Well, well, well. It should be very interesting to see what Paglia, high on my list of the most loathsome denizens of the Vatican, says in response. Go here to read the article Bishop Barron refers to.
Gauntlet Tossed
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Paglia violates our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution that “all men are created equal” about slavery and morality. Our Constitution says that all people must be free to encounter God in a personal and loving relationship undefiled by anyone, Pope, prisoner and/or neighbor. So, bring on the millstones. No one can have a loving relationship with his Creator, God, when he is filled with vice.
I shall remain a loyal Ciceronian.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Lex Naturalis
De Re Publica
Liber III
Pars XXII
Est quidem vera lex recta ratio naturae congruens, diffusa in omnes, constans, sempiterna, quae vocet ad officium iubendo, vetando a fraude deterreat; quae tamen neque probos frustra iubet aut vetat nec improbos iubendo aut vetando movet. Huic legi nec obrogari fas est neque derogari ex hac aliquid licet neque tota abrogari potest, nec vero aut per senatum aut per populum solvi hac lege possumus, neque est quaerendus explanator aut interpres eius alius, nec erit alia lex Romae, alia Athenis, alia nunc, alia posthac, sed et omnes gentes et omni tempore una lex et sempiterna et immutabilis continebit, unusque erit communis quasi magister et imperator omnium deus, ille legis huius inventor, disceptator, lator; cui qui non parebit, ipse se fugiet ac naturam hominis aspernatus hoc ipso luet maximas poenas, etiamsi cetera supplicia, quae putantur, effugerit.
Natural Law
There is a true law, a right reason, conformable to nature, universal, unchangeable, eternal, whose commands urge us to duty, and whose prohibitions restrain us from evil. Whether it enjoins or forbids, the good respect its injunctions, and the wicked treat them with indifference. This law cannot be contradicted by any other law, and is not liable either to derogation or abrogation. Neither the senate nor the people can give us any dispensation for not obeying this universal law of justice. It needs no other expositor and interpreter than our own conscience. It is not one thing at Rome and another at Athens; one thing today and another tomorrow; but in all times and nations this universal law must for ever reign, eternal and imperishable. It is the sovereign master and emperor of all beings. God himself is its author — its promulgator — its enforcer. He who obeys it not, flies from himself, and does violence to the very nature of man. For his crime he must endure the severest penalties hereafter, even if he avoids the usual misfortunes of the present life.
In the Spirit of St. Thomas More, Bishop Barron places God above man. Light shining on the darkness.
When Paglia retired from the institute, ¡Lio! gave his job to Paglia’s like-minded right hand man.
This is the same clown who adorned his cathedral with homoerotic art. The fact that he feels comfortable being openly truthful about his intentions says quite a bit about the mess the Church is in.
If good is not an actual thing, it makes nonsense of our lives. Every man will do what *he* thinks good. Like sheep without a shepherd.
We have a Shepherd, who has entrusted us to shepherds who claim to be the faithful servants of that Shepherd.
They have not been so.
They tell us that the Shepherd’s instructions are only guidelines and ask who are they to judge.
And so we sheep wind up with heads stuck in the fences… or piled up in a corner because we all ran there for an imagined fear… or sick to death from eating poisonous plants… or frozen for lack of protection… or dehydrated because the shepherds didn’t bring water… or starved because they stopped providing feed.
These shepherds. Pray for them, even when they prey on us.
Aside from questions of moral law, intrinsic evils and such, the “pastoral” approach to theology that relativizes them within each person’s subjective and cultural experience strikes me as a rather bleak project.
To be blunt, life usually sucks, and any amount of pleasure we throw at that doesn’t make it less so. Yet instead of offering people the hope of transformation in righteousness and freedom from sin, this kind of approach ends up reducing them to their desires, leveling them with the beasts who can never escape from nor transcend their instincts. That this is often couched in terms of “human dignity” cloaks the whole thing in a dreary irony in which there is neither dignity nor pastoring.
***That this is often couched in terms of “human dignity” cloaks the whole thing in a dreary irony in which there is neither dignity nor pastoring.***
True enough.
What ever happened to the spirit subduing the flesh?
How selfish of me to wonder that.
nice to see Barron exercise with cojones…
he must realize he won’t be so easily dismissed or made to quit.. that’s good…
Just like the Emperors new clothes, it would seem they are not only in perilous seas but without a boat too.
The fruits of synod of synodality- they forever talk about things which can’t be