What is the purpose of higher education, and how should we pursue it? Our whole conception of what constitutes an educated person has changed dramatically over the last couple of centuries

Virtue Matters: The Decline of the Secular University

by Stephen Turley


“Without a narrative, life has no meaning. Without meaning, learning has no purpose. Without a purpose, schools are houses of detention, not attention.”
– Neil Postman



By now few are unaware of the campus unrest sweeping across the country’s institutions of higher learning. The chancellor and president of the University of Missouri have resigned amid student protests against their supposed insufficient attention to acts of racial insensitivity and bigotry. As part of their demands, students are calling for a ten-percent increase in “black faculty and staff members campus-wide” and an increase in “funding and resources for the University of Missouri Counseling Center for the purpose of hiring additional mental health professionals, particularly those of color.”

And at Amherst College, students are calling on the president to issue a “statement of apology to students, alumni and former students, faculty, administration and staff who have been victims of several injustices including but not limited to our institutional legacy of white supremacy, colonialism, anti-black racism, anti-Latinx racism, anti-Native American racism, anti-Native/indigenous racism, anti-Asian racism, anti-Middle Eastern racism, heterosexism, cis-sexism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, ableism, mental health stigma, and classism.”

While a number of editorials have been published critical of the perceived assault on free speech by protestors, I think something far deeper is going on here. I believe that what we are seeing on college campuses today is nothing less than the slow but very real demise of the secular university.

It is crucial to observe that our whole conception of what constitutes an educated person has changed dramatically over the last couple of centuries. Of the first 118 colleges founded in the U.S., 114 were established as Christian colleges for the propagation of the gospel. The historic liberal arts curriculum, which began with the ancient Greeks and was developed in the Christian centuries, was canonized as the primary means by which Christian virtues were inculcated within students for the furtherance of a humane society.
However, according to Julie A. Reuben’s study, The Making of the Modern University, from 1880 to 1930, there was a dramatic shift from the liberal arts college to the modern research university. At the heart of this shift was the redefinition of knowledge as specific to the empirical sciences; all other disciplines that failed the tests of empirical verifiability were excluded from the domain of what could be known. By the mid-twentieth-century, Reuben observes that most colleges had abandoned almost entirely moral education in the academic disciplines, since the kind of knowledge that undergirded the teaching of the virtues had been eclipsed by scientific and technological reasonings and concerns.

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Read more: www.theimaginativeconservative.org

La strada è lunga e tortuosa, ma solo l’onestà di ammettere un problema può condurre alla sua soluzione.

Ecco perché non c'è differenza tra Isis e Arabia Saudita

di Valentina Colombo


«Se Daesh e Riad appaiono simili quanto al velo di segretezza che avvolge i processi, il paragone però si ferma lì. Non essendo uno Stato, Daesh “non ha alcuna legittimazione a decidere di uccidere la gente”, come ebbe a dire il portavoce del ministero saudita degli Interni. In pochi casi, questa “differenza” ha permesso di salvare qualche condannato, come il blogger Raif Badawi, condannato a mille frustate. In molti altri casi, le pressioni internazionali sono sembrate invece senza effetto. Nonostante questo, ogni paragone tra il sistema giudiziario saudita e la presunta “giustizia” amministrata da banditi del Daesh è fuorviante. All’ombra del Califfato, infatti, abbiamo assistito a esecuzioni sommarie di civili e militari, allo sgozzamento di ostaggi locali e occidentali, allo sfollamento di intere comunità cristiane e all’abuso sessuale contro ragazze e madri di confessioni ritenute “eretiche». Così il giornalista e docente universitario Camille Eid ha commentato, sul sito di Avvenire, la citazione in giudizio di un utente Twitter da parte del ministero della Giustizia saudita poiché, a seguito di un’ennesima condanna a morte per apostasia, ha scritto che si tratta di una sanzione ‘in stile Daesh’.

