Random Selection Favors Religion, or, What Would Darwin Do?

I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live. (Deuteronomy 30:19) An Angry God Random selection appears to have doomed its most enthusiastic promoters to extinction.      I want to be clear that I am not taking issue in this post with the theory … Continue reading Random Selection Favors Religion, or, What Would Darwin Do?

Evangelism, Free Will, and the Spiritual Works of Mercy

   We live in strange times.  Never in human history has it been possible for so many people to live lives so disconnected from reality. Former Nuncio to the United States Archbishop Carlo Vigano has just released a remarkable meditation for Lent which touches on that issue.  He starts with a prayer from the Ambrosian Missal, which says … Continue reading Evangelism, Free Will, and the Spiritual Works of Mercy

Feast Your Ears and Rest Your Eyes: Sacred Music and Catholic Culture Podcasts

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one. (1 Corinthians: 4-6)      St. Paul, in the well-known passage above, reminds the Corinthians that the Lord … Continue reading Feast Your Ears and Rest Your Eyes: Sacred Music and Catholic Culture Podcasts

A Smaller, Purer Church?

In reality, all Fr. Ratzinger was doing was looking at social trends, the "signs of the times" (see Matthew 16:3). He saw a society in which Christian belief was becoming less important with, as a consequence, progressively less social advantage to membership. As the advantage diminished and eventually disappeared, the less committed members would move out, and on to something else . . .