In case you were doing other things, on Easter Sunday morning . . . Here's the link.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Cardinal Dolan on "Face the Nation"
RALS at Touro
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
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
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...
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!
Friday, April 6, 2012
Clive Bell on Impressionism's Paganism
The New Republic will from time to time reprint old essays on various subjects. Here is a 1923 piece by the formalist art critic Clive Bell, whose ideas about the nature of aesthetic experience have always seemed to me nearly universally wrong. That notwithstanding, I found his discussion in this piece of the connection between impressionism and paganism to be illuminating — one of the most concise explanations for why I have always disliked impressionism with such great intensity. A bit:
The cultivated rich seem at last to have discovered in the impressionists what the impressionists themselves rediscovered half by accident. They rediscovered paganism—real paganism I mean—something real enough to be the inspiration and content of supreme works of art. Paganism, I take it, is the acceptance of life as something good and satisfying in itself. To enjoy life the pagan need not make himself believe that it is a means to something else—to a better life in another world for instance, or a juster organization of society, or complete self-development: he does not regard it as a brief span or portion in which to do something for his own soul, or for his fellow creatures, or for the future. He takes the world as it is and enjoys to the utmost what he finds in it: also, he is no disconsolate archaeologist spending his own age thinking how much more happily he could have lived in another and what a pagan he would have been on the banks of the Ilissus. No, paganism does not consist in a proper respect for the pagan past, but in a passionate enjoyment of the present; and Poussin, though he painted bacchanals galore, would have been quite out of place in the world of Theocritus. Your true pagan neither regrets nor idealizes: and while Swinburne was yearning nostalgicly for “the breasts of the nymph in the brake,” Renoir was finding inspiration for a glorious work of art in the petticoats of the shop-girls at the Moulin de la Galette.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Lynn Trial Concludes a Second Week
Philadelphia's trial of Msgr. William Lynn and Fr. James Brennan has continued this week. Two more jurors were released for unknown reasons. However, the court, presumably anticipating such occurrences, had several alternate jurors available.
The case is unlike many other child sexual abuse cases in that many internal documents are being presented which are disturbing. The prosecution is using this evidence to establish that Msgr. Lynn conspired to endanger the welfare of children. They assert that he was made aware of sexual crimes of priests and then he either failed to act or acted by reassigning these priests in a way that put children at risk. The defense continues to argue that such documentation illustrates an effort by Lynn to do something to respond to the problem, but his effort was thwarted by deceased Cardinal Bevilacqua. The case is still in the government's case in chief, so which side is successfully utilizing these documents is yet to be determined. Guilt of Msgr. Lynn and his codefendant aside, there is a larger picture being painted by the documents. The documents are beginning to paint a disturbing picture of the institutional response by the Archdiocese. Several documents presented suggest a paramount concern and priority of liability issues, a deception of parishioners, and a response which fails to put the protection of children first, if at all. Such was also portrayed in the 2011 grand jury report as well as the 400 page 2005 grand jury report.
The case, however, in other ways is like many other child abuse cases. Jurors heard from victims this week. The victims told of the abuse, the fear of reporting, and then the less than compassionate response from church officials when they did disclose. Similarly, one victim testified of experiencing the well documented effects of sexual abuse: going from a straight A student to one with problems. The victim's credibility was challenged because of some troubled events in his life. This reflects a common scenario in such sex abuse cases. If the allegations are true, victims experience an ironic second victimization. The initial victimization of child sexual assault can have devastating effects on the victims' lives, increasing their risk of depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, and other conditions. Then, in an ironic twist, often when the children have enough courage to disclose the abuse in a court, defendants tell the fact finder to not believe them because the witness has had such a troubled life. Essentially, the defendants cite the reason he targeted the victim or the after effects of this trauma as the very reason to disbelieve the victim. Whether such is the case here, or the accuser indeed is not credible, has yet to be determined. This week's testimony, however, reminds us that while some of the legal issues in the case are unique to it, the personal and tragic story of child sexual abuse is not.
Coverage of the case is international. It has also been slanted in some areas. With these updates I have tried to pull from different sources. Below are some sources including Sunday's New York Times editorial which illustrate some of what I have discussed. The case will resume next week.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/02/opinion/a-monsignor-goes-on-trial.html
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/120201744.html?c=r
Second Week of Lynn Trial Comes to a Close
Philadelphia's trial of Msgr. William Lynn and Fr. James Brennan has continued this week. Two more jurors were released for unknown reasons. However, the court, presumably anticipating such occurrences, had several alternate jurors available.
