Happy feast day!
This week I read a few gloom-and-doom post predicting that Substack would crash and burn. I disagree.
The problem, the pessimists write, is that most readers can’t afford to pay every month for all of the many Substacks they want to read. That much is certainly true. But I see a simple solution: Don’t force readers to pay!
Everything on this Substack is free, and I hope to keep it that way. I am very grateful to those readers who choose to become paid subscribers. And I’m setting up a tip jar, to allow anyone to make an occasional donation. That support encourages me to keep writing— and keep making my work as widely available as possible!
Francis Beckwith, with whom I usually agree, strongly supports the Catholic bishops of Florida in their dispute with the state’s attorney general. I think he— and the bishops— are wrong, as I explained last week. It’s the attorney general who’s defending religious freedom.
Here in Massachusetts, a heated controversy exploded after the Governor Maura Healey signed legislation making abortion legal, for any reason at all, up until the moment of birth. At the signing ceremony, the governor was surrounded by women who smiled, laughed, and applauded, in a chilling display. How far can the blood-lust take us, before Church authorities take disciplinary action? Should the archbishop excommunicate the governor?
As a follow-up, I explained that no one should actually expect excommunication; our bishops have— unfortunately— established a clear pattern of failing to discipline wayward politicians. Still the situation in Massachusetts is so extreme, and that viral photo was so shocking, that we can’t give up hope.
Then this week on the Home Front, Leila and I continue the discussion on the debate here in Massachusetts. We point out that, short of excommunication, there’s a canonical step that the archbishop can and should take right away. Then we speak more broadly about political discourse, and the importance of not downplaying fundamental principles.
Thanks for reading Phil Lawler's Substack! This post is public so feel free to share it.
A retired Swiss bishop writes that recent popes “have become all too human in the exercise of their office.” It’s important to preserve a distinction between the thoughts of an individual and the teaching of Peter’s Successor.
Pope Leo has reminded us that to keep holy the Sabbath, “it is fundamental to celebrate the Eucharist.” It seemed simple to conclude, then, that during the Covid lockdown, our bishops prevented us from obeying the Commandment.
“Just suppose,” I wrote, that a government official promoted a vaccine that he knows might cause miscarriages. Would that be a crime against humanity? Just asking….
In Australia, a bishop was found guilty on criminal charges of sexual abuse. He’d already entered a guilty plea on firearms charges. I couldn’t help thinking: our bishops have always taken firearms charges seriously.
A Dutch bishop, in an open letter to Pope Leo, asks pointed questions about the synodal process. “What has all this actually yielded? Not: how many meetings were organized?”
No doubt you’re aware that the mainline Protestant denominations in the US have been declining in membership for years. But did you know that there’s been a faster decline in the percentage of Catholics who go to church weekly?
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.