Catholic group or a pro-life group. Call them a Republican front group and leave it at that.

Don't let 'Janus' case axe root of American labor

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/dont-let-janus-case-axe-root-american-labor
MGB:_Burke was a libertarian and a reactionary who believed that a society without strong elites ended up like the Jacobins in the French Revolution. That common core goes from Nietzsche to Ayn Rand to Donald Trump. It was resisted by Marx and Engels, the American Labor Movement and the Modern Cooperative Movement (which was created, in part, by Silas Locke Allen, my great-grandfather). The Catholic immigrant labor movement, as well as American craftsmen, joined in, but it was not a Catholic thing by any means. Socialism is not dead, as Bernie Sanders has shown. It has both secularists and Catholic workers and nuts and granola Protestants. As long as the Church behaves better than it did in the 1950s, you can play with us again.

The irony of this case is that if Janus were made to be a member, the could speak out about anything in meetings of the local. If he was persuasive, he would carry the day. If not, he could still keep speaking above the local level and at least be heard. Freedom of speech does-not carry the guarantee that others will agree. Instead, the law has allowed him not to join. He still speaks and has found deep anti-labor pockets to finance his speech. No one has stopped him. Let us hope that even here, only four justices agree (I suspect it will be three with Roberts finding a way to defend congressionnal intent).

The Catholic Church needs people who demand that the Church leave them alone in their marital lives, as their current actions are unjust. It needs someone on the inside to challenge how it deals with abortion, because it has become part of the problem for the unborn. Someone needs to explain to them solidarity with women and the principles of equal law, which are essential to solidarity and make first trimester abortion prohibition impossible. Few advocate abortion, but many understand that Roe is rightly decided and that will not change. In the end, the hierarchism of the Church needs to be blown up and that must come from the inside.

Even if this case goes the wrong way, there are both Democratic Socialist and New Cooperativist movements that are bringing both Marx and Allen back from the brink. We are just getting started providing alternatives to both goverment control and capitalism. Either was, this case is a speed bump, although there is mass organization planned for Saturday. All are welcome, except maybe that Paprocki guy.

Links for 2/22/18

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/links-22218
MGB:_Garrett Epps is the forefost constitutional scholar and historian of this age, maybe the best since Madison. If he says this is not a constitutional case, you have to wonder why it was granted ceriori, and that is scary. He tells us why. Still, I have hopes that Chief Roberts will vote for the intent of the law and not make Court packing by the next Democratic President a necessity to counteract Alito’s partisanship. The necessary fact in this case, proven by this case, is that Mr. Janus can speak all he desires. If his brothers and sisters in the Union agree with him, his voice will be amplified. If not, he can still speak on his own and I am sure some reactionary will provide enough funding for him to be heard. Unless AFSCME is allowed to silence him, his free speech rights are undistrubed.

Erroneous Autonomy was a good series. I wish I had been able to attend and participate. We must always remember that without Solidarity, Subsidiarity it just a surrender to power. Any time we can put ideologies that would forget this under a microscope is worthy, including when it is social liberty rather than economically liberty being discussed. My comments on these events are at:
http://heymsw.blogspot.com/2014/06/rcs-vs-libertarianism-part-i-national.html
http://heymsw.blogspot.com/2014/06/rcs-vs-libertarianism-part-ii-national.html
http://heymsw.blogspot.com/2015/06/erroneous-autonomy-conversation-on 9.html
http://heymsw.blogspot.com/2015/06/erroneous-autonomy-conversation-on.html
http://heymsw.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-catholic-vs-libertarian-debate.html
http://heymsw.blogspot.com/2016/12/erroneous-autonomy-third-edition.html
http://heymsw.blogspot.com/2017/01/lack-of-just-wages-benefits-threat-to.html

Every President should have one person he trusts who will stop him from doing stupid things. This President doesn’t have that person and even goes to the extent of hiring someone who Tweets like he does to further confuse things.