The case is unlike many other child sexual abuse cases in that many internal documents are being presented which are disturbing. The prosecution is using this evidence to establish that Msgr. Lynn conspired to endanger the welfare of children. They assert that he was made aware of sexual crimes of priests and then he either failed to act or acted by reassigning these priests in a way that put children at risk. The defense continues to argue that such documentation illustrates an effort by Lynn to do something to respond to the problem, but his effort was thwarted by deceased Cardinal Bevilacqua. The case is still in the government's case in chief, so which side is successfully utilizing these documents is yet to be determined. Guilt of Msgr. Lynn and his codefendant aside, there is a larger picture being painted by the documents. The documents are beginning to paint a disturbing picture of the institutional response by the Archdiocese. Several documents presented suggest a paramount concern and priority of liability issues, a deception of parishioners, and a response which fails to put the protection of children first, if at all. Such was also portrayed in the 2011 grand jury report as well as the 400 page 2005 grand jury report.
The case, however, in other ways is like many other child abuse cases. Jurors heard from victims this week. The victims told of the abuse, the fear of reporting, and then the less than compassionate response from church officials when they did disclose. Similarly, one victim testified of experiencing the well documented effects of sexual abuse: going from a straight A student to one with problems. The victim's credibility was challenged because of some troubled events in his life. This reflects a common scenario in such sex abuse cases. If the allegations are true, victims experience an ironic second victimization. The initial victimization of child sexual assault can have devastating effects on the victims' lives, increasing their risk of depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, and other conditions. Then, in an ironic twist, often when the children have enough courage to disclose the abuse in a court, defendants tell the fact finder to not believe them because the witness has had such a troubled life. Essentially, the defendants cite the reason he targeted the victim or the after effects of this trauma as the very reason to disbelieve the victim. Whether such is the case here, or the accuser indeed is not credible, has yet to be determined. This week's testimony, however, reminds us that while some of the legal issues in the case are unique to it, the personal and tragic story of child sexual abuse is not.
Coverage of the case is international. It has also been slanted in some areas. With these updates I have tried to pull from different sources. Below are some sources including Sunday's New York Times editorial which illustrate some of what I have discussed. The case will resume next week.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/02/opinion/a-monsignor-goes-on-trial.html
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/120201744.html?c=r
A student's thoughts on subsidiarity
I've asked students in my "Catholic Social Thought and the Law" seminar to share their thoughts through (among other things) blog-posts. I posted one such post a few days ago. Here's another:
Our recent discussion in class regarding subsidiarity resulted in my attempting to diagram the concept, with my final effort appearing at the top of this blog post. Let me (attempt) an explanation, at least insofar as I understand it. First, the axes: The horizontal axis indicates the source of organizational governance; moving from left to right we move from predominately privately-controlled organizations, such as Bowling Leagues or the Church, through intermediate organizations, such as small business, fraternal organizations (such as the VFW) to multinational corporations, which are all subject to varying degrees of both private and public governance. At the extreme right is the government – the ultimate source of “public” control insofar as it regulates society and is, in turn, regulated by society. The vertical axis is a rough approximation for the scale of a group: small groups (Bowling Leagues) sit slightly above the individual level, while large groups span the entire distance, denoting the individual components, and the individual effects the large group has on a person, as well as the collective impact upon society. Note that within larger groups are shaded boxes—my attempt to denote hierarchical elements (in the case of the Church) or management structure (corporations or businesses).
Generally, groups exist within the “mediating soup” constituting society; they represent the methods by which individual citizens interact socially, politically, economically, and spiritually with one another. There are two exceptions to this rule, according to my illustration: First, the State, owing to its exclusive lock on the legitimate use of coercive power, is both a part of and distinct from society in general. At the same time, no citizen may legitimately escape the power of the State—as illustrated by the “Into the Wild” stick figure, a reference to the book and movie of the same name (in which the protagonist essentially tries to escape the bonds of humanity, only to realize [spoiler alert!] at the very end that humans are truly, unavoidably social beings). He is outside of society, but is not outside the power of the State, at least as a theoretical matter. Note also that the State is ultimately limited (unlike the Church, discussed below) in its power to only regulating society (in its broadest sense – the “here and now,” physical existence of humans).
The second exception is the Church, which is literally within and “above” society – a reference to its focus on Salvation in addition to building God’s Kingdom on earth. Jacques Maritain’s “Man and the State” references a similar concept in the context of Religious Freedom: “While being in the body politic—in every body politic—through a given number of her members and her institutions, the Church as such . . . is not a part but a whole; she is an absolutely universal realm . . . above the body politic and every body politic.” This is precisely the image of the Church I have sought to convey, with more or less success. It comports nicely with the idea of subsidiarity, in that it leaves room for individual, small group and other hierarchical elements to exist, while denoting the special characteristics inherent in the Church.
This image represents a sort of ‘snapshot’ of society at a point in time. If we added a time element, the shapes would shift and move amoebically according to social trends—for example, the “quasi-governmental organization” arm might reach out and overlap with the Social Services of the Church (one need only think of the current controversy regarding conscience clauses in healthcare service provision).
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