✣ Highlights from the week online
A dance out of timeAt patheos.com, Marc Barnes’s Bad Catholic blog took issue with “our current dance through the fields of Big Moral Questions”. Whenever an issue is discussed, it is framed in terms of “real life stories”. The New York Times Magazine discussed prostitution via a piece on “The Everyday Faces of Sex Workers”; pro-choice campaigners presented “Remarkably Normal: Abortion Stories”.
This suggests that narratives are superior to general moral principles. “But our narratives are inspired, shaped, and utterly wound up with general principles.” People could change their minds, and their lives, according to those principles.
“It should be obvious that the use of narrative as a response to moral criticism is absurd. If slavery is wrong, it doesn’t matter how heart-wrenching and hip NPR’s series on The True Experience of Slave Owners is. If euthanasia is a Bad Thing rather than a Good Thing, no photo-journalism campaign telling the Real Stories of Elderly Citizens Deciding to Die With Dignity changes the fact. If I hold that an action is evil, all a narrative of some person doing that action proves is that, yowzers, there are real-life people to apply my moral belief to.”
An ordinariate miracle
Fr Ed Tomlinson gave thanks on his blog for the generosity of those donating to refurbish and beautify the ordinariate church in Tunbridge Wells. “When Pope Benedict XVI visited England ... he called for generosity to be shown in establishing the ordinariate,” Fr Tomlinson wrote. That generosity was coming from the laity.
“I cannot thank God enough for all that he is doing in this place,” he said. “It is a remarkable and humbling story. Little miracle follows little miracle. I am now in no doubt whatsoever that the Holy Spirit smiles on the ordinariate project; doubtless fuelled by the prayers of a saintly German octogenarian now living a monastic life of prayer deep within the Vatican. The one whose genius saw the need in the first place for a restoration of English spirituality within the reforms of the liturgy.”
Pro-lifers need a party
At theweek.com, Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry imagined a US pro-life party. Another writer, Ben Domenech of The Federalist, has already called for a single-issue Life Party, which would campaign solely against abortion. But why not take it further, Gobry asked. “A consistent pro-life ethic would involve a profound reshaping of the welfare state to support mothers and families, with specific subsidies to enhance and protect human life. Think of everything from a massive child tax credit ... to tax credits for companies that implement pro-family policies.” But for now, “I’ll still take the protest-vote Party of Life.”
✣ Meanwhile…
✣ From Italy, a reminder that polling can be treacherous. Avvenire, the Italian bishops’ official newspaper, opted for the front-page headline: ‘‘The island has decided: We’re staying in Europe” (‘‘L’isola ha deciso: Restiamo in Europa’’). Reaction from Downing Street was also given: “Cameron celebrates”.
✣ The Vatican’s total population is 800 – but when it comes to online petitions, the world’s smallest state can apparently pack a punch. In an online petition to re-run the referendum, 39,000 signatures were traced to Vatican City.It was one of several concerns raised about the petition: 23,000 North Koreans had also supposedly registered. There was a leap from 365,483 at 9.21pm on June 25 to 2.4 million by 11pm. Hackers have claimed some responsibility, and parliament’s Petition Committee has launched an investigation.
✣ Bishop Donal Bolen of Saskatoon has spent 36 hours homeless as part of a charity fundraiser. “The most powerful experience was the vulnerability of the situations that we were in,” the bishop said.
Participants raised money for a charity which helps the homeless and those with HIV. “I got to see first-hand a lot more of the hurt and the pain in the neighbourhood, as well as the joy, and the simple relationships that exist,” Bishop Bolen said.
✣ The week in quotations
Divorce always has terrible repercussions – but sometimes separation can be mediated that does not do life-long damage
Lord David Alton on Brexit's aftermath
L'Avvenire
We will not build Europe against its peoples
Archbishop Jean-Pierre Grillet
Statement following Brexit
The real meaning of a relic is love
Fr Mario Conte
Homily for the veneration of St Anthony’s relics
Not saying anything is irresponsible
Cardinal Zen on Vatican silence over Bishop Ma
Personal blog
✣ Statistic of the week
58%
Proportion of Christians who voted leave
Lord Ashcroft poll
