Posts

Pope Continues to Teach against Authoritarianism

Thanks be to God for Pope Francis! I continue to enjoy his homilies and he often has articulations of concepts that have irked me for a while. He said in his homily today (asianews.it): God save us from the “hegemonic uniformity ” of the “one line of thought” Amen. For too long I’ve been irritated about the…

Read More...

Brain Death and the Harvesting of Human Organs

by Patrick Laurence  Introduction: It’s true today that everything has a value on the market, but does that mean we can easily take the value of our organs? If you’ve donated your organs, doesn’t it make some tension over whether you are dead when they take those organs? The Bellarmine Forum is pleased to welcome…

Read More...

Bishop Paprocki is Stealing their happiness? !

You’ve seen the headlines by now:  Bishop Paprocki of Springfield diocese is going to perform an exorcism at the same time as the Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois signs a bill into law that enacts so-call marriages between persons of the same sex (as if that were possible anywhere in God’s creation). The story is…

Read More...

From Under the Rubble…The Selective Indignation of the Moralistic Left

“Sharpton, Matthews Blast Virginia’s Racist Voters” (Recent Headline, MSNBC News) Oh, you didn’t see that one? Don’t worry. Neither did I. I made it up. I’m sorry. Among all the commentary addressing the recent election results in Virginia, the Rubble notes a profound silence regarding an issue that usually haunts the imagination of professional moralizers….

Read More...

How the Local Greeks Commented on the Weeping Icon

I have not found or heard further news on the Icon of St. Michael that had been weeping in Greece. I have found a few comments from Greeks there about the weeping icon. Said the priest at the Church home to the icon:  “it is a message for all of us that we must be…

Read More...

Until the Choir Sings “Amen” – One Easy Secret to a Happy Death

“Life is a play in which for a short time one man represents a judge, another a general, and so on; after the play no further account is made of the dignity which each one had.” –St. John Chrysostom It’s that time of year when we ought to have been focused on the eleventh and…

Read More...

Footnote 53: Census Welfare

https://media.blubrry.com/bellarmineforumfootnote/bellarmineforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Bellarmine-Forum-Foonote-53-census-welfare-110613-df.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadThe Census Bureau reports that the number of Americans receiving means-tested welfare benefits is greater than the number who work full time. Should the Catholic church take note?

Read More...

Can the Bishops even do as Peter tells them?

For the lengthy and flowery flourishes appropriate of a Papal Nuncio’s address to a pack of Bishops, there is one phrase in there that I wish would have been the only phrase: [Pope Francis’s] own deepest hope today for the pastors of the Church in America, as well as for all the pastors of the…

Read More...

Common Core and Catholic Education

Catholic Education Daily recently broke the news that The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – criticized in pro-life circles for its “family planning” grant program encouraging the use of contraceptives in developing countries – paid the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) more than $100,000 to support teacher training and materials on implementing the Common Core…

Read More...

Fire From Heaven and St. Michael’s Tears

Somewhere in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty there is claimed to have been placed a plaque inscribed with a passage from the sonnet The New Colossus written by Emma Lazarus.  The passage compares the two bronze statues for purpose: Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land…

Read More...