In the world of wisdom there is ethics, which is derived from truth and therefore absolute and aesthetics, which is beauty and emotion and individual with no right answers, which is why everyone can be a critic and all be right. Ocassionally, Truth can invoke wonder as well and beauty can involke truth. I am glad the President likes his portrait. If I am ever in his shoes, I would prefer the standard standing portrait in the Oval. As for the First Lady’s portrait, I see the arms but not the face, which is too bad because her face outshines that of her portrait. As for the voice rehersal, music is about feeling. Even if you aren’t feeling the performance in the second, you had better pretend you are really quickly, because singing is a form of acting and the emotions to be evoked are not accidental.

Ed Whelan uncertain about facts of labor union case

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/ed-whelan-uncertain-about-facts-labor-union-case
MGB:_Reading National Review under its current publishers is always the begining of a mistake. Reading Ed is worse. Still, marriage and abortion are basede on 14th Amendment law regulating the powers of the states in private matters. Dealing with Unions is not a private matter but it is a federal one. Like other employers, states cannot union bust at will, but it is federal labor law, not the Constitution, that protects the rights of workers.

Christian prudential judgment does not enter into the outcome of either kind of case. Dignitas Humanae gives the Church no authority but to compel an outcome, although it can certainly argue if it knows the law, which it misunderstands on Roe.

Roe is good law, even if you don’t like the outcome. Abortion cannot be regulated but when you decide at what point abortion becomes infanticide andwhen  you are willing to punish mothers, you can grant legal recognition to the child, aain uder the 14th Amendment. Catholics cannot have or encourage abortion. Their opinion on what others do is irrelavant because this is not an issue until someone makes a realistic proposal. (And OMB Circulars provide for accouting audit standards to oveturn the argument that PPUSA funds are in any way fungible).

The Church’s AFSCME legal argument would be more compelling if it allowed the NEA a place at the table in Catholic Schools. Whelan is just crying foul because his fellow reactionaries seem to be going off book.  Ed is defending the Republican machine, not the unborn. It is why most regard the pro-life movement as a scam. If the Church dropped out of the scam and allowed the unions in, the public funds would follow. It is the kind of compromise the GOP would never stand for.

The die is probably cast on any AFSCME case if this Court treats it like it treated affirmative action and the Voting Rights Act. It is probably also cast on the fate of the GOP, having hooked its wagon to the mean clown, it will meet the mean clown’s fate, unless it is smart enough to get rid of him before November. This union, because it cannot strike, relies on politics, including influencing who it deals with. Not even hobbling it will save the Republicans from a well-deserved fate. Paprocki is quite obviously also a partisan Republican hiding behind his purple robes to baptize his and their reactionary views. He needs to findn a new job. Maybe baking cakes for gay weddings as a penance.

Links for 2/20/18

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/links-22018
MGB: The lawyers often write along the lines that the staff and chairs of a committee indicate.  Often, those people are such true believers in the Reactionary ideal that they do not reflect the rest of the bishops or the Church (save some of the hard-liners in the Curia).  That the Church has been ill-served by its lawyers is clear, whether the topic is religious freedom, abortion or child sexual abuse by priests.  Sometimes, it is more important to lose doing justice than get a victory for the client.  Good lawyers tell their clients when they have no case.  The Church often does not have good lawyers.

Connor Lamb seems to be able to pander with the best of him.  What he really believes is deliberately unclear, which is true of the entire pro-life movement.  One would hope that most members of Congress, at least those who went to law school, are educated enough to know why Roe won and that it is not going anywhere, nor should it.  Let us hope Lamb is an outlier in the movement and proposes what is really needed to reduce abortion, much higher child tax credits paid with wages and deducted from a high enough subtraction value added tax to do the job.

All you need to be on FoxNews is to look pretty and say exactly what they tell you.  Jocks can do that. So can Laura.

As usual, Cardinal Cupich brings less heat and more like to Amoris, as well as a humble spirit. The last is why the right-wing hates him so.

I was just talking with a friend last night about Senator Warren's heritage.  She does need to address the controversy head on, including the notion that all Indigenous people look the same way. I don't look Romany unless I grow the required mustache, but Romany I am (and if you call me a gypsy without permission I may slap you, just in case you think PC is out of date or some liberal invention).

