In an effort to break out of the isolation brought on by the pandemic, I followed up on an idea to organize a small reading group on Catholic social teaching (CST), with the aim of reading, in order, all of the Papal encyclicals (plus the occasional exhortation or apostolic letter) on CST. We are going to meet weekly via Zoom, and have begun with the ur-text of CST, Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum. I posted about this great encyclical when... Read more
In 2005, novelist David Foster Wallace gave a university commencement speech that began like this: There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?” Wallace immediately seeks to reassure his... Read more
Vox Nova is pleased to welcome a guest post by Leanne Ogasawara. Joan Didion had it right when she said life in Los Angeles has an apocalyptic quality. She wasn’t just talking about earthquakes and fires that strike like lightning, but we have demon winds that howl in autumn and winter rains that can cause mountains to slide into the sea. She wrote of sleepless nights with “peacocks screaming in the olive trees.” In Pasadena their shrieks can surely... Read more
Greetings from Buffalo, NY, USA. Today begins Passover, and tomorrow begins the Christian Triduum. For many across the world today, these traditions are bittersweet to say the least. As of this writing, the United States – currently the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic – just reported its highest daily death rate yet; in Spain, deaths had declined but are on the rise again. We will not be gathering for public worship this year. While I am fortunate to be spending... Read more
Vox Nova is again pleased to welcome a guest post by Joe Georges As the COVID-19 pandemic expands, one archdiocese or diocese after another has announced the suspension of all public Masses for at least the time being: Seattle, Boston, Oakland, Los Angeles, Washington, DC., Little Rock, Chicago, Santa Fe, Salt Lake City, San Jose. The list has grown nearly every day. And even before Masses were being cancelled, and perhaps churches closed, the faithful were being dispensed from their... Read more
“I didn’t think I’d have to give up this much for Lent,” says a meme that’s been circulating around social media. Though we do not yet know just what will happen, we may be giving up this much for the rest of the year. As the global number of deaths from COVID-19 has surpassed 10,000, I am struck by how quickly the world has changed. Just two weeks ago, I was at a large writers’ conference in San Antonio, Texas,... Read more
Resolved: Hoarding in times of shortage is a mortal sin. Discuss. Read more
The news came this morning. Another idol has fallen from his pedestal. Jean Vanier, a beloved spiritual writer, activist, and the world-renowned founder of L’Arche – an organization that strives to build community and promote the full social inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities – faces allegations of having abused six women over a period of many years. Given the climate we live in, I am disappointed but sadly not surprised. “What a tough time it is to be a... Read more
Vox Nova is pleased to welcome a guest post from long time reader Joseph Georges. More than half of all human fertilizations end in spontaneous abortions at one stage or another – in “miscarriages” if pregnancy ends before the 20th week or in “stillbirths”, as pregnancy losses after the 20th week are generally called. According to a paper by evolutionary geneticist, William Rice, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, “abortion is nearly as common as live-birth for conceptions that... Read more
I’m a member of a Facebook group devoted to St. Therese of Lisieux, and there were a couple of recent posts which were, or could be easily read as, partisan political posts. Those posts quickly – and predictably – became a morass of accusations and assuming bad faith and all the rest, and I can’t imagine there is anyone reading this post that doesn’t know what I mean. There are genuinely important and valid issues to discuss at this point... Read more
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