Mi permetto di dissentire, seppur parzialmente. Se è vero che lo Stato Islamico non è riconosciuto alivello internazionale in quanto Stato, è ancor più grave che a uno Stato riconosciuto a livello internazionale, che nel 2014 è entrato a far parte del Consiglio per i diritti umani dell’Onu, insieme alla Cina, il cui ambasciatore presso le Nazioni Unite, Faisal bin Hassan Trad, che di recente è stato chiamato a presiedere un comitato di diplomatici incaricato a scegliere i candidati a ruolo di “esperti delle Nazioni Unite” da inviare in quei Paesi dove l’Onu ritiene che i diritti umani vengano violati, sia concesso di pubblicare, nel maggio scorso, un bando sul sito del ministero per l’amministrazione per otto persone che «eseguano le condanne a morte secondo la sharia islamica dopo che siano state ordinate da una sentenza legale», sia concesso di applicare nel XXI secolo la più rigida interpretazione del diritto penale islamico. Non credo nemmeno che si possa fare affidamento a un processo “giusto” in un Paese in cui il concetto stesso di giustizia si basa sull’interpretazione più rigida e conservatrice della sharia.

D’altronde, Abd Allah ibn Salih al-Ubaid, ex presidente della Società nazionale per i diritti umani inArabia Saudita, dichiarò quanto segue: «Ci sono persone che considerano alcune questioni una violazione dei diritti umani, mentre noi le riteniamo una salvaguardia dei diritti umani – ad esempio le esecuzioni, l’amputazione della mano del ladro, oppure le frustate a un’adultera. Ci sono persone che ritengono che tutte le punizioni coraniche violino i diritti umani. […] Noi, in Arabia Saudita, siamo parte del mondo per quanto concerne i principi generali dei diritti umani. Ma nel nostro Paese rispettiamo le regole della sharia, sicché ciò che ad altri sembra una violazione dei diritti umani è invece per noi un dovere nei confronti di chi ha commesso un reato o un peccato». Nell’ottobre scorso l’ambasciata saudita nel Regno Unito ha pubblicato, a seguito dell’ennesima mobilitazione internazionale a difesa del giovane saudita sciita Ali Nimr condannato alla crocifissione, un tweet molto esplicito e che chiarisce le proprie posizioni: #ArabiaSaudita rifiuta ogni forma di interferenza negli affari interni #AliNimr.

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Leggi tutto: www.lanuovabq.it

«Non accontentatevi delle piccole cose»

La grande parola “libertà” che l’islam non ha. E l’unico nostro problema serio

di Luigi Amicone

Diceva Caterina da Siena: «Non accontentatevi delle piccole cose. Dio le vuole grandi. Se sarete quello che dovete essere, metterete fuoco in tutta Italia»


Tor Vergata, domenica 20 agosto, anno 2000, Santa Messa di chiusura della XV Giornata mondiale della Gioventù. Corre l’Anno Santo e nella sua omelia Giovanni Paolo II cita Caterina da Siena, figlia del tintore di panni Jacopo Benincasa, nata nel 1347 e morta come Gesù a soli 33 anni. «Non accontentatevi delle piccole cose. Dio le vuole grandi. Se sarete quello che dovete essere, metterete fuoco in tutta Italia».

È inutile girarci attorno, l’unica risposta a chi attacca e terrorizza la nostra vita è la personalità cristiana. Personalità come Caterina patrona d’Italia e d’Europa, ragazza incendiata dalla fede che riuscì a convincere un Papa prima a rientrare a Roma dalla prigione dorata di Avignone. Poi, quando sbarcato a Genova i cardinali tentarono di fargli cambiare idea, a convincere lo stesso Papa a proseguire nel suo viaggio, «affidandosi a Cristo», senza timore dei “terroristi” al soldo della potenza imperiale dell’epoca, la Francia, scatenati per impedire al Sommo Pontefice il ritorno a San Pietro.

Cupolone che tutto il mondo ci invidia e sul quale tutti i poteri del mondo vorrebbero piantare la loro bandiera nera. Sia quella di Allah. Sia quella dello spleen di Baudelaire. Della noia moderna e dell’accidia postmoderna. Bandiera “social” (alla maniera che se avesse visto la Madonna forse non avrebbe detto “social” come l’ha detta Renzi al convegno digitale di sabato scorso). E bandiera dei “puri” (alla maniera del Magistrato-Giornalista Collettivo che interseca il Califfato: entrambi vogliono un mondo di “Mani Pulite”, con o senza mani).