At least it is not the Year of the Cat. The tweets and postings are even more insufferable. As for bishops having dogs, as long as they walk and clean up after them themselves.  That may be a bridge to far for some of their egos.

How do you Tweet Casti Connubii #120-122 in sufficient detail to call out right to lifers who are only pro-birth? I rarely Tweet. Real men rarely do. Enough said.

Archbishop Lori's pastoral on MLK and nonviolence is timely, engaging

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/archbishop-loris-pastoral-mlk-and-nonviolence-timely-engaging
MGB:_Remember that non-violence is a form of resistance, primarily against the government and the established elites in society which has access to government force. We resist non-violently because it is the only tool we have to show our humanity and the inhumanity of the power structure, both public and private. It is usually adjunct to law suits and it depends on some residual level of decency in the remainder of society, for example the coverage of the reaction by law enforcement showing how extreme they are to a sympathetic public who will shame higher levels of government into action.

It cannot be the same old thing, or the press won’t cover it. The problem with Black Lives Matter is that there is nothing striking about urban protest, which invites more radical forces to engage in property damage to get the attention of the media.

Sometimes reactionary elements try to use the tools of non-violent protest as a form of mockery, as in Charolottseville. Instead, the press, quite rightly, compared those idiots to Nuremberg rallies and the whole event backfired on their President, who has not really been able to recover from the event.

We may need to use mass protest again to force action at the end of the Mueller probe, although that situation probably needs an election to resolve.

The Palestinians and Israeli Arabs have not tried to use purely non-violent protest. They don’t trust the IDF not to kill them in cold blood or maybe that is the only way to get the cameras rolling. Still, in the second Intifada, when the northern Israeli Arabs did join in, it shocked the national enough to create a peace movement, although so far a long term strategy has not seemed to have been tried. If there is anywhere that needs to use the work of King, Ghandi and Thoreau, it is Israel.

Of course, the other are where non-violent resistance may be worth a try is the Church. The status quo cannot stand but no one has begun a movement to make the Church’s Asexual Mafia sit down so that we may form a healthier sexual ethic. That includes Archbishop Lori. From who gets ordained to when they can have sex in relation to when Mass is said, there is much to protest. It just awaits a leader and a spark.

Head of Catholic physicians' group warns of threats to conscientious objection

https://www.ncronline.org/news/world/head-catholic-physicians-group-warns-threats-conscientious-objection
MGB:_The question is not whether they have the legal right to not act to preserve the life and health of the mother when the pregnancy is guaranteed to result in a still birth or the mother’s death from uncontrollable pre-eclampsia (including from trisomy 13) or burst fallopian tube, but whether he or she has a moral or professional right to do so and whether Catholic hospitals allow action in the best interest of the mother when the child is doomed.

It comes down to the question of whether they believe that God is an ogre who will punish them for doing what is needed, even if it does not fit in with what they were taught or what looks good to the hierarchy or ”morally consistent,” which is another term for moral cowardice. For my part, I promise you that anyone who claims that God won’ like it if I throw someone off the boat will be the first to go (or the one we eat).

Food baskets come with a Gilded Age moral lesson

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/food-baskets-come-gilded-age-moral-lesson
MGB:_This budget is more than dead on arrival, FY19 appropriations have already been passed. Doing so largely mitigated the damage that could have been caused by the tax cut, but it is the spending that will cause jobs, not the tax cut. If the nation is insane enough to keep the GOP in office, there may be later spending cuts which will lead to a recession, but if we keep spending until Democrats can raise taxes again, there will actually be economic growth (mostly because the Democrats traded letting defense cuts pass to get domestic spending).

The tax system is ripe for reform, not just by raising rates on the rich but by removing the more from the tax roles, transferring this tax payment to consumption taxes (the income taxes of workers are essentially a hidden consumption tax), including a subtraction VAT which contains a credit of $1000 per child per month paid with wages, that living wage that Catholic social teaching not only favors, it mandates some form of distribution like that. Having such a credit can result in an end to SNAP, so no food boxes would be necessary. About 74% of abortions would not be necessary either.

