Welcome to Distinctly Catholic, a blog by Michael Sean Winters that examines politics, religion and the estuary where the two meet, all from a distinctively Catholic point of view. The blog is small "c" catholic as well as big "C" Catholic, examining a wide range of issues but always from the perspective of Catholic history and theology.
George Weigel’s newest book, Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church, is not without certain moments of lucidity, but fundamentally the text fails to deliver on what the title promises. Yes, he includes buckets of proposals for reform, but not all have anything to do with the Gospel and many are not exactly deep.
Distinctly Catholic: The problem with the president's new budget is not this proposal or that. It runs deeper, encompassing all of his time spent in office.
Yesterday, NCR’s Morning Briefing called attention to an article in the Detroit Free Press regarding recent statements by Detroit’s Archbishop Allen Vigneron and Mr. Ed Peters, a canon lawyer, who teaches at Detroit’s seminary and is a consultor to the Vatican Apostolic Signatura, regarding the issue of those who support same sex marriage presenting themselves for communion. Both men made deeply troubling remarks.
Father Zuhlsdorf, when he is not lamenting the new pope's choice of attire and liturgical style, likes to throw down a challenge to us here at NCR, as he did in this article reporting on Pope Francis' homily the other day. Pope Francis asked the congregation if their faith was strong and, quite rightly, said that we should not negotiate the faith away.
James Hohmann, at Politico, makes the case that libertarianism is going mainstream. This is the scariest development in contemporary American politics and members of both political parties need to be on the alert, especially Catholics. You may find yourself agreeing with this or that policy, but the problem with libertarianism is at the root: When they say "human person," they understand that differently from the way orthodox Christians do.
Towards the end of his interview with Pat Buchanan on this week’s installment of “The World Over,” host Raymond Arroyo bemoaned the removal of a picture of Jesus from a southern Ohio public school where the picture had hung since 1947. Arroyo noted that the picture was set amongst other photos of prominent people like governors and senators.
The new pope has indicated several times that he does not want the Church to be "self-referential." If you are not sure what he means by that, I refer you to the blog of Father Zuhlsdorf where he addresses a question from a reader: "Is it a sin to fast during the octave of Easter?" That is what is meant by a self-referential Church.
This article at Politico puts a smile on one's face. Conservatives like Grover Norquist are coming forward to voice their support for comprehensive immigration reform, hoping to provide cover for GOP members of Congress from the attacks being thrown by the talk-radio crowd. Then, you come across this paragraph:
Anyone who thought the economy had nothing but smooth sailing ahead got a wake-up call this morning when the Department of Labor reported that the U.S. economy added only 88,000 new jobs last month. No doubt the sequestration at the beginning of March had something to do with this, not only because government hiring is essentially frozen but because the uncertainty surrounding the sequester has re-introduced a measure of fear in the private sector as well.
The other day a friend reminded me that the filing deadline for official comments on the
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