Mirror of Justice

A blog dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory.
Affiliated with the Program on Church, State & Society at Notre Dame Law School.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

"Our First, Most Cherished Liberty"

By Michael Moreland

The USCCB's Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty has just released this document, which includes a number of interesting historical and theological arguments. Here's a brief excerpt:

Religious liberty is not only about our ability to go to Mass on Sunday or pray the Rosary at home. It is about whether we can make our contribution to the common good of all Americans. Can we do the good works our faith calls us to do, without having to compromise that very same faith? Without religious liberty properly understood, all Americans suffer, deprived of the essential contribution in education, health care, feeding the hungry, civil rights, and social services that religious Americans make every day, both here at home and overseas.

What is at stake is whether America will continue to have a free, creative, and robust civil society—or whether the state alone will determine who gets to contribute to the common good, and how they get to do it. Religious believers are part of American civil society, which includes neighbors helping each other, community associations, fraternal service clubs, sports leagues, and youth groups. All these Americans make their contribution to our common life, and they do not need the permission of the government to do so. Restrictions on religious liberty are an attack on civil society and the American genius for voluntary associations.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

A follow-up to Dawkins v. ?

By Robert John Araujo, SJ

As it turns out, there was recently a debate between Professor Richard Dawkins and Cardinal Pell. While the blogosphere has a lot on this, you can view the entire discussion here thanks to Fr. Z.

RJA sj

 

Ayelet Shachar at St. John's Law School

By Marc DeGirolami

The Center for Law and Religion is pleased to announce that Professor Ayelet Shachar (Toronto) will visit us at St. John’s Law School next Monday, April 16, at 4:15 pm.  Hers is the sixth and final session in our ongoing seminar, Colloquium in Law: Law and Religion.  Professor Shachar will discuss her ongoing work involving the legal status of religious tribunals as well as more general problems of religious pluralism.  Among the papers for consideration will be her thoughtful chapter on state, religion, and the family in this book.     

Academics in the New York area and beyond are welcome to attend.  Please let me know.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Ryan's Budget (Brought to You by Catholic Social Teaching?)

By Rob Vischer

I know we have some Paul Ryan admirers on this blog, and far be it from me to discourage elected officials from wrestling with the implications that Catholic social teaching has for public policy, but I start to feel a little tense when such "wrestling" looks more like "confident proclamation devoid of nuance."  Consider Ryan's explanation of his budget proposal:

Ryan said that the principle of subsidiarity — a notion, rooted in Catholic social teaching, that decisions are best made at most local level available — guided his thinking on budget planning.

“To me, the principle of subsidiarity, which is really federalism, meaning government closest to the people governs best, having a civil society … where we, through our civic organizations, through our churches, through our charities, through all of our different groups where we interact with people as a community, that’s how we advance the common good,” Ryan said.

Last week I subtracted points from a student's paper who equated subsidiarity with federalism.  They may be consistent in their facilitation of similar values, but federalism is a structural feature of government that operates without (much) regard to function; subsidiarity is, at the core, driven by assessments of function. (I trust that Prof. Brennan, who has minced no words in criticizing me for too readily embracing a secularized vision of subsidiarity, is currently penning a very strongly worded letter to Rep. Ryan.)  And then there's the preferential option for the poor:

The Wisconsin Republican said that he also drew on Catholic teachings regarding concern for the poor, and his interpretation of how that translated into government policy.

“[T]he preferential option for the poor, which is one of the primary tenets of Catholic social teaching, means don’t keep people poor, don’t make people dependent on government so that they stay stuck at their station in life, help people get out of poverty out onto life of independence,” said Ryan.

I agree that CST does not want us to "keep people poor," but it is a matter of some dispute whether any meaningful tax increases for the wealthy can be equated with such an outcome.  I'm not suggesting that Ryan's budget is misguided -- indeed, there is much about it that I admire -- or that he is insincere in his application of CST.  It's simply another example of CST defying easy categorization; I have more respect for folks who acknowledge that.  (And that's probably why I'd be a disaster in politics, where nuance does not seem to go over well.)