People on SNAP do eat badly. This is because the amounts are under what is needed to buy food. Entitlements were cut so that when AFDC was turned to TANF, states would not simply switch to SNAP to take care of the job resistant (these are now either abandoned from the rolls or steered to disability). SNAP is now is even worse for people who need cash (everyone) to buy toilet paper or diapers, so they are forced to trade their cards for fifty cents on the dollar. Including a cash grant is much more essential than a box of food, which many SNAP recipients already get from local food pantries.

Sadly, much of that food is donated from super markets when it has reached the expiration debt (although some of this is simply sent to minority neighborhood stores for sale in food deserts). SNAP is not charity, it is justice, but if it were charity it would disgraceful in in paucity. Food pantry boxes often contain food that is or is about to spoil. Matthew 25 says that when we feed the hungry, we are feeding the Lord. Boxed excess food is often second rate. Is that what we would truly feed Jesus? Are we giving the sacrifice of Cain, which was not accepted and caused him to kill his brother who did give a good offering? Give people money instead and more heavily regulate the quality of food in poor neighborhoods.

Full disclosure. I spent much of last year using pantry food to supplement my disability income. If I am forced to stop drawing from my IRA because of value loss, I will be doing so again, so I know how bad the food can get, not through any malice but because everything donated is distributed (even if it should be composted). I cannot imagine the government doing better.

Conservatives believe we must punish the poor (not a Christian attitude) because if we suppor them (or rather if you suppor us), we will lose the incentive to go and invent the next version of the Internet, join the military and be shot at by the Taliban or simply be there to give you your morning coffee because you are too stupid to use an espresso machine or too lazy to clean it with each use. A servant economy depends on having poor people to be servants. Suffering is seen as a way to enforce conformity to society’s worthies (like our billionaire President).

Giving people a tax cut for each child will take people out of the labor force and allow them not fear poverty If they chose to work in a theater or library or sell hot dogs at the ball park. It may require higher prices to pay the taxes and any higher minimum wage (since no one should have to work for peanuts just to get a child tax credit, but that uncovers the problem with a sane economy that serves everyone, rich people are cheap, entitled and resentful of the poor. It is still hard for the rich to gain the kingdom of God, not (just) in Heaven, but in the earthly kingdom on earth (Thy kingdom come).

Links for 2/15/18

https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/links-21518
MGB: Koch has a point, although he does not know it and would not recognize it. It is unfair to him to pay leave when Starbucks does not.  What he gets wrong is that when the private sector cannot guarantee that this happens through the private market, it is up to the government to level the playing field.  Absent a cooperative economy where people behave rightly because it is the human thing as well as the self-interested thing to do, the only justification to not have paid sick leave is some kind of citizen dividend so people can still support their families when they are sick or when their children need them at home.

It is patently unconstitutional to deny aid or use it to enforce immigration policy.  The White House Counsel needs to make it clear to Trump that when you are President, no sometimes means no. Disregard the Trump budget, it is meat for his base.  The real appropriations for FY 2019 have already been passed.  There is no way the entitlement cuts will pass the Senate.

Whelan and Paprocki neither understand American law or the Magisterium. Whelan has an excuse for being a partisan hack.  The bishop does not.  Bishops need to speak truth to power.  Paprocki panders to it, provided it is Republican power.  This particular group of Republicans is particularly suspect, indeed criminal.  Paprocki is a co-conspirator in their idiocy. This is not a USCCB matter. It is for the Nuncio to handle.

Benedict's major accomplishment is Caritas in Varitate, which gives the only correct reason to have teaching on sexuality exist, as a way to justify the rights of the poor to procreate freely and still have a decent income, both at home and abroad.  Sadly, I bet Whelan and Paprocki would rather ignore such a teaching.

Since when is good fact checking a mark of political correctness run amok.  Granted, there is not reason to be upset, but we in the media need to get things right and humbly accept correction and publish fact corrections accordingly.

