The Diabolical – “Following a sermon by Archbishop Fulton Sheen, Edward Feser examines the elements which have governed the modern age, and he charts a postliberal path for putting this diabolical modernity behind us.” The Devil’s in the Details of Modernity (Postliberal Order – Substack)
Iran and the Destruction of Iraqi Christians – “Iran poses an existential threat to Iraq’s sovereignty and the survival of Christians and other religious minorities in the region. Decades of war, unrest and widespread persecution have devastated Iraqi Christian communities, now comprising just 1% of Iraq’s total population.” Iran’s Strategic Shift to Iraq and the Crisis for Religious Minorities (Providence Magazine)
Catholic Witness in Muslim Morocco – ” In Morocco’s Muslim-majority culture, the Catholic community endures with humility, steadfast in its witness to Christ.” Living the Catholic Faith in the Heart of Muslim Morocco (National Catholic Register)
Trans State Machinery – I’m the mother of an estranged, gender-confused minor child. I haven’t seen her for years, and Oregon state law has allowed and enabled it. The trans cult has taken my daughter away from me in Oregon (The Christian Post)
Opportunities and Challenges – “In a panel conversation moderated this evening by Francis X. Maier, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, Archbishop Paul Coakley, and I were asked ‘to offer our hopes and thoughts about what we need now as a Church in light of the new Leo pontificate …” Life Illumined: What Now? (Coram Fratribus Intellexi)
Classic Critique of Communism – “Animal Farm reveals why every communist revolution follows the same tragic pattern: liberation to corruption to oppression. Here are 10 truths from Animal Farm Orwell warned us never to forget.” (Today in History – X)
Studying the Holy Spirit – “If the years prior to Vatican II were somewhat lean pneumatologically, in the years since the Council there has been a veritable explosion of appeals to the Spirit, often not only thin in their theology, but also indeterminate in their reference.” The Two Hands of God (What We Need Now – Substack)
Human-AI Relationships – “The late Ozzy Osbourne sang in 1980 about ‘going off the rails on a crazy train.’ Forty-five years later, if anything has gone off the rails, it’s the crazy train of AI.” Can AI’s Crazy Train Be Derailed? Christian AI Efforts Seek to Shape Emerging Tech (The Washington Stand)
(*The posting of any particular news item or essay is not an endorsement of the content and perspective of said news item or essay.)
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@ The Diabolical
A necessary read. About modernism, Edward Feser cites the three temptations of Christ and then (about modernity) points to the alternative three theological virtues: faith over scientism, hope over economism, and charity over individualism.
#5 Opportunities and Challenges
Nice article. Who is the speaker/writer?
This is Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim, Norway. He is a Cistercian monk (have also seen him called a Trappist). Even before he becane a bishop, he was known for his spiritual writings and online reflections, published on his blog Coram Fratibus and elsewhere.
Bishop Varden has become a significant influence on me through his online weekly series of reflections on the Desert Fathers and Mothers, Desert Fathers In A Year, which was profiled here earlier this year. He has a thoughtful and thought-provoking perspective that seems simultaneously fresh yet deeply grounded in Catholic tradition–which is a difficul5 balancing act. And he can be mildly provocative because of his less-familiar perspectives–for instance, his remark that “There were splendid initiatives [in Vatican II]; but we know no less what quarrels emerged, locking Catholic discourse in confrontations between so-called ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ positions, unedifying clashes — and almost invariably dull” certainly attracted attention. Some reacted to his characterization of the familiar Vatican II disputes as “dull” and of little interest to younger Catholics, while others reacted to his positive characterizations of Vatican II’s “splendid initiatives” and the “council’s great gifts.”
Bishop Varden has had a big influence on my spiritual development in recent months, and to my mind, blog is well worth reading.
“The trans cult has taken my daughter away from me in Oregon”
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And I read that a midwife in B.C., Canada is being fined $94,000. for claiming in online platforms that there are real biological differences between men & women & only women should access female only spaces. I don’t have direct quotes of what she stated on those platforms, perhaps there was something objectively offensive or perhaps not, but we can certainly take our right of free speech for granted here in the States. It doesn’t work the same way in other nations.
mrscracker: I would come right out and say it: There is no freedom of speech in Canada, the UK, France and pretty much the rest of Europe. These countries masquerade as if they protected freedom of speech but we know better. That is why the USA needs to stay out of wars provoked by European nations….why would we defend the indefensible. If there any more protection of free speech in Europe than there is in North Korea, Nicaragua, Vietnam, China, Russia, Iran etc? Don’t think so.
