St. Mary’s University hosts the Centre for the Art of Dying Well, directed by Maggie Doherty: artofdyingwell.org Maggie recently appeared on the Radio 4 programme, Beyond Belief.
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BBC Radio 4 Beyond Belief – Grief
Category: Theology
The Call of Creation
October 4th was the feast of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecologists and animals. The day brought to an end the season the Catholic Church describes as “The Season of Creation”. The Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales also chose that day to launch a considerably revised, new edition of its teaching document on the environment – The Call of Creation.
Read more >>Social justice – is there a conflict between Hayek’s liberalism and Catholic social thought?
The term “social justice” leads to a lot of sabre rattling in Catholic social teaching circles. Greater attention to its meaning, including to some of the ambiguities about its meaning, might be helpful in promoting more fruitful discussion. Debates are often clouded by bringing F. A. Hayek’s disdain for the whole idea of social justice into the discussion. Supporters of a free economy, in the spirit of Hayek’s work, are therefore pitted against supporters of social justice in Catholic social thought. Constructive dialogue is impeded.
Read more >>Ukraine and self defence in Christian teaching
The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation has posed great challenges to Christian teaching about the waging of war and the insights of Catholic Social teaching, issues such as the immorality of an aggressive war, international relations and the welcoming of refugees. However these is one issue which is not met by a straightforward moral response: self-defence.
Read more >>Can we eat, drink and be merry this Christmas?
A quick google search will reveal that Pope Francis warns us almost every year about the commercialisation of Christmas. This year, for example, he was quoted as saying: “The Christmas tree and Nativity crèche should evoke the joy and the peace of God’s love and not the selfish indulgence of consumerism and indifference”. Of course, this message is not unique to Pope Francis: almost every Christian minister warns of this danger.
Read more >>The meaning of the common good and social justice
What is the common good? The definition that is used in almost all discussion in Catholic circles in the English-speaking world is taken from paragraph 26 of Gaudium et spes which was a document arising from the Second Vatican Council. The common good was defined as “the sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfilment”. This is also the definition that is used in the English language translation of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.
Read more >>The Late Scholastics as early economists
We have posted before about the late scholastics: The late scholastics, universal human rights and discrimination and other posts on this blog on human rights, globalisation, interest and property rights have incorporated their profound impact.
Read more >>Darkness cannot seize the Light: O admirabile Commercium!
It is sometimes tempting to think of Catholic social teaching as being based in political philosophy, informed, of course, by aspects of theology, whilst forgetting the transcendental aspects of our faith. We cannot, though, divorce any aspect of Christian endeavour from our understanding of God, the Christian mysteries and the incarnation. This includes consideration of the social teaching of the Church. However dark some aspects of the world are today, a light shines in the darkness! In that context, I thought that Fr. William Massie’s sermon at Christmas was an appropriate post on this blog. Fr. William is Catholic Chaplain at the University of Hull.
Read more >>The truth and freedom
It appears so simple: whoever believes he holds the truth is a threat to freedom. Or, as was stated in Centesimus annus by John Paul II: “…those who are convinced that they know the truth and firmly adhere to it are considered unreliable from a democratic point of view since they do not accept that truth is determined by the majority, or that it is subject to variation according to different political trends…” (Centesimus Annus, 46).
Read more >>Catholic Social Teaching in Context – The Conflict in Northern Ireland
In this post, Maria Power of the Las Casas Institute for Social Justice, University of Oxford, looks at the conflict in Northern Ireland through the lens of Catholic social teaching, drawing on the important research in her new book Catholic Social Teaching and Theologies of Peace: Cardinal Cahal Daly and the Pursuit of the Peaceable Kingdom, available from Routledge.
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