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Vatican on the death of Osama bin Laden

This comes from the Catholic News Service on May 2, the day after President Obama announced the execution of Osama bin Laden.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, released a brief written statement reacting to the news.

"Osama bin Laden, as we all know, bore the most serious responsibility for spreading divisions and hatred among populations, causing the deaths of innumerable people, and manipulating religions to this end," Father Lombardi said.

"In the face of a man's death, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious responsibilities of each person before God and before men, and hopes and works so that every event may be the occasion for the further growth of peace and not of hatred," the spokesman said.

Political, SpiritualityMichael GormleyMay 11, 2011Death, Vatican, terrorism

moral short cuts and legislation

Chesterton once accused the Puritans "Not of having too much morality, but too little." It seems to me that the neoPuritans, those secular busybodies that try to legislate their version of good and clean living, are stricken with the same malody.

It is not that they have a robust morality that provides vision, energy, and purpose to human life, but that they have a weak and feable structure, hardly capable of being principled, ordered, or systematic. In order to buttress up their little morality they attempt moral short cuts, the biggest of which is federal legislation.

Lobbying for laws against all things that they deem bad, unfit, or unhealthy, they seek to impose a grand appearance of their morality, but it becomes, like Bilbo Baggins so artfully said, "thin. Sort of stretched, like butter scrapped over too much bread." It is thin, and thus prone to distortions, corruptions, and ripple-effects that were unintended, but necessarily follow.

NeoPuritans try to take moral short cuts. They want the nation to be better, so instead of convincing every man, woman, and child to be better, they simply legislate away those things they believe are making our country worse. They think that national policy and law make people better versions of themselves because it saves them from themselves.

Morality, PoliticalMichael GormleyApril 14, 2011Morality, Puritanism, law

marriage, society, and my friend Chris

My friend Chris, a conservative law school student, was at a conference for the political and legal protection of traditional marriages. It is a pretty famous group that supports the Christian conception of marriage. At this particular conference the main issue was gay marriage and how to legally defeat it in the several states.

At one point there was a Q and A session where attendees could ask questions and make comments to the presenters. My friend Chris is a lot of things, one of them is not shy. He is what you call "confrontational" and also "fearless" and "thoroughly Catholic."

So at this conference filled with mostly Christians and other social conservatives of every stripe, he takes to the microphone and addresses one of the speakers who criticized gay marriage as the "undoing of the meaning of marriage in society".

He said: "Marriage is not just about a union between a man and a woman. It is that, but it is also about the procreation and education of children. That's the 'meaning' of marriage: babies and bonding with your spouse. I think, if we are going to be honest, we have to see that use of contraception within marriage was really the 'undoing' of marriages, because it separated babies from the sexual act altogether. No-fault divorce, remarriage, and all the rest are results from the widespread acceptance of contraception in marriage."

The place was silent.

Pope quotes on war

Morality, PoliticalMichael GormleyMarch 28, 2011Pope John Paul II, War

Blessed are the peacemakers...

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” Matthew 5:9

It is hard to talk openly about war being just or unjust while your own country happens to be in the middle of one (or two, or five). But, hey, if Christianity were easy, everyone would be doing it.

War is a tricky thing because, though most of the humanity’s dark history is filled with unjust and evil wars, every single one of those wars had people cheering them on, justifying them with all sorts of clever rationalizations and emotionally charged propaganda.

That means we Catholics need to be on our A game when it comes to this whole “Just War” idea, so that we are not caught on the wrong side of God’s desire for peace and thirst for justice.

Morality, PoliticalMichael GormleyMarch 21, 2011War, justice, pro-life

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