The problem was the tax cut, not the spending.  The spending increase will suck up the extra money from the tax cut into the bond market (granted, simply increasing taxes would have been better), rather than having the tax cut go into the asset market and fund all kinds of projects in line with Austrian Economic Theories which reward the rich, create an economic bubble and then let a crash happen to see which worthy capitalists survive.  We tried that with the Clinton tech boom and with the Bush housing boom.  We will not have a Trump flirtation with Bitcoin. Sadly, in a few years there will be calls for deficit reduction.  As long as these are met with both defense cuts and tax increases, the economy will be OK.

'Pope Francis and the Theology of the People' book review, Part 2

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/pope-francis-and-theology-people-book-review-part-2
MGB:_Name day parties happen when parents name their children for favorite saints, who may also have been the patrons of family members (or family names become the middle name). Major saint parades festivals are often the marks of an immigrant culture. If a pocket of immigrants came from Italy, look for St. Joseph to get a festival and be toasted with red beer. Of course, there are few Native American saints who are celebrated this way, and if so their sainthood is not based on resisting the infusion of Catholic culture from abroad.

The Pope, of course, is with the poor against the economic imperialists and no amount activity from the donor base will shift the Church from its current democratic socialism to the insanity of Austrian economics. At some point, my fellow socialists need to recognize the usefulness of people of faith for both the revolution and for serving both the least among us and our youth.

That will happen as the Church stops damning Marx out of hand, who reacted to the role of religion in maintaining the patriarchy of feudalism, and would likely still be reacting to the Church’s fear of feminity, from its sacred continence (which denigrates sexuality) to refusing female ordination and birth control. It was easier for the Church to ignore Marx before his predictions on trade and capitalism started coming true, as well as his straight on atheism. When the left actually starts pointing out the sins of the hierarchy it is harder to ignore what they say. When mutual rejectionism ends, common cause can be found. Even Marxist kids like a nameday cake.

This is possible if the anti-Vatican II revolution wears out. There are still bishops who resist and they will soon be in the minority, an ever shrinking one. The average age of the laity that props them up does not bode well for the forces of reaction in the Church. Any traditionalism will either be personal or will meet the needs of the majority, including those chased out by the latest translation of the Roman Missal. We will know when the counter-revolution is over when we begin responding ”and also with you” at Mass. Why mention this faction? Because they are the ones who prop up the economic policy of the current regime. They still have the votes, but it won’t be long until they do not

I hope the Latinos can save the Church. To do that, however, we need to make Catholic education affordable for them, even if it means accepting unions to teach them that are ostensibly pro-choice and how that issue was never about stopping or allowing abortion, but has been used to prevent the kind of unity needed to keep the Church alive and leading in the right ways. Femember that driving wedge into the Democratic base was not NARAL’s idea.

Links for 2/13/18

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/links-21318
MGB:_The Church does speak about the right to organize, especially by employers who are not the Church. The second you suggest that Catholic schools should invite the National Education Association, with its strongly held pro-choice platform, into Catholic schools the response is a deafening no. I would love to see the look on any bishop’s face were he told that his union contract prohibited firing an employee who has married a same-sex spouse. As for particular bishops, I suspect that Whelan has made the acquaintance of those who are most adamant on these issues, as well as being reflexively against the democratic socialism implied in recent Encyclicals on economic justice. Many are in the vanguard of the bishops who held up Donald Trump as a hero of the pro-life movement, with some results in the Midwest.  He can be pardoned for his confusion about what could be called the Republican Catholic Church.

Hillary lost because Black Lives Matter thought they could withhold direct support and not have Trump win. The numbers show that black voters came out as if Kerry were the candidate, no Obama. Any other losses in the Midwest came from arguing about partial birth abortion in the debates rather than mocking the pro-life movement as the Republican Party at prayer. Hillary was running because it was her turn. Most of her potential rivals saw it that way. Bernie did not, but it is now the Bernie core that is going against the traditional machine that sometimes lets a senior member have a what they see as a well deserved turn.

Trump’s misogynistic unfitness for office is fair game, as is his racism. He is a plane crash. You can’t look away. His actions on immigration are the same thing, although he mostly unleashed the hounds, they were already rabid.

It is not just running against Trump, it is running against the members of the House who are actively obstructing any action against him. While it would be lovely for Democrats to adopt a more democratically socialist platform, it won’t help them in the swing districts they need to at least try to send an impeachment trial to the Senate (under the Speakership of Mrs. Clinton).

