I grew up in what you might call a genetically Democratic family, but one in which partisan heterodoxy was not uncommon. My parents voted for Dwight D. Eisenhower twice, for Richard M. Nixon in 1960 and for the occasional Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Maryland.
Author: George Weigel
The Ostpolitik Failed; Get Over It
The default positions guiding Vatican diplomacy these days badly need re-setting. That re-set must begin with a frank recognition that, whatever its intentions, Ostpolitik was a failure.
The Virtue Deficit in US Political Culture
Had I the resources, the one new book I’d give every delegate to the national political conventions meeting later this month is James Traub’s masterful biography, “John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit” (Basic Books). Traub grabs your attention quickly, seven sentences in: “[Adams] did not aim to please, and he largely succeeded.”
A Cinematic Lesson In Hope
Summoning memories of a time when the good folks won, cleanly and against all the odds, is the singular accomplishment of a splendid new documentary, “Liberating a Continent: John Paul II and the Fall of Communism.”
The Confessions of a Political Elitist
The term “elitist” has been bandied about so promiscuously in this election cycle that it’s become virtually content-free. Yet “elitist” is also being weaponized as a scare-word to prevent legitimate criticism of ideas, attitudes and behaviors. That kind of bullying is bad news for an already degraded political culture.
Two Catholics and The Catholic Game
Baseball is by far the most Catholic of the sports on which we lavish such attention and passion.
Kung-Pao Diplomacy?
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, recently told an Italian journal that relations between the Vatican and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) “are living a positive phase, as there have been signals from both sides that there is a wish to keep on talking in order to find together solutions to the problems of the presence of the Catholic Church in that huge country.”
Intolerance and Evangelization
Cardinal Robert Sarah is one of the adornments of the Catholic Church. He accepted episcopal ordination knowing that he might well be killed for his witness to Christ.
Bible Preaching and Healing the Culture
If Catholics in the U.S. are going to be healers of our wounded culture, we’re going to have to learn to see the world through lenses ground by biblical faith. That form of depth perception only comes from an immersion in the Bible itself.
Now What?
What is the thoughtful Catholic voter to do when neither presidential candidate is even minimally committed to human dignity, the common good, subsidiarity and solidarity, as the social doctrine understands those concepts?