Dunque, di quali cose grandi e di quale fuoco parla Caterina? Anzitutto, «libertà, ch’è sì cara, come sa chi per lei vita rifiuta». Non è cosa imparata dai Lumi. Tantomeno da quei trichechi di Charlie Hebdo. Oggi, questa libertà, che è “sì cara”, la traduciamo in “licenza”. E così, a riprova che la licenza rende schiavi, la vita ci viene a noia e accidia. E così ci viene tolta.

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Leggi tutto: www.tempi.it

War in a Time of Peace: growing interest in waging asymmetrical warfare

Winning Without Fighting: The Chinese Psychological Warfare Challenge

By Dean Cheng

Beijing hopes to win future conflicts without firing a shot. How? By using psychological warfare to manipulate both a nation’s leaders and its populace—affecting the thought processes and cognitive frameworks of allies and opponents alike. Indeed, the PRC’s psychological warfare operations are already underway despite the fact that there is no active conflict. It is therefore essential that the United States counter such psychological operations now while preparing to use its own arsenal of political warfare weapons should a conflict ever arise.

KEY POINTS

• Over the past decade, the People’s Republic of China has exhibited growing interest in waging asymmetrical warfare.
• To this end, the PRC released “political work regulations” for the People’s Liberation Army addressing the importance of waging “the three warfares”: public opinion warfare, psychological warfare, and legal warfare.
• The “three warfares” represent the PRC’s commitment to expanding potential areas of conflict from the purely military (i.e., involving the direct or indirect use of military forces) to the more political.
• Such expansion will be supported by manipulation of an enemy’s leadership, including through intimidation and coercion, alienation, and deception.
• To avoid being psychologically outmaneuvered by a PRC intent on winning without firing a shot, the U.S. must strengthen its own psychological warfare capabilities, including strategic communications, public diplomacy, and media outreach capabilities, as well as dedicated psychological operations units.

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Chinese Concept of Psychological Warfare Tasks

For the PLA, psychological warfare is the resposibility of the General Political Department (GPD), working in coordination with the rest of the PLA. The GPD not only ensures political orthodoxy within the PLA, but also is responsible for maintaining morale, personnel administration (e.g., assessing promotions), and countering psychological warfare attacks. As one of the four “General Departments,” its purview covers the entire PLA, and its authority is second only to the war planners of the General Staff Department (GSD).

The “three warfares” of psychological warfare, legal warfare, and public opinion warfare are part of the GPD’s responsibility as laid out in the 2003 and 2010 “political work regulations” of the PLA. 

For the GPD, Chinese writings suggest that there are five broad tasks associated with psychological warfare.[7]

1. Presenting One’s Own Side as Just. Winning future wars will require efficient political mobilization. Failure to mobilize the populace will make them vulnerable to war-weariness and moral collapse such as occurred in the 1990s Balkan conflicts. Consequently, the foremost role of psychological warfare is to emphasize the justice of one’s cause, for only by portraying one’s own goals as just and the enemy’s as unjust can one hope to secure popular support and garner international sympathy and aid.[8] At the same time, successfully inculcating one’s own population and forces with a sense of a just cause will reduce the effectiveness of enemy propaganda and allow them to weather the inevitable setbacks associated with any conflict.
2. Emphasizing One’s Advantages. Psychological warfare is intended to support larger diplomatic, political, economic, and military ends. Consequently, it is essential to emphasize one’s own advantages in each of these respects. Such emphasis will bolster the confidence and will of one’s own side while simultaneously influencing the other side’s perceptions. In this regard, propaganda efforts—part of public opinion warfare—will extend beyond the superiority of one’s military forces and equipment to note advances in science and technology, culture, and economic capacity.
3. Undermining the Opposition’s Will to Resist. This is one of the fundamental tasks of wartime psychological warfare. Because the will of an enemy is a key determinant of ultimate victory, it is essential to degrade his morale and unravel his alliances and support from third parties. Psychological warfare efforts must therefore not only bolster one’s own side, but “cause the enemy to lose heart and disperse, so that even though they appear whole, they cannot exploit that.” Such a campaign can involve such diverse measures as implementing policies of benign treatment of prisoners (to promote a willingness to surrender) and developing base areas in the enemy’s rear (to make the enemy feel constantly insecure).
4. Encouraging Dissension in the Enemy’s Camp. This task is distinct from the previous one, insofar as such measures are more indirect than those associated with undermining the opposition’s will to resist. Instead, sparking dissension involves fostering anti-war elements and encouraging war-weariness. Such an approach is similar to the creation of “united front” tactics, wherein various local elements within the opponent’s camp are unified against the leadership without necessarily being openly supported by the PRC.
5. Implementing Psychological Defenses. Since psychological warfare can have such far-reaching impacts, in the Chinese view, it is assumed that an opponent will mount psychological attacks. Consequently, in addition to negating or neutralizing such attacks, it is necessary to expose them, both to defeat them and to demoralize an opponent by demonstrating the ineffectiveness of his efforts. Thus, not only must there be counter-propaganda activities, but one must also publicize enemy machinations and techniques, thereby exposing and highlighting their futility.

