Father, brother and friend

What a bishop should be to his priests.

Keep what is good

Angelo Matera on the Pope and US Catholicism.

A sympathizer

Make of this what you want.

U.S. Catholics

Some statistics.

The truth, the WAY and the life, no?

Cardinal Vingt-trois (23?)'s path.

New take

The Washington Post on the state of US Catholicism. A change from a few years back is that the big story does not seem to be the liberal-conservative conflict, but rather the contrast between "American" Catholics (supposedly on the way out) and "Latino" Catholics (the wave of the future?). Another irrelevant distinction, probably.

Maverick

The New York Times has met Giuliano Ferrara.

Totality in a particular

Recognizing that something beautiful reflects a specific experience of life is NOT a conceptual mistake.

The truth shall set you free

It is true that the meaning of the word liberal has changed a lot during the last quarter of the century. Especially in Europe, a liberal used to be somebody concerned with political and economic freedom, and more or less rooted in a a generic "western" tradition (read: secularized Christianity). Today, a "liberal" is, at best, a moderate leftist. Worse, the concern for freedom has been replaced by cultural relativism, which of course is very detrimental to freedom itself, because in the long run there is no guiding criterion but sheer political power...which was the logical outcome of Marx's philosophy. So poor Karl had a strange destiny: his social vision utterly failed, while his philosophy was brought to triumph by the wealthiest bourgeoisie in world history. He would probably be disappointed.

Depressed

At least aul Berman understands the power of ideology, and so he is very discouraged. He should ask himself: where does love of freedom come from? Only from the experience of a great love.

No I

Life in China.

Forgetting

The Church is a life always needs to be renewed. If it is reduced to a culture and to institutions, it fades.

Individualization?

A longish essay on tribalism in the Middle East. The author neglects to raise the question what factors made possible the emergence of the "individual" (or rather, the "person") in the West.

The Pope and the US

At least Time makes an attempt to understand where the Pope stands in relation to American culture.

Who decided the rights?

Pay attention to the logic here: if something is not a right enshrined in the state constitution, that means the state has the right to outlaw it. So, we do not have any rights beside those the constitution grants us? Does the California constitution say anything about freedom?