Why is it Bishop Earl Fernandes cannot speak the truth? In the May 28 edition of the Dispatch, he again denied that he forced the Paulist priests to leave the Newman Center last year and repeated the fiction they “chose to leave.”
The Paulists left because Fernandes would allow them to stay—just two, not all four priests—only if they agreed to be relegated to the status of chaplain and report ...
Continue Reading →I’m intrigued by the theology of Paula White, President Trump’s new spiritual adviser. Let me give you a couple snippets of her belief system and then contrast them with Richard Rohr, a Catholic priest and author.
Most striking about White is that she knows what God wants for us politically. If you don’t support Trump, she tells us, “You’re gonna have to stand accountable before God one day.” And why would that be? Well, because “Trump has ...
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President Donald Trump warns that the Senate confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh indicates that “it’s a very scary time for young men in America.” Fox journalist Jeanine Pirro believes the left is setting a new standard—“You are guilty until proven innocent”—and that due process, probable cause and reasonable doubt no longer have any meaning.
Let’s drop the hyperbole and recognize that the Kavanaugh hearing, while ugly, was, in essence, a job interview on a national scale.
What should have been a dignified ...
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The Pew Research Center reports that income inequality is at its highest point since 1928. Will it ever substantially improve? Not without a dramatic paradigm shift.
From 1979 to 2015, annual wages increased for the bottom 90 percent of Americans by 21 percent, according to the Economic Policy Institute. For the top 1.0 percent, the increase was 105 percent. For the top 0.1 percent, it was 339 percent.
Our system is based on the paradigm, as Professor Scott R. Sanders of Indiana ...
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Why is it hard to debunk misinformation? Why aren’t people willing to change their minds? Part of the problem lies within our own psyche, and part of the problem is with the news media.
Ezra Klein of Vox interviewed Dartmouth University political scientist Brendan Nyhan about our reticence to accept proven facts. The underlying problem is that we’re slow to update our belief system. No one likes to admit he’s wrong, and admitting you’re wrong becomes even harder when the ...
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Two years ago, Kathryn Steinle was killed by Jose Garcia Zarate, an illegal immigrant who had been deported five times and had a history of drug convictions. On Nov. 30, Zarate was acquitted in Steinle’s murder trial. President Donald Trump called it “a disgraceful verdict.”
It’s a shocking and a horrible result for Steinle’s family, because there’s no doubt Zarate was the shooter. Was Trump right to criticize the verdict and, by implication, the jury?
Trump also took issue with the trial ...
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The mark of a man is his ability to admit his errors. Former governor of Alabama, George Wallace, after trying his best to prevent integration, publicly apologized for his bigotry. Donald Trump, who has displayed at least the same level of bigotry, doesn’t even know he should.
The photo you see is from the day Wallace stood in front of the doors of a classroom building at the University of Alabama ...
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Donald Trump has been criticized for a variety of faults. He’s a bully, a bigot, a misogynist, mean spirited, dishonest, and self-centered. Stealing a line from columnist Paul Krugman, “On the other hand, he’s a terrible person.”
For all his faults, Trump has one redeeming quality. He selected as his personal physician a man who has a sense of humor. It’s so understated and subtle people may not ...
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It’s not something you would think of, but when it’s comes to personal conflict and politics, we can learn from fighter pilots—fight your fight; don’t fight the other guy’s fight.
Fighter pilots know you never engage an enemy on his terms. Whatever advantages an enemy jet may have in aerial combat are things you avoid. Play to an opponent’s ...
Continue Reading →Financial regulation is not just for Wall Street. New rules are now in place at the Vatican for canonization, the process by which the Roman Catholic Church determines who should be declared a saint. U.S presidential candidates have chimed in. More about their views in a minute.
U.S. News & World Report reported last week that Pope Francis imposed financial accountability regulations “on the Vatican’s multimillion-dollar saint-making machine.” The changes came after two books revealed abuses that were uncovered by ...
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