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Jan 2021
Last Sunday, I wrote began writing about the common good, a good in which each member of the community shares, each in his own way, and which unites the members of the community. The common good is truly the good of the person who partakes in it as well as being the good of the whole community. I wrote about the common good of a sports team and the common good of the family, then introduced the question of the common good of a nation. That is what we are looking for.......
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January 01, 2021
The Common Good, Part I
Last year, I left off my treatment of the role of government in respect to social justice (the right order of human society) by affirming that “The first role of government then is to provide...
November 20, 2020
Truth and the need for authority
After arguing that ‘rights’ is an inadequate foundation for just government, last week I argued instead that truth is the only adequate foundation. I then went a step further to point out that the three...
November 13, 2020
Truth the Foundation of Just Government
In my treatment of social justice, after discussing religion, marriage, and work, I have finally turned my attention to the role of the government. Over the past two Sundays I argued that the protection of...
October 30, 2020
The Problem with Rights (Part I)
Once again, I have been writing about the theme of social justice as the right ordering of human society. I began with the centrality of right religion, the religion of the Mass, passed on to...
October 23, 2020
The Upcoming Elections
Last November I began writing on the subject of social justice, which I defined as the right order of society. When I did so I had neither politics nor the election in mind. I was...
October 16, 2020
Science cannot get us out of the mess we made
Last Sunday, in my treatment of the relation between work and the environment, I moved from the theoretical to the very contemporary issue of climate-change. This was to show the inadequacy of the environmental movement...
October 09, 2020
The problem of climate change – not what you think
Last Sunday I wrote about the light and the dark in the ‘progress’ that the industrial revolution has brought us. I would say the balance came out rather on the dark side. This led me...
October 02, 2020
Industrial Revolution: Light and Darkness
I have lived in the Scranton, Pennsylvania area, in which the scars left by coalmining are still visible. I have lived in Steubenville, Ohio, which has not recovered from the pollution of the steel industry....
September 25, 2020
Work and the Care of the Earth
Last Sunday I used the example of homesteading in the settlement of the American west to illustrate how land is appropriated to families through use and development, which involves work. I made the further points...