We have a Pope!

Prayers for Pope Benedict XVI and the Church.

Cardinal Ratzinger on Moral Relativism ...

"Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and 'swept along by every wind of teaching,' looks like the only attitude acceptable to today's standards. We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,153733,00.html

The favorite for papal election hits the nail on the head here. Great indicator if he indeed does become Pope. My prayers go towards the College of Cardinals and its grave decision.

The downfall of Europe ...

The Wall Street Journal has an excellent piece on Europe's dominating secularism and continuing disregard for the Truth. Brian M. Carney reviews George Weigel's book, "The Cube and the Cathedral"--a book which details Europe's descent into secular humanism.

Key quote:

"What is the deeper source of European antipathy to religion? For Mr. Weigel, the problem goes all the way back to the 14th century, when scholastics like William of Ockham argued for 'nominalism.' According to their philosophy, universals--concepts such as 'justice' or 'freedom' and qualities such as 'white' or 'good'--do not exist in the abstract but are merely words that denote instances of what they describe. A current of thought was set into motion, Mr. Weigel believes, that pulled European man away from transcendent truths. One casualty was a fixed idea of human nature.

'If there is no such thing as human nature,' Mr. Weigel argues, 'then there are no universal moral principles that can be read from human nature.' If there are no universal moral truths, then religion, positing them, is merely a form of oppression or myth, one from which Europe's elites see themselves as liberated."

http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110006554

Fr. Neuhaus interview ...

Hugh Hewitt interviewed Fr. Neuhaus on his reactions to the Schiavo matter and how it intertwined with the Pope's illness and Holy Week. Fr. Neuhaus, I believe, is one of the most important intellectuals writing on behalf of the Natural Law today. He is editor-in-chief of one of the most essential periodicals being published, First Things. READ FIRST THINGS! Do you want to learn about the Natural Law? Read First Things. Do you want to become a smarter person? Read First Things. And, with an appeal to vanity, do you want to look smart in front of other people? Read First Things in public.

One of many points Fr. Neuhaus makes: "why does any human being matter? I mean do we believe...do we still believe the Declaration of Independence that we are all created by God and endowed by nature and nature's God with certain unalienable rights, the most basic of which is the right to life?"

http://www.radioblogger.com/#000586

Mark Steyn, On Point.

Mark Steyn, as usual, nails it this morning with a crystal clear column in the Telegraph. One of many great points:

"The root of the Pope's thinking - that there are eternal truths no one can change even if one wanted to - is completely incomprehensible to the progressivist mindset. There are no absolute truths, everything's in play, and by "consensus" all we're really arguing is the rate of concession to the inevitable: abortion's here to stay, gay marriage will be here any day now, in a year or two it'll be something else - it's all gonna happen anyway, man, so why be the last squaresville daddy-o on the block?"

And more ...

"Too many Western politicians of a generation ago - Schmidt, Trudeau, Mitterrand - failed to see what John Paul saw so clearly. It requires tremendous will to cling to the splendour of truth when the default mode of the era is to blur and evade."

Do yourself a favor and read the entire article.

One of the beneficial outgrowths of the Pope's passing, if there can be such things, is the renewed focus and explanation of the natural law. Let's hope that it continues.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/04/05/do0501.xml

"THE Truth"

George Weigel, biographer of Pope John Paul II, has an outstanding piece in today's Wall Street Journal. The key quote:

"For if there is only your truth and my truth and neither one of us recognizes a transcendent moral standard (call it 'the truth') by which to settle our differences, then either you will impose your power on me or I will impose my power on you; Nietszche, great, mad prophet of the 20th century, got at least that right. Freedom uncoupled from truth, John Paul taught, leads to chaos and thence to new forms of tyranny. For, in the face of chaos (or fear), raw power will inexorably replace persuasion, compromise, and agreement as the coin of the political realm. The false humanism of freedom misconstrued as 'I did it my way' inevitably leads to freedom's decay, and then to freedom's self-cannibalization. This was not the soured warning of an antimodern scold; this was the sage counsel of a man who had given his life to freedom's cause from 1939 on."

R.I.P., Karol.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110006512

Suffering, salvation, "quality of life" ...

I am not a big fan of slippery slope arguments. I tend to think there an easy way to sound somewhat intelligent--"Well, yes, but where does it stop?" That's not very sound logic.

But, I can't help but think this society is drifting ever more towards an acceptance of death as an answer to tough problems. And that scares the crap out of me. Society seems hellbent on getting rid of those things which, though terribly difficult, make us truly human. Pain, suffering, guilt, shame, anything that makes us feel bad about ourselves, whether it be physical, mental or emotional.

Yet suffering can be salvific. Now, I'm not advocating self-inflicted pain, whatever the form may be, just to become a better person. But merely that we should accept what life, and, if you believe as I do, what God gives us (as the Pope is doing so courageously now). I'm the first to admit that I likely would be a coward facing such adversity, but that's just an admission of my own weaknesses and failings, not a reason to avoid suffering at all costs.

But to get back to my feelings, I'm scared about this slippery slope towards the valley of the culture of death. Terry Schiavo's life was deemed not worthy to be lived. "Who would want to live like that?" I'm not sure people appreciate how destructive such a sentiment can be.

A child is born severely handicapped, either mentally or physically--who would want to live like that?

An elderly man becomes too senile to take care of himself any more--who would want to live like that?

I've lost my job, have no family, no friends, no prospects for life getting better and I'll be living on the street--who would want to live like that?

Folks, there are a lot of people that we could arguably say are not living a worthwhile life--the old, the sick, the handicapped, Ralph Nader voters, University of Michigan fans. Yet all of them have an inalienable right to live. Somehow we need to get back to recognizing that.