There are some protections, DR but not as we enjoy here. I’ve seen free speech cases in the UK resolved appropriately but not before the defendant was dragged through all kinds of court nonsense & hardship. I think it’s really more to make an example of them in order to discourage others from speaking up.
There is an article in the UK newspaper The Telegraph today, titled “Britain is no longer the country we Americans thought it was”, by Simon Hankinson. The summary: Perhaps Brits don’t realise how bad UK restrictions on speech have got. Take US criticism on board before Orwell’s warnings come true
The article begins:
“Every year, the US Department of State releases a report on human rights practices in other countries (CRHRP). One of my first assignments as a political officer at the US embassy was to coordinate and edit one country report.
Not surprisingly, certain governments sometimes take issue with how their policies are characterised in the CRHRP.”
Another excerpt:
But this year, the Country Report on the UK flags Britain as a risky place to speak your mind. The CRHRP claims that “the human rights situation worsened in the United Kingdom during the year,” citing “credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression, including enforcement of or threat of criminal or civil laws in order to limit expression; and crimes, violence, or threats of violence motivated by anti-Semitism.
The report notes restrictions on speech – even silent meditation – near abortion clinics, and the Online Safety Act’s curtailment of internet speech, policed by Ofcom. It calls out government censorship of speech deemed misinformation or “hate speech”, including in relation to migrants and crimes committed by foreign nationals.”
You can find all of the current CRHRP documents here. United Kingdom is the link for Britain.
U.S. Department of State: 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
It’s a terrible shame what’s happening in the UK, Mr. Flynn. Some British are taking notice though. There’s hope.
Taking our freedom of speech for granted is the fastest way to lose it. It has been under assault from both parties for many years.
I agree, Outis. Whatever we take for granted can slip away before we take notice.
Based on the past few decades, it is the USA that poses an existential threat to Iraq’s sovereignty and the survival of Christians and other religious minorities in the region. You can believe, if you like, that all this was done with the very BEST of intentions (a benefit you might only extend America and a handful of other countries), but the effects are obvious, and the causes run right through the White House.
@ The Diabolical
“Third, arriving at universal rules or principles, governing our actions and our interactions with each other, that everyone can agree on”, is a double entendre. Either we are in pursuit of a natural law that all men possess within, or a fabricated principle based on shared sentiment [as discussed by Alasdair MacIntyre in After Virtue].
Feser discusses this third feature, its similarity in both Boulter and Guess arriving at shared “consent [that] is the central ideal of liberal democracy”. Feser in this distinguishes the spiritual order from the sensual, the latter with its deleterious, disordered effects on the human psyche, the behavioral transgressions that indicate the diabolic, at least what the diabolical means in its ordinary existential manifestations.
Good! Let’s make sure that the lessons regarding Animal Farm are ONLY about Communism, rather than being best exemplified by Communism. Let’s avoid any consideration of whether the country that invented the phrase “all men are created equal” has ever been guilty of making some more equal than others, let alone if it is trending in the right direction. Let’s feel glad that we don’t live in a police state that spies on its own citizens, that exports only virtue, that has never lost a battle, let alone a war, and that is the only nation to peacefully transfer power from one party to another. Years ago, I heard a Baptist preacher say that the US is the only nation in the world that has never fought a war of territorial expansion; let’s go with that.
The best kind of moral lessons are the ones that apply only to other people and that make you feel superior to them!
Quite the bigoted little tirade today. I’ll take life in the United States any day over any place on earth, despite it’s flaws. We are a work in progress. All things considered, the world is a better place with us in it.
@ Studying the Holy Spirit
Vat II opened the Catholic mind to the Holy Spirit as attested by Fr Imbelli. Our Christology as such suffered inasmuch as the essential person of the Trinity was neglected. To understand the dynamic of love within the persons of the Trinity is to better comprehend Christ. For example, John says God is Love.
Augustine On The Trinity writes what they all share in their communion is Love, Love from Father to Son, and the converse. We identify that love as the Holy Spirit. It is through and in that love conveyed within and by the Spirit of Love that we form a perfect community of love. Imbelli recognizes this communion as the work of the Spirit. As such, communion in the Spirit forms the mystical body of Christ known primarily by the love we have for each other.
St John of the Cross in The Living Flame of Love speaks to the love of the Spirit of Father and Son conveyed to the contemplative. As we come to better appreciate the depth of Christ’s love in his passion, the realization of that love within us is returned to God, offering God that perfect love in a trinitarian form of loving exchange.