It is worth noting that none of these tasks is necessarily limited to actual wartime. Erecting psychological defenses, fostering efforts to bolster popular and military support for the Party’s leadership, and emphasizing the justness of one’s own cause are all long-term endeavors that can be undertaken in part in peacetime.

Principles Governing Psychological Warfare Operations

Chinese analyses of military affairs are informed by the idea of military science; i.e., that there is a proper scientific approach to the analysis of military affairs. This method entails identifying underlying principles that govern individual aspects of military operations, including those aimed at fulfilling the key tasks of psychological warfare operations.

• Principle #1: Maintain direction. The principle of direction refers to the need to follow the Party’s direction and leadership, incorporating its commands regarding policies, parameters, and limitations into all psychological warfare activities—whether strategic, operational, or tactical and whether aimed at foreign or domestic audiences. It closely parallels the military axioms of unity of command and effort. The principle of direction dictates that psychological warfare activities should be planned and assessed based on (1) their support of broad national interests and goals, (2) their relation to specific political and diplomatic efforts, and (3) their support of integrated operational military activities. Direction is achieved through unified, integrated command and operational implementation—something facilitated by the existence of the GPD, which spans the entire PLA.
• Principle #2: Adopt a systematic approach. Psychological warfare is not a single instance or even an accumulation of instances, but must instead be organized and integrated into a systematic, coherent whole. This approach requires coordination of psychological warfare operations between higher and lower levels so that the resulting unified construct will have maximum impact. Such coordination in turn requires that psychological warfare be tailored against opponents: There cannot be a “one size fits all” mentality. Rather, the character of the implementing force, as well as of the intended targets, must be taken into account with a suitable division of labor among the various components. The psychological warfare effort, moreover, should include both military and civilian entities. Given the authority and span of the GPD, Chinese psychological warfare operations are likely to be integrated into broader military operations and incorporated into the earliest stages of military planning.
• Principle #3: Seize and retain the initiative. As Chinese writings on public opinion warfare and legal warfare have emphasized, with regard to political warfare, the side that gets its message out first has an enormous advantage. The same principle is true for psychological warfare. In order to seize the initiative, PLA writings stress that advance preparation is essential; only through early research can the most effective messaging be delivered, the most vulnerable targets be identified, and the best approach be determined. Securing the initiative significantly increases the likelihood of creating shifts and trends in one’s own favor. At the same time, being proactive in the implementation of psychological warfare activities compels an opponent to spend time and resources countering one’s own messages rather than implanting his own program. This principle again highlights the importance of undertaking some elements of psychological warfare in peacetime.
• Principle #4: Assume an objective outlook. In the view of the PLA, psychological warfare operations are governed by certain objective laws (including these principles). Therefore, effective implementation of psychological warfare cannot be subject to hunches and hopes; rather, it requires a full consideration of all existing conditions and contemporary realities. To this end, psychological warfare efforts should not be based on outlandish or unrealistic ruses, but instead should be consistent with larger contexts. The most effective psychological warfare efforts will reinforce preconceptions. 
  • In this regard, Chinese analysts are making an observation comparable to that of Allied planners in World War II, whose deceptions before D-Day played to German (and especially Hitler’s) expectations that the main attack would be at the Pas de Calais. Just as it is difficult to dislodge preconceived notions, it is far easier to exploit those same notions. Effective psychological warfare activities will therefore not try to substitute a preferred narrative, but rather will exploit the prejudices and assumptions of the other side.
• Principle #5: Recognize linkages. To be effective, psychological warfare techniques must be mutually reinforcing. This requires careful pre-planning, coordination among the various elements engaging in activities, and the creation of a single, unified plan and command authority. Psychological operations therefore also demand a dedicated, professional cadre and cannot be conducted as an afterthought by amateurs. At the same time, local authorities and resources may well have specific—even superior—understanding of potential psychological warfare targets; consequently, their knowledge and resources should be leveraged to maximize effect. Similarly, psychological warfare operations cannot be undertaken in isolation from other activities (e.g., military attacks or diplomatic and economic maneuvers); they must be coordinated with and supportive of those operations.[9] Finally, offensive and defensive psychological warfare operations must be mutually complementary.
• Principle #6: Retain flexibility. Psychological warfare activities must always pay attention to the enemy, recognizing and accommodating changes in the enemy’s psychology, the battlefield environment, and the relative stance of oneself and the enemy. Those responsible for implementing psychological warfare must be prepared to exploit changes in the situation in order to extract maximum effect.