Philosophy and Theology Departments are quite linked at many Catholic Universities. Many of them still live in fear of the CDF going after their latest book. It was not that long ago when they forced out Fr. Curran over teachings on Masturbation, even though what he was saying was reflecting what was happening in Confessional. How is Catholic Philosophy going to speak truth to power when it cannot even speak truth to its misguided bishops? There is absolutely no rationale for not ordaining women using philosophical reasoning. Without resorting to superstition, it is a slam dunk to do so, yet the hierarchy will cry foul for even making a free throw on the subject. We need more free thinking within the Church before it can rise up and fill the role of public philosopher. Indeed, the kind of public philosophy we need probably should not come from anyone with a philosophy or theology degree. It is time to look outside the club.

Theology of the people critical to understanding Francis

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/theology-people-critical-understanding-francis
MGB:_The Theology of the People is seated as much in Jesus’ theme of the Kingdom of God as it is an echoing of Vatican II, which itself tried to rescue theology from the Holy Office. The Kingdom of God is not a reward for the sufferings of the poor, but a spirituality for this life. It is certainly not Marxist, but neither is real Marxism. Marx and Engels had an elevator speech version which was used for radicalization, but the real thing is more Hegelian, carrying with it the long-term radicalization of the people rather than revolution. The Theology of the People talks of the same inevitability, but it is more immediate and therefore more useful. Both have the view that the poor can get along just fine without the rich if, they are treated justly, a concept that conservatives and traditionalists have no hope of grasping. It is hard for them to reach the Kingdom of God.

No paradigm shifts, Weigel says -- but church history is full of them

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/no-paradigm-shifts-weigel-says-church-history-full-them
MGB:_Revelation comes whenever the Spirit of Prophesy prompts someone to challenge a conservative cleric saying ”Are you kidding me?” John the Divine was not the last Apostle. Any who witnessed the Resurected Lord, with the bishops carrying on for them and through the Sacrements any who speak in the Holy Spirit or with the Lord in Communion. Public revelation may be ended, but only a certain type. Truth still flows through people who have faith in God, usually challenging those who prize faith in the human Church as the way to obey God. Weigal is almost first among the latter and many of us wish you would simply ignore his nonsense.

Amoris is not a paradigm shift so much so much as recognizing the shift that has been occuring in parish life since at least the mid-80s, if not before, when priests quietly absolved people in irregular marriages and welcomed them back to Communion. It has continued since then, just ask my former mother-in-law who was troubled by people who talked like Weigal and whose second marriage was blessed (her ex-had died, her current husband’s ex had not).

Anyone who has taken a high school or college history of the Sacraments course knows there are paradigm shifts in the Church. Weigel won’t admit to a paradigm shift because he won’t acknowledge the counter-revolutionary nature of St. John Paul II’s papacy or that Pius IX and X were abberations of authoritarianism in the life of the Church. You can be a hierarchist, but despotism goes too far in the name of Pope Rocky (see Wills on the joke in the name).

Humanae Vitae simplyh reveals the crisis of asexual clergy in the Church that goes back to Augustine’s Neo-Platonism, which admittedly traces to the sexual piety of St. Paul, who was readying us all for the Parousia that may never come except as a personal revelation in the Sacraments and at death. Until we ordain married men and women, both gay and straight, the peculiar sexuality of the clergy will contiue to infect the Church with a bad paradigm.

Links for 2/8/18

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/links-2818
MGB:_Freedom of commerce requires some degree of equal access because it is a Positive right granted by the state. Freedom of speech is an inherent negative right. Lines need to be drawn and not forcing the printing of a tee shirt is probably where this occurs. Some shirts with fighting words should never be allowed. God Hates Fags is one of them.

I suspect the Senate compromise will pass and Trump will sign it. There may even be an immigration bill that goes in separately. I expect lots of must pass legislation will get done soon so that when the Mueller report comes out we can all have a nice national crisis.

I suspect Mrs. Hartnett-White would not have been able to handle the rough and tumble of Washington without the shelter global warmth of the Koch embrace.

