On True and False Infinities
Joseph Ratzinger, many years ago, warned us against the “false infinities” that might mis-lead us as to the nature of existence. Coronavirus lockdown has brought us to a moment when, many of our “little infinities” withdrawn, we get to face the horizon with an enhanced chance of seeing that all joys, small and great, come from the same place. Temporarily deprived of so many of our “little infinities,” perhaps we will see that these transient joys are just stepping stones on the road to lasting joys.
The Christless Society of the Lord of the Flies
A new study by the British newspaper The Guardian reveals the true story that inspired Golding's famous novel The Lord of the Flies. It retraces Golding’s thesis of a violent and brutal human man that can only be prevented from emerging by civilisation. Yet, on closer inspection, it can be said that Golding was not wrong: he merely portrayed a society without the Catholic Church, founded by Christ.
Why God hides his face
Sin can make the face of God be hidden, which He shows to us in the Sacraments. We think of the many social injustices, the sacrilegious Communions, the many people who skip Sunday Mass for the sake of work or entertainment, sexual deviations, abortion, euthanasia, doctrinal laxity, the absolutions of non-repentant sinners, liturgical abuses. Probably God has said: “Enough!” All this has also involved innocent people, but not by chance...
May 1 is not Labor Day
May 1 in Europe, and many other nations, is Labor Day. Actually, it isn’t. Catholics and Christians have christened this soviet-inspired International Workers Day on their calendar of saints with the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. This is a much better way to celebrate the first day of this spring month recalling the modest, hardworking, and dependable foster father of Jesus.
Captain Tom, the centenarian who rallied the United Kingdom
War veteran Tom Moore turns 100 today, and the United Kingdom is paying him homage with nation-wide celebrations. The images of him, almost centenarian, walking 2.5 km around his back garden bent over a walker to collect money to fight Covid-19 travelled the world. His original goal was to raise a thousand pounds, instead collected 30 million. It’s a phenomenon that can only be explained as a hymn to life and hope, this what Captain Tom personifies.
The virus that nullified five centuries of materialism
COVID-19 has been isolated and it has been discovered that it is so small that it is nearly invisible. And yet it has upended our existence. For five hundred years it has been claimed the only things that exist are those which our senses can perceive. Everything else is superstition. We now know we’ve been lied to and that empiricists, Enlightenment, materialists and romantics were wrong.
Without liberty life is no-longer protected
In the comments of politicians and commentators just as in the reaction of the people, there is the perception that the war against the coronavirus justifies the suspension of civil liberty. It is an old debate that has engaged many philosophers, but the reality is that when power takes away liberty it does not guarantee either safety or life.
A virus between fact and fiction: the ideal thing to suspend civil liberties
A pandemic is the ideal thing that can be used to suspend democracy and civil liberties, often invoked by the same people who are presently removing them. Fictional stories of similar catastrophes teach us that this is so. Planetary emergencies are the ideal thing for those who want to have a world government of “technicians.” Everything started in China, which is a totalitarian regime.
Sociology admits the family is not an “error”
Well, if the widely-read New York Times columnist David Brooks believes the family is an institution created in the 1900s and destined to fail, then surely it must be in crisis. Yet, sociology affirms (even more so than the Catholic Church) that the family is a valuable social institution founded upon marriage protects society from various forms of violence, educational and social failures, and poverty.
Reality show suicides and the sham of life on social media
There are now four suicides connected to the British reality show “Love Island”: its former host, Caroline Flack, was found dead, and before her two other contestants and a boyfriend had also killed themselves. Used to being in front of the cameras 24 hours a day, when they leave they repeat it on social media. The same thing happens in Italy, and is spreading as if happiness depended on the love you receive from the world, but results in despair.
“Jesus, arise”: a study on the Shroud is disproved by the Shroud
A Spanish Plastic Surgery Specialist, Bernardo Hontanilla Calatayud, says he has studied the image on the Shroud and can affirm that it shows “the typical gesture of a person trying to rise from the supine position”. Even the facial muscles are those of someone alive. But this statement, on the trail of the Resurrection, is refuted by science and also by the Shroud itself because the image is not the image of a body about to rise.
The "sacrifice" on stage at the Sanremo song Festival
A rapper is invited to the most famous Italian song Festival by the director because of his desire to live despite being confined to a wheel chair with ALS. The young male sings a hymn to life with words of the beauty of sacrifice (the affection of his loved-ones) and the rosary that keeps the devil of desperation away. Anyone suffering can’t help but be struck.
