The things we most cherish demand a “Platonic turn,” one that reaches into the muck of incomplete ideas, and with a bit of virtuous unknowing produces a glimpse of goodness worthy of deep affection.
For all the failures of the American bishops, it would be foolish to suppose they're anything less than successors to the Apostles. But if we believe this, we should vigorously demand it.
There are three falsehoods I'd like to avoid, and that I'd like to make clear in case they weren't before. "Enlightened civic discourse" demands nothing less.
What good happens in spite of my shortcomings, because of my nature, isn't an accident, but a participation in God's life, and in his design for fatherhood.
For Christians to be politically significant, we must do more than just participate in the political activities that are handed to us. We must set a political agenda through our personal choices.
Does permanence cut against the remaining shreds of humanity left for social networking? Or does anonymity pose too much risk for forming accountable, human structures for communication?
Stifling Pope Benedict's voice, who is perhaps the moral theologian par excellence, endangers not only the clarity of the moral message of the Church, but the formation of all Christian consciences.