When I think back to the condition of the dormitory bathroom that I shared in college, I still shudder a bit. I haven't checked, but I'm pretty sure it was designated as a Superfund site shortly after graduation. We may not have cleaned it regularly ever, but we shared it, for better and for worse. I don't know if Catholic legal theory has something specific to say about the new trend in dormitory luxury hotel living on college campuses, but I'm pretty sure Charles Taylor would be concerned. Privacy and luxury are the two essentials. Millennials -- facilitated by their boomer parents, I might add -- apparently place a premium on both. (I probably would have too, but nobody gave me the option.) As one 19 year-old student explained, "I've never had to worry about anyone else . . . I've always been alone."
Thursday, September 17, 2009
What do our "dorms" say about us?
Red Mass in Norman, Oklahoma
All lawyers, judges, law students and others associated with the legal profession are invited to the 30th annual Red Mass at St. Thomas More in Norman (corner of Jenkins and Stinson). The Mass is at 5pm this Sunday, Sept. 20 with a wine and cheese reception to follow. MOJ friend Professor Kevin Lee is our honored guest this year.
Rick Garnett gives the right response
That is, "right" as in "correct"! Immediately below.
And thanks, Rick, for putting up with this compulsive tweaker!
Michael Perry asks the wrong question
Because my friend Michael likes to have fun tweaking me, by pretending that my thinking and action when it comes to policy and politics is shaped by a loyalty to "Republicans," or an aversion to "Democrats" (he knows this isn't the case, of course; he's just playing around), he asks, here, whether I'm "ready to join the Democrats on this one [i.e., the "Catholic take on the health-care debate], at least?"
I am, of course, happy to "join the Democrats" on any one that they get right. (For example, given my work and activism in opposition to the death penalty, I would be delighted if the Democrats -- who have commanding majorities in both houses -- showed a little backbone and abolished the federal death penalty. Given my commitment to educational opportunity for the poor, I would be delighted if the Democrats abandoned their hostility to school choice.) But, Michael's question is the wrong one. The right question is, "are the Democrats ready to join the Church on this one", i.e., on the basic propositions that the law ought to protect vulnerable human beings from private violence and, at the very least, that health-care "reform" should not involve public funding of the destruction of such persons or burdens on those who refuse to participate in such destruction. So far, it seems, they are not. Too bad.
A Unique Position for the United States Bishops in the Health Care Debate
I think all of us on this blog agree that everyone should have access to affordable quality health care regardless of economic status, age, or condition of health. The devil, as usual, is in the details. What I fear is that Congress will expend a large amount of time, energy, money, and political capital putting a bandaid on a skinned knee while ignoring the chest wound threatening our nation's health care.
If they have the courage, the nation's Catholic bishops are in a unique position to play a constructive non-partisan role in the debate. Here is what I propose. 1) The bishops invite all Catholic members of Congress (and other members who wish to particpate) to a health care dialogue. 2) The bishops use the opening of the conference to teach on the principle expressed in the first sentence of this blog. 3) They get the assent of all present to the propostion that "everyone should have access to affordable quality health care regardless of economic status, age, or condition of health." 4) They facilitate an in depth discussion across party lines of the preceived problems with health care today. 5) They facilitate an in depth discussion across party lines of the potential solutions to those problems. 6) They offer mass each day of the conference. 7) They have communal meals during the conference.
At the end of the process, I expect that vast disagreements will still exist because "how" to fix the health care system is a matter of prudential judgment. But, hopefully, some barriers will have been broken, a better understanding of the other side's positions will have been achieved, maybe each side will be less suspicious of the other, hopefully some new and creative ideas will have emerged, and these Catholic Democrats and Republicans will have modeled a badly needed format for engaging in vigorous debate in a civil and loving manner.
I can think of no other person or group in the United States other than the United States bishops who can play this role.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Michael Moore, the Catholic Documentarian, on Capitalism
Moore's new documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story, will soon be out. (I'm sure Rick is salivating!) In today's NYT, it is said:
As much as Mr. Moore sometimes plays a comic-book version of class warrior — Left-Thing vs. the Republic of Fear! — his politics are not grounded in class as much as in Roman Catholicism. Growing up in Michigan, he attended parochial school and intended to go into the seminary, inspired by the priests and nuns who ... inherited a long tradition of social justice and activism in the American church.
“The nuns always made a point to take us to the Jewish temple for Passover seders,” he said. “They wanted to make it clear that the Jews had nothing to do with putting Jesus up on the cross.”
Along with a moral imperative, Catholicism also gave a method. Mr. Moore idolized the Berrigan brothers, the radical priests who introduced street theater into their activism, for example, mixing their own napalm to burn government draft records. Their actions were a form of political spectacle that, conceptually, is Marxist — workers seizing means of production and all that — and it influenced some of Mr. Moore’s best-remembered stunts.
Read the rest, here.
Thomas Merton ...
... to whom I dedicated my second book, way back in 1988, and who, I sometimes think, singlehandedly keeps me identifying myself, in spite of everything, as a Roman Catholic, what would you think about this?
Interested in the "Catholic" take on the Health Care Reform Debate?
Of course you are!
Then, check this out:
And here.
What say you, Rick: Ready to join the Democrats on this one, at least?
A great conference in Mexico: "The Lay State and Religious Liberty"
More info here.
The purpose of the symposium is to raise awareness of international religious liberty standards and how they apply to the United States, Latin America, and Mexico. The symposium is also meant to encourage the emerging voices of religious liberty in these countries and to foster collaboration among academics, activists and other creators of culture.
The symposium covers a large range of topics from the application of religious liberty in the international context to specific religious liberty issues in various countries on the American continents. Among the speakers are experts from different countries such as Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Canada, and different distinguished universities in the United States and Mexico.
Congrats to Russ Hittinger
MOJ bloggers and readers are, no doubt, familiar with the work of Prof. Russ Hittinger. I've learned that Russ has recently been named to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, the aim of which is
to promote the study and the progress of the social sciences, primarily economics, sociology, law and political science. The Academy, through an appropriate dialogue, thus offers the Church the elements which she can use in the development of her social doctrine, and reflects on the application of that doctrine in contemporary society.
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