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Read more: www.heritage.org

Why does the encounter with Christ become an absolute game-changer?

“Who Do They Say I Am?”

By Regis Martin

Regis Martin is Professor of Theology and Faculty Associate with the Veritas Center for Ethics in Public Life at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. He earned a licentiate and a doctorate in sacred theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. Martin is the author of a number of books. He resides in Steubenville, Ohio, with his wife and ten children.


Years ago when our children were young and bursting with that innocence of wonder that I pray will never entirely leave them, I was asked when I thought God would open the clouds and come down. “How should I know?” I’d answer. “I’m only a theologian. Go ask your mother.”

Evidently they did, since I was no longer asked the question.

“Nothing is worse,” warned Reinhold Niebuhr, “than the answer to a question no one is asking.” The reason our children had asked the question is because it mattered terribly that there be an answer to it. In his book The Religious Sense, Luigi Giussani insists that, “the very existence of the question presupposes an answer.” Isn’t that, after all, why questions get asked in the first place? What a wicked world it would be for human beings to be always asking questions, yet never finding answers! Who, besides the absurd Sisyphus, would welcome such a world? He was, you may remember, that futile fellow whom Camus fatuously tells us was quite content to carry the freaking stone forever up the side of the hill, only to watch it fall remorselessly back down the other side. At least, he argued, it gave him something to do. “The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

Come again? To be driven by the cruelest finality of fate never to finish the job, never to find an answer to the questions that vex and torment the soul, but forced in endless fashion to repeat the same hopeless gesture—that is what makes for a happy life? “There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn,” Camus solemnly tells us. Well, perhaps in a world where all pain will be finite, where its victims may steel themselves to endure it. But certainly not in circumstances where one is condemned to bear it for all eternity. That, to assume the accent of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, delivered in high desperate despair, is no better than “a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury / Signifying nothing.”

Never was nihilism given so precise and poetic an expression. And if the whole point of putting the question is in order to get an answer, then there must be a hidden architecture of hope on which the human heart finds its most secure footing. Giussani is surely right when he says, “one suppresses the question if one does not admit to the existence of an answer.” And the answer, especially when it brushes up against the absolute horizons of reality, “cannot be anything but unfathomable. Only the existence of the mystery suits the structure of the human person, which is mendicity, insatiable begging, and what corresponds to him is neither he himself nor something he gives to himself, measures, or possesses.”

No man, therefore, can ensure the outcome of his hope; yet he remains free to exercise it. And, yes, to receive it too. Which is another way of saying that only God can save us now. This is why when Christ turns to his disciples, having just asked about the identity others assign to him, to ask whom they think he is, it is anything but a venture in triviality. Like any horizon-shattering question, it takes them by the throat. It is not a question concerning which they, or anyone else, can afford to remain indifferent. That is because everything in the universe hangs on the answer.

