Weak Thought and the LawThomas Jared Farmer The following is an excerpt from Thomas Jared Farmer’s upcoming book, Gianni Vattimo: Philosopher, Communist, Catholic, Nihilist. Farmer’s book is now available for pre-order. Excerpted with permission: Copyright (c) 2025 Columbia University Press. Used by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved. Page numbers refer to publications linked in the text.…
St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Roanoke, Virginia by Joe Ravi (CC-BY-SA 3.0). With the election of Leo XIV, who chose his name in an acknowledgment of Leo XIII, the pope of Rerum Novarum, Catholic Social Teaching (CST) might be back in an even stronger way. Hence, there were great expectations for the apostolic exhortation, Dilexi…
View of the Vatican City Gardens by Patrik Kunec (CC BY-SA 4.0). My earlier column reviewed Washington’s recently passed Senate Bill 5375 that would have required Roman Catholic priests to violate their sacred duty to maintain the seal of confession by reporting those who committed the heinous act of child abuse to state authorities. Based…
Basilica of Saint Peter by Carlo Armanni from Pixabay. Pope Francis envisions human fraternity in his 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti. This essay explores how “fraternal pluralism” guides the Church’s respect for personal conscience. This teaching reflects aspects of earlier Church history and the Vatican II document Dignitatis Humanae, and it can be illustrated by examining…
View from the Arc de Triomphe in France by Pierre Blaché (CC0 1.0.) In a definitive study of the origins, drafting, and intent of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Johannes Morsink calls attention to a deep, widespread division of opinion within religious communities toward human rights (285). He points out that representatives of most…
Buildings of Worship as Cultural Heritage in Italy – New Scenarios for the Management and Reuse of Catholic Churches Between Canon Law and State LawDavide Dimodugno Excerpted and translated from Gli edifici di culto come beni culturali in Italia. Nuovi scenari per la gestione e il riuso delle chiese cattoliche tra diritto canonico e diritto statale…
Image: Church Altar Pews (Pixabay) This article is part of our “Reassessing Democracy: Contemporary Perspectives” series. If you’d like to explore other articles in this series, click here. T here is no single Catholic political philosophy. Some intellectuals, like twentieth-century philosopher Heinrich Rommen, have even suggested that “Catholic political philosophy” is a contradiction in terms, given the…
St Francis of Assisi by Philip Fruytiers. From the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp. (PD-US). It is possible to investigate Saint Francis of Assisi’s life (1181-1226) from many different and relevant angles. His biography and the accounts of the way he lived are permeated with remarkable singularities and events: his horizontalized view of non-human…
Via Vyacheslav Argenberg on Flickr The tenth anniversary of a papal election is an important milestone. This is especially so in the case of Pope Francis, who was elected on March 13, 2013 in extraordinary circumstances after the resignation of his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who had been in office for less than eight years. Of…
Archbishop Adrian Tync. Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0 This article is part of our “200 Years of Johnson v. M’Intosh: Law, Religion, and Native American Lands” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. Shortly before Thanksgiving 2016, Episcopalian priest John Floberg held up a copy of Pope Alexander VI’s 1493 papal bull Inter…