Monday, April 9, 2012

Cardinal Dolan on "Face the Nation"

By Rick Garnett

In case you were doing other things, on Easter Sunday morning . . . Here's the link.

RALS at Touro

By Rob Vischer

Sam Levine and his colleagues at Touro Law School have put together an all-star lineup for the Religiously Affiliated Law Schools conference next month.  You can check out the schedule here.

Camosy on the hook-up culture

By Rob Vischer

As the father of three daughters, our society's increasingly mainstream hook-up culture is a painful subject.  (Last week at the gym I had the misfortune of watching a new gem from MTV, a show featuring the promiscuity of "Jersey Shore" played out in the lives of 15 year-olds.  If I didn't need my shoes on the treadmill, I would have thrown them at the television.)  Charles Camosy uses Easter as an occasion to reflect on where we are.  An excerpt:

Much of Western culture has reacted to the sexual oppression of the past by celebrating human sexuality, and this was a necessary and welcome change. But when what we celebrate is mere sexual choice—without examining and critiquing the social structures which lie beneath—we ignore another kind of sexual oppression in which the vulnerable get deeply and seriously hurt. In particular because women are most often the victims of this consumerist-driven sexuality, it is noteworthy that more academics are not driving the resistance against the hook-up culture. This is particularly troublesome given that, in other contexts where vulnerable or minority populations are being hurt by physical and structural violence (especially when it is driven by consumerism), academics often stand up in large numbers to be counted as energetic opposition against concepts of “freedom” that are unaware of or unconcerned with social structures.

Whatever our politics (and whatever our gender), our culture’s sexual practices are desperately calling out for renewal–and as an Easter people all of us must do a better job answering that call.

Harvard Undergraduate Speaking on Christianity and Homosexuality

By Russell Powell

Below is a link to a recent talk given by Harvard undergraduate, Matthew Vines, on Christianity and homosexuality. He has a good grasp of scripture and Church tradition on the topic, which is impressive for someone his age. However, I believe that people are responding to his presentation because of the sense of authenticity, integrity and engagement he communicates. Although Vines does not address the particulars of contemporary Catholic teaching on the topic, I believe that the video will be of interest to many Mirror of Justice readers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezQjNJUSraY

Sunday, April 8, 2012

As Christ was mocked...

By Robert John Araujo, SJ

As I was preparing for the Easter Triduum, I happened to come across an article in a Catholic diocesan paper reporting on the “Reason Rally” held in Washington, D.C. on March 24. [More here] A principal speaker was the well-known Oxford don Richard Dawkins. Having read and learned more about the rally, I was intrigued to see that the critique of religion, especially Catholicism, was not really based on reason or fact but on mocking disbelief. Dawkins encouraged his audience to attack Catholics, not by rational argument, but by mocking and ridiculing them—us—in public.

He encouraged atheists to be public in their own identity—I was not aware of them being prevented or prohibited from this—for the sake of a more openly secular society. I wonder, though, if his proposal would encounter opposition from those sectors of society who might claim that he is imposing his belief, and therefore a kind of secular religion. But that is not why I write today.

I do write because of his mockery and ridicule of Catholics, for this is what happened to Christ himself. In Saint John’s Gospel, Pilate and Jesus at the trial discuss truth. Pilate was skeptical in great fashion when he asked: “What is truth?” Ironically, the very university where Professor Dawkins has labored for many years was founded by our predecessors whom he mocks and ridicules. Dawkins does not see that they were in pursuit of the truth he claims to accept; moreover, he does not understand that they were also in pursuit of a truth beyond the one that he accepts.

Perhaps one day, Professor Dawkins and an appropriate representative of the Church might engage one another in a spirited debate about truth. Some years ago in 1948, Betrand Russell and Father Frederick Coppleston did just that over the BBC radio.

What we can take from the Dawkins “Reason Rally” this Easter day is this: rather than taking the bait of Dawkins’s torment and responding with our own, unbecoming scorn, how can we of the Church better explain what it is we believe and why we believe what we do—with reason? Our Lord was able to do that with those who scoffed at him. With his help, might we do the same? It takes something more than any human person has, but this something can be ours with God’s help and the temperament of His Son.

 

RJA sj

He Is Risen!

By Rick Garnett

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