So what possesses them to stay? Why does the encounter with Christ become an absolute game-changer? In other words, what is the answer that the event of meeting God-in-the-flesh awakens in their minds and hearts? It is, very simply, the sheer decisive difference his coming makes in a world broken in two by sin.

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Read more: www.crisismagazine.com

The injection of LGBTQ politics into the business environment: now, publicly supporting the entire LGBTQ movement’s agenda is mandatory

Crybullies Aren’t Just for College: On Corporations and LGBTQ Political Correctness


by D.B. Holiday

Calls for “Safe Spaces” on campus don’t just threaten the future of academia. The same mindset seeks to silence dissent and respectful disagreement in business as well.

Foreshadowing current controversies, in late October South Park created a music video entitled “Safe Space.” The short clip featured its various characters celebrating their “bully proof windows” and “troll safe doors” while thwarting the attempts of the villainous “reality” to puncture their carefully constructed comfort zones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXQkXXBqj_U

The irreverent comedy earns its laughs, sharply satirizing campus protests that have spread from Yale to Mizzou and to many other college campuses in the past weeks. It cleverly expresses the reaction of many Americans to the college protests: namely, that while they represent dangerously illiberal ideas and a true threat to the future of academia, their ultimate failure is their inability to prepare students to act like adults in a “reality” after graduation where college administrators will not cater to their every demand.

The problem, however, is that the weaponization of “safe spaces” to constrain and destroy those with dissenting opinions doesn’t just happen on campus. It is an under-recognized yet distressingly common event in the “real world” as well.

The Corporate Equality Index

Nowhere is this more true than in the world of business and technology. In these fields, the norm has changed from the avoidance of politics and religion to a culture in which the failure to openly support key portions of the LGBTQ agenda can result in disciplinary action and, in the case of Brendan Eich and Mozilla, termination. Most companies are not as flamboyant in their activism as college protestors. Still, through the threat of poor performance reviews, denied promotions, and stunted career paths, they are achieving the same effect.

The force behind these new policies is the Human Rights  Campaign’s

Corporate Equality Index (CEI), (1) which has ranked companies based on their commitment to LGBTQ inclusion since 2002 and now includes 407 companies across many industries. The index, however, does not just ask for verbal or financial support for the gay and transgender rights movement. It demands that companies incorporate specific workplace policies, and it penalizes corporations if anyone associated with them dares to dissent publicly. As the Human Rights Campaign has swiftly picked up public and legal victories over the past few years, it has increased the demands for corporations to be awarded a top score in the index as well. 

Today, the CEI ensures that organizations and their employees are committed to the goals of the Human Rights Campaign through five main criteria:

1. Equal employment opportunities must include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. The first criterion ensures that the organizations include sexual orientation and gender identity in their global non-discrimination policies.

2. Employment benefits must be LGBTQ inclusive. This means that spousal and domestic partner benefits must cover different sex and same-sex couples equally; this applies to health, dental, and life insurance, as well as all other benefits, including adoption assistance for couples. Health insurance coverage must include treatment for transgender patients, including sex-reassignment surgeries.

3. The organization and workforce must be LGBTQ “competent.” This criterion determines whether corporations are committed to the LGBTQ movement internally. To meet this standard, organizations must not only have an employee resource group or diversity council focused on the LGBTQ population but also train their employees to be “culturally competent.” All supervisors must undergo training on sexual orientation and gender diversity, and LGBTQ “diversity metrics” must be included in the performance reviews of leaders throughout the firm.

4. The organization must publicly support LGBTQ equality under the law. This criterion ensures that the corporation is committed to the LGBTQ movement externally. Organizations that seek to meet this criterion must, among other actions, support at least one LGBTQ organization and show public support for LGBTQ equality under the law.

5. The organization is not allowed to be associated with any known activity that would undermine LGBTQ equality under the law. Although not strictly one of the four criteria, the fifth element of the CEI is essentially a tool for blackmail that prevents the company from working with or supporting any organization that may disagree with any part of the Human Rights Campaign’s agenda.