Fr. Gonzalez should be able to get a Visa as a missionary without having to home or wait to get it. So should all students who would otherwise be eligible for a student Visa and graduates who could get an H-1B without worrying about caps. This should not be hard. How we deal with their parents is another matter, but maybe changing NAFTA to Canadian standards could keep them here with the clock starting now to be able to get a green card would thread the needle.

The government is not a construction company, although if the bipartisan Senate bill passes the money will be there to hire one. It is hard to know where to start when you have nowhere near enough to help everyone. It is easier when no one will be asking why someone else went first.

Francis on ecclesial universities rooted in Vatican II, but clearly Francis

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/francis-ecclesial-universities-rooted-vatican-ii-clearly-francis
MGB:_Let us be clear at the outset that Christ as Word is not something to be imposed, delivered or brought from on high but someone to be encounted. The Dogma and Doctrine, University, Council and Church may point us in the direction of Christ as Truth, but we must encounter that Truth for ourselves. Those who would impose that encounter upon us on their terms are like the Sadducees of old presenting a dead thing. Truth is meant to live in our hearts and, through them, the world, enlived by the Spirit, which is Love and the Father, which is Beauty. Clergy and Theologians can lead us there and University and Church can celebrate our journey, which others have walked, but not in exactly the same way.

Francis seems to grasp the need for encounter in the first point, or maybe I have grasped it from him. We seem to be in sync on number two as well. Some Trads are not going to like either. They strike back in point three, or rather Francis sends them an olive branch. Our common humanity demands point four, which would bother Mr. Trump if he were smart enough to pay attention. We must also reach out to our absent members who left the Catholic Academy under less fortunate circumstances, usually because they were right. Perhaps Fr. Curran can finally come back and be listened to about the triviality of the Church’s teaching about Masturbation.

I have no qualms about Francis reengaging in Revelation and prior doctrine, for regardless of its restatement, Truth is always encounted differently in each generation. What has needed to be discarded largely has been, but not entirely. I am heartened that when I am an old man, God willing, the Pope, the bishops and most pastors will be Millenials and yet the Church will survive because it will change. The Spirit was promised to give life, not consistency.

Links for 2/6/18

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/links-2618
MGB:_You must have a car to buy groceries, even if you order them from the store someone must deliver them and often that person is an Uber driver. There are people who own cars because they drive Uber or Lyft. Many find that to be worth it rather than driving a Taxi.

Ryan believes in Rand, whose economics glorifies employers and asset holders as more essential than workers and consumers, which flows from Hayek and the Austrians, Neitzsche and Burke. It takes no moral courage to defend the wealthy. This gives us asset bubbles in oil futures, mortgage securities, stock and Bitcoin. Instead of growth, we get asset inflation and eventual market crashes. 2008, here we come!

Were Poles included in the SS? Did the camps use civil servants? These are matters for historians, but the nationalists should not be able to ban the truth where it is found.

Solidarity is the solution for both usury and monopsony, both of which are features of capitalism. Employee-owned firms and cooperatives need to have workers control the means of consumption, especially regarding money and credit.,

Alabama has a pro-choice Democratic Senator. The question is not recruiting pro-life candidates in Red States, but in explaining how much a scam the opposition to Roe really is. The 20 week ban is a start down that road, but it is missing many elements to being something that can pass (maybe 20, maybe 25, add $1000 per month child tax credit and authorize the ban in the 14th Amendment, thus ending the discussion).

I am all for maximizing shareholder value if employees and retirees hold all the shares and effectively control them. Then it is not only Davos Man but Cambridge Man that will find themselves extinct.

The Nunes memo has been one great exercise in propaganda

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/nunes-memo-has-been-one-great-exercise-propaganda
MGB:_The problem is that Trump believes the propaganda he sees on FoxNews, as do his Tea Party Alt Right supporters. Trump is desparate to believe that a bad FISA warrant might trigger some sort of exclusonary rule that ends the case. His lawyers might even believe that. He needs real lawyers. One of them, James Sukolow, promised the pro-life movement that he could write the Amicus that got Roe overturned in the Carhart case. Not even two recent Bush appointees voted with him. I am sure this fiasco is the result of the same kind of over-promise. I don’t think our institutions are in any danger from this Clown Cart of attorneys, theobviously incompentent Chairman Nunes and Speaker Ryan or the angy old people who keep FoxNews on all day. None of these will stop Democrats in November.

