In the comments on my previous post on the Connecticut bishops’ decision to allow Catholic hospitals to administer the Plan B “morning after pill” to rape victims who do not pass a pregnancy test, Adriana offers some very astute comments: “There is something a bit sickening about the idea that abortion should be allowed in case of rape. Why? Because since … [Read More]

In 2004, His Eminence Raymond Burke, archbishop of St. Louis, received a standing ovation from the denizens of St. Blog’s Parish, that loose collection of conservative Catholic bloggers, when he declared that pro-choice Catholic politicians such as John Kerry should be denied Communion for the sake of their souls.  Archbishop Burke was rightly hailed as courageous, and St. Blog’s parishioners defended … [Read More]

Justin confesses that he is “perplexed by this paleocon jihad against McDonald’s, Walmart, and other commercial venues.”  He shouldn’t be.  He admits that he prefers Johnny Rocket’s (a good choice) to McDonald’s.  And if the market is all about freedom of choice, shouldn’t we paleocons be free not only to choose not to patronize Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, and Microsoft, but also to … [Read More]

My friend Justin Raimondo is the best of the paleolibertarians, but he occasionally suffers from Restless Leg Syndrome.  At least, I assume that’s what’s responsible for the knee-jerk reaction to my previous post. Justin writes: “Is Senor Richert proposing to nationalize the fast food business, in order to get the government to inject ‘meaning’ into McDonald’s hamburgers?”  Of course, I had … [Read More]

Left undistorted by government, our libertarian friends tell us, the market will always work out to the advantage of all.  Those of us who express doubts are routinely derided as “statists” or “protectionists” or “authoritarians.” And we may even be called something worse if we dare to proclaim, with the social teaching of the Church, that the market is made for … [Read More]

Reading Paul Weyrich’s article today on Hugo Chavez’s crackdown on the Venezuelan media, and our “free” media’s reaction to it, brought to mind an event from my first term at Michigan State.  Our campus parish, like most Catholic parishes around colleges and universities, was unabashedly leftist; still, I was going there for the Eucharist, not the politics, so I tried to … [Read More]

Last week, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) released a remarkable little document that could prove nearly as important as the motu proprio liberalizing the use of the Traditional Latin Mass.  Despite some deliberately provocative reporting by the AP and others, “Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church” hasn’t made much … [Read More]