Starting with the 2016 CEI, the Human Rights Campaign is more strictly enforcing elements of this fifth criterion through formal policies, including two new requirements that organizations must only work with suppliers and vendors that have a “fully inclusive non-discrimination policy” and do not contribute funding (including philanthropic donations) to “organizations with a written policy or mission of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.” While the Human Rights Campaign claims that its index is voluntary, the result of these new policies will be to bully any resisting companies into submission (as has already occurred with Barilla) and financially starve their vendors and non-profit partners until they support the HRC’s agenda.

Exaggerated Definitions of Discrimination

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Read more: www.thepublicdiscourse.com



(1)  Rating U.S. Workplaces on LGBT Equality

Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2016 Corporate Equality Index is the national benchmarking tool on corporate policies and practices pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees. In the 2016 CEI report, 407 major businesses — spanning nearly every industry and geography — earned a top score of 100 percent and the distinction of “Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality.”


Download report .pdf here: hrc-assets.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com

Synod: A suggestion that places priests in an impossible situation, the expectation that they can “open a door”

The Truth About the 14th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops? 

by CARDINAL RAYMOND BURKE

In the Nov. 28 issue of La Civiltà Cattolica, Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro, director of the journal and a Synod Father, presents a summary of the work of the 14th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, dedicated to the vocation and mission of the family (pp. 372-391).

( download.pdf by Spadaro here: www.laciviltacattolica.it )

Although the author makes various affirmations about the nature and work of the Synod of Bishops, which demand critical comment in a longer study, one affirmation which necessitates immediate comment is summarized thus by the author:

The Synod has also desired to touch wounded persons and couples to accompany them and heal them in a process of integration and reconciliation without barriers. Concerning access to the sacraments for those divorced and remarried civilly, the Synod has formulated the way of discernment and of the “internal forum”, laying the foundations and opening a door which, on the contrary, had remained closed in the preceding Synod.

I set apart the fact the public declarations by several synod fathers affirm the opposite, that is, they affirm that the Synod upheld the constant practice of the Church regarding those who are living in an irregular union. Even as the text of paragraphs 84 to 86 of the final report of the synod lacks clarity regarding fundamental truths of the faith, the Holy Eucharist and Holy Matrimony, the same lack of clarity has now emerged in the public declarations of the Synod Fathers.

The fact is that the Synod could not open a door which does not exist and cannot exist, namely, a discernment in conscience which contradicts the truth about the supreme sanctity of the Most Holy Eucharist and the indissolubility of the marriage bond. The synod, as the Church has always taught and practiced, has wanted to show love towards the individual who find himself in a situation which is not coherent with the teaching of Christ and His Church.

Christ-like love of the individual, however, is not “integration and reconciliation without barriers,” for it is founded upon the irreplaceable truths of nature and grace, and is ordered accordingly for the good of the individual and of the whole community. Christ-like love accompanies the individual on the way to repentance and reparation, so that he can once again be disposed to meet Christ in the sacraments.

The way of discernment upon which the priest accompanies the penitent who is living in an irregular union assists the penitent to conform his conscience once again to the truth of the Holy Eucharist and to the truth of the marriage to which he is bound. As the Church has consistently taught and practiced, the penitent is led in the “internal forum” to live chastely in fidelity to the existing marriage bond, even if seeming to be living with another in a marital way, and thus to be able to have access to the sacraments in a way which does not give scandal. Pope St. John Paul II described the Church’s practice in the “internal forum” in No. 84 of Familiaris Consortio. The Declaration of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts of June 24, 2000, illustrates the teaching in No. 84 of Familiaris Consortio. Both of these documents are referenced in the final report of the synod, but sadly in a misleading way.

To give the impression that there is another practice in the “internal forum,” which would permit an individual in an irregular union to have access to the sacraments, is to suggest that the conscience can be in conflict with the truth of the faith. Such a suggestion clearly places priests in an impossible situation, the expectation that they can “open a door” for the penitent which, in fact, does not exist and cannot exist.


Read more: www.ncregister.com