This is the third in my series of ruminations on Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, the second great papal encyclical on Catholic social teaching. Follow these links to find Part I and Part II. This week we read paragraphs 76 to 110, which includes discussions on social organization and the state, and then a brutal denunciation of what I have come to term real existing capitalism–i.e., the global capitalist system that had arisen the in 19th century and by... Read more
In this post I continue my ruminations on Quadragesimo Anno (QA), by Pope Pius XI. You can read the first part here. This past week we read paragraphs 40-75. (Actually, we also read 31-39, but those paragraphs, about workers associations in Rerum Novarum (RN) link more naturally to the material discussed previously.) This is the beginning of a very dense section where Pius XI begins to expand and update the basic argument from RN. He first begins in paragraphs 40-43... Read more
My reading group, having finished Rerum Novarum (see Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV) has moved on to the second great encyclical of Catholic social teaching, Quadragesimo Anno (hereafter QA), written by Pope Pius XI in 1931. Though expressly building on the arguments made by Leo XIII, this is a very different encyclical in many ways. One of the first things we noted is that the world had changed considerably since 1891. The industrial revolution, while having been... Read more
Two weeks ago Abby Johnson posted a video to YouTube and her Twitter feed in which she defended racial profiling and made an extended argument blaming the problems of the Black community on the breakdown of the Black family and on absent Black fathers. The video was later taken down from Twitter and was made private on YouTube. A copy was posted to YouTube, but was removed because of a copyright complaint from Abby Johnson. However, another copy may be... Read more
I want to apologize: I started this earlier in the week, but was unhappy with where it was going. I went to save it, but I apparently published an incomplete draft. The following is a substantially revised version of what appeared on June 26. DCU This is my fourth and final post on Rerum Novarum; you can find the previous posts at Part I, Part II, and Part III. This final discussion was quite lively, as I kicked it off... Read more
Just a note to thank all of our readers for their continued presence on Vox Nova blog. We recently received our check from Patheos, and this time we have donated the funds to Catholic Relief Services to support communities affected by the pandemic. Read more
This is a continuation of my reflections and ramblings on Rerum Novarum. You can read the previous two posts in Part I and Part II. Our discussion got off to an interesting start. One of the women who belongs to the reading group called attention to a number of references to women and gender roles that sound, frankly, sexist to modern ears. For instance, we have the categorical declaration that Women, again, are not suited for certain occupations; a woman... Read more
To follow up on my post from last week containing my open letter to Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of Columbus, I want to link to a column by Fr. Peter Daly, a retired priest in Washington DC. He writes for the National Catholic Reporter, and his anger at what the KofC did (or did not do) is palpable, leading to his very public resignation from the Knights. Here is a sampler: I’m done! I’m done with the Knights of Columbus.... Read more
In this blog post I continue my random thoughts and reflections on Rerum Novarum, the first Papal encyclical on what came to be called Catholic Social Teaching. The first part, with some background details, can be found here. I initially thought to keep editing and adding to that post (which is what I said there) but I decided that it made more sense to create a new blog post for each set of reflections. Last week my reading group focused... Read more
As you may be aware, on Tuesday, June 2, President Trump visited the national shrine of St. John Paul II, which is run (or at least financially supported by) the Knights of Columbus. This visit came on the heels of his controversial photo-op in front of St. John’s Episcopal in Washington DC, a visit which was preceded by the tear-gassing and forcible removal of non-violent demonstrators, including the pastor of St. John’s. The visit the shrine was a ill-disguised campaign... Read more
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