Thing is, Trump thinks he can get off. The election violations are all FEC fines. The Foreign Corrupt Practices violations could be jail but will likely be fines (Trump is dead to rights on both). The clumsey attepts at obstruction likely will earn him censure. It is the hint of a deal between blocking the Russian sanctions and Russian money laundering that gets him. Trump probably thought he just really got great deals in dealing with the Oligarchs. He did not know he or someone in his family is in their pockets and because he is behind lifting the sanctions the arrow points to him. Unless he throws Eric, Don, Jr., Ivanka and/or Jared under the bus and pleads not only ignorance but idiocy (even if true), he can’t blame the case on FISA warrants. Any asset manager with a computer (like Fusion GPS pre Steele) can demonstrate De Novo that these deals were fishy. Whether this is enough to get GOP leaders to get Trump to resign before or after November is hard to say. Harder is whether enough GOP Senators will turn or stay away from a trial in the Senate to get a conviction.

Palestinians are choosing their self-defeating way

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/palestinians-are-choosing-their-self-defeating-way
MGB:_The first two points reflect ancient history, not current events, and scholars of the 67 war have honest disagreements as to who wanted that war the most. As for dehumanization, Israeli Arabs and Palestinians are not allowed first class citizenship in Israel, even though the latter are an essential labor force. More importantly, the IDF does practice torture against Palestinians in its custody and they blow up houses of those believed to be terrorists. Corruption of blood is always a dehumanizing act, in this case worthy of the the KKK. If Trump ordered the destruction of the homes of MS-13 gang members, would you consider that to be dehumanization?

Interesting to bring up textbooks. The Israeli books seem to advocate how to be more gentle tyrants. That is digging in for the long haul. No wonder Hamas is too. It would be good if the Arabs and Palestinians found their MLK, however the IDF would likely blow up his house.

Either make Israeli Arabs and Palestinians full citizens (with an Arab PM) with no walls and no military occupation or start serious boundary negoations, including in the north. People of good will won’ stand for the current aparthied state.

Links for 2/1/18

https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/distinctly-catholic/links-2118
MGB:_There are some health care procedures, like voluntary abortion, which individual health workers should be able to opt out of, although usually this is not an issue because most hospitals don’t offer such services. It is less clear when the abortion is medically necessary to save the mother or preserve her health because the baby is destined to be stillborn. In an emergency, no one should put their moral scruples ahead of their patient’s survival, although most doctors will allow an objector to step out without reprisal. This issue is much more about symbolism than actual events. As birth control, including Plan B, I don’t think a Pharmacist who does not understand what happens at Gastrulation should be working.

There are two Churchill movies from the past year. The first was a hit job, the second hagiography. I simply passed on seing either. I put reading Chaput and Pio Nono stories on the same list. I will look at pieces about the Jews, although while I grant that the Holocaust and the Church’s anti-semetism is a good reason for Israle to exist, it provides no excuse to making it an Aparthied state. That the Polish government is scratching the same fascist impuse of denialism for their involvement in the camps is similarly disgusting.

Libertarianism is long baptized among the reactionaries within the Catholic Church, whether it be among pro-lifers or capitalists. The social libertarians never seem to be invited to the Busch School or covered in the Register. Of course the Kochs have money and get benefits for it. The benefits of social liberty go to everyone, regardless of wealth. Whatever the Kochs are currently buying, that is where the next asset bubble will be. No matter how much it looks good, don’t buy it.

Grandparents are important, especially when a marriage fails and the parent with children needs refuge. On the other hand, inlaws are notorious for breaking up the marriages of their children. I have a bit of personal experience in this, as do my ex-wife’s siblings. Our Lord even mentioned breakingn away from families of origin when he spoke about divorce, so this is not a recent thing.