Chicago Tribune's Calumny against Cardinal Francis George

"A Calumny against the Cardinal", says George Weigel:

It would be difficult to imagine a more mindless misrepresentation of the right relationship of church and state in these United States than that proffered by the Chicago Tribune on April 3, in a vicious editorial and accompanying op-ed column attacking the local Catholic archbishop, Cardinal Francis George.

Doug Kmiec debates George Weigel over Notre Dame

... in the Chicago Tribune:

• "Notre Dame's common ground", by Doug Kmiec.
• "The university's egregious error", by George Weigel.

I have to say, Kmiec suprises me in the lengths he will go to spin Obama's position on abortion:

... the Catholic Church is the foremost defender of unborn life, and properly, uncompromising about it. Obama is more pragmatic, accommodating other religious and scientific views that see the origin point of life differently.

The last time I checked, there was little scientific dispute about what happens upon fertilization. The result of conception is a human life (how could it be anything other?)

Weigel in rebuttal:

It is important to remember, however, that the Catholic defense of the right to life is not a matter of arcane or esoteric Catholic doctrine: You don't have to believe in the primacy of the pope, in seven sacraments, in Mary's assumption into heaven, in the divine and human natures of Christ—you don't even have to believe in God—to take seriously the Catholic claim that innocent human life has an inalienable dignity and value that demands the protection of the laws. For that claim is not a uniquely Catholic claim; it reflects a first principle of justice that anyone can grasp, irrespective of their religious convictions or lack thereof.

George Weigel on Henry Hyde

"He was the most consequential Catholic legislator of his time."

 

Go read the whole very personal account.

Weigel on Sen Kennedy and Justice Alito

That a man of transparent integrity and competence should be subjected to scurrilous innuendo about his probity and his skill is bad enough, not least when such groundless suggestions come for the senior senator from Massachusetts, who seemingly cannot enunciate a coherent, grammatically correct English sentence without reading from a staff-written cue card. But then Senator Edward Kennedy outdid himself with this charge, the week before the Senate vote: "Judge Alito does not share the values of equality and justice that make this country strong."

That is a lie. To be precise, it's that form of lie known as calumny, which, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, is an offense against both justice and charity, because false statements that harm the good name and reputation of others give rise to false judgments about them. Perhaps the good citizens of Massachusetts owe the rest of us an apology for returning to the Senate a blustering bully who is dishonest in a particularly odious way?

The Contribution of John Paul the Great to Catholic Social Teaching

In a recent talk in Michigan, theologian George Weigel, well-known as biographer of John Paul the Great, spoke about the social teaching of the Church. He specifically spoke about the contributions of John Paul the Great ("JPG"). Weigel gave an overview of JPG's contribution encyclical by encyclical. Here is the overview, with my comments interspersed.

1. Laborem Exercens (1981): Here JPG presented a view of work that contrasts to the view of work as merely punishment for sin. For JPG, work is the expression of human creativity which participates in God's sustaining creative power. Interestingly, in today's world, some analysts are focusing on the new economy in which work is more about human creativity than about making durable goods.

2. Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987): In this encyclical, JPG affirmed the right of economic initiative, a right linked to the theme of work as creativity.

3. Centesimus Annus (1991): This encyclical, written to mark the centenary of Leo XIII's landmark social encyclical Rerum Novarum, is, in Weigel's words, a "big leap." Weigel notes six great themes in this document:

a. A free and virtuous society consists of three interlocking parts: a democratic political community; a free economy; and a vigorous public moral culture. The key component that directs the rest is a vigorous public moral culture.

b. The Church's vision of the person and of society is necessary to hold democracy and the market to account. Democracy and the market are not "machines" that can run on their own without moral guidance.

c. Freedom is not willfulness. Genuine freedom is not about doing whatever you choose to will.

d. Voluntary, non-governmental associations represent the "subjectivity of society" and are essential components of a free society and, in fact, serve as schools of freedom.

e. In an insight now common among many other thinkers, JPG points out that wealth is not just natural resources or land but is primarily tied to entrepreneurial ideas, skills, creativity, and imagination.

f. JPG proposes a new way of thinking of the poor, namely, as persons with potential to be unleashed by including them in the networks where ideas, skills, and entrepreneurial instincts are learned. Weigel views this theme as a strong critique of welfare dependency.

4. Evangelium Vitae (1995): Opposition to abortion is an elementary principle of justice and is not primarily a religious argument. Democracy risks destruction if persons are reduced to categories of utility (as has been done, for example, in American culture in the realm of sexual mores). The life arising from human conception is a human person with a unique genetic identity who is thus entitled to equality before the law. The Church's opposition to abortion and euthanasia will not change. By the way, in the talk, Weigel also noted that the U.S. bishops in 1998 abandoned the "Seamless Garment" metaphor which treated issues like capital punishment as equal in weight to the issue of abortion. The abortion and the euthanasia issues are more fundamental than other issues.

Weigel also added his own view in the talk that there are three big ideas with "global traction" in the world today: 1.) Pragmatic Materialism and Utilitarianism (what reigns supreme today in American culture); 2.) Radical Islam (proposing coercion as an instrument of religious expansionism); and 3.) the Catholic Proposal, which views freedom as the freedom to choose what is true and good and which rejects coercion as a social instrument. The civilized proposal is the Catholic Proposal. It is also the proposal that will lead to human flourishing.