LECTURES

(This page last updated: 17/3/06)

I. Applied Catholic Thinking

A. Analysis: Breaking the Bonds of Secularist Thought

1. Pro-Life and Pro-Truth (Why God is Never an Optional Extra)

(Last updated: 10/6/06)

A fine example of applied Christian thinking in journalism – an inexplicably rare phenomenon today – may be found in this commentary from the secular publication Human Events, inspired by a current U.S. criminal trial (19/4/06). Rather than shying away from a theistic argument by appealing to a godless conception of “natural law” – as discussed in the above lecture – the writer very matter-of-factly demonstrates one of the fruits of our Redemption by Christ in terms of a civilised society.

Recent attempts to break the bonds of Secularist thought include Pope Benedict's call for Catholic politicians to ground legislation in Truth (13/3/07), and a Protestant American student's articulation, albeit necessarily erroneous, of a religious worldview in the face of Secularist dogmatism in the halls of academia (10/3/07).

2. Why Catholics Cannot Defend Themselves (The Religious and Cultural Suicide of a Conquered People)

The perhaps pessimistic-sounding title of the article linked to above should not put the reader off this intellectually liberating paper by Dr. John C. Rao, Associate Professor of History at St. John's University in New York. The following is an extract: “Nineteenth and early twentieth-century Catholic thinkers warned that anyone who did not appreciate the errors of the modern definition of freedom and tried to act "pragmatically" on its basis would drag what was, in historical fact, a weak Church into a "free" and "open" co-existence and competition with immensely willful and strong enemies under conditions in which she was, humanly speaking, bound to lose.... The omnipotent God could indeed protect the Church within the free market place of ideas and life styles where truth is accorded no privileged place among the chaos of ideological commodities. But He would do so through the heroic sufferings of His faithful and not thanks to the merits of the Pluralist "method" itself. A true Catholic pragmatism could not legitimately force believers into the spiritual equivalent of a game of poker with a team of card sharks, and then blithely demand supernatural intervention from God to protect them.”

Other writings by Dr. Rao are available online here.

B. Construction: Catholic Solutions to Secular Problems

1. Signing Your Life Away (The Need to put Charity before Choice¹)

(Last updated: 28/7/06)

2. Innocent until Proven Guilty: The Origins of a Legal Maxim

Above is a link to a paper by Kenneth Pennington, Professor of Ecclesiastical and Legal History at Catholic University of America. In this paper, Pennington demonstrates how jurists from the Ages of Faith* used Divine Revelation to justify making the process by which man judges his fellow man accord with that of God. It serves to highlight how the erosion of our historical rights of due process by Secularist governments², both murderous Conservative and murderous Labour ³, are a further example of what Pope John Paul II referred to when he observed, “[W]hen the sense of God is lost, the sense of man is also threatened and poisoned”⁴.

* Note: The Ages of Faith are known to Protestants and others as “the Middle Ages”.

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1The proponents of charity have just won an important vote against the rhetoric of “choice” at the British Medical Association (29/6/06).

2Click here for a brief survey of the key legislative steps taken so far to effect this erosion. It is also worth noting the extraordinary rate at which new criminal offences are being created in this country (16/8/06).

3For an example of continuity in policy in this area between both parties in government, see this Belfast Telegraph article on Britain's national DNA database (14/4/06).

Home	LECTURES
	(This page last updated: 17/3/06)
	I. Applied Catholic Thinking

	A. Analysis: Breaking the Bonds of Secularist Thought

	1. Pro-Life and Pro-Truth (Why God is Never an Optional Extra)
	(Last updated: 10/6/06)
	A fine example of applied Christian thinking in journalism – an inexplicably rare phenomenon today – may be found in this commentary from the secular publication Human Events, inspired by a current U.S. criminal trial (19/4/06). Rather than shying away from a theistic argument by appealing to a godless conception of “natural law” – as discussed in the above lecture – the writer very matter-of-factly demonstrates one of the fruits of our Redemption by Christ in terms of a civilised society.
	Recent attempts to break the bonds of Secularist thought include Pope Benedict's call for Catholic politicians to ground legislation in Truth (13/3/07), and a Protestant American student's articulation, albeit necessarily erroneous, of a religious worldview in the face of Secularist dogmatism in the halls of academia (10/3/07).
	2. Why Catholics Cannot Defend Themselves (The Religious and Cultural Suicide of a Conquered People)
	The perhaps pessimistic-sounding title of the article linked to above should not put the reader off this intellectually liberating paper by Dr. John C. Rao, Associate Professor of History at St. John's University in New York. The following is an extract: “Nineteenth and early twentieth-century Catholic thinkers warned that anyone who did not appreciate the errors of the modern definition of freedom and tried to act "pragmatically" on its basis would drag what was, in historical fact, a weak Church into a "free" and "open" co-existence and competition with immensely willful and strong enemies under conditions in which she was, humanly speaking, bound to lose.... The omnipotent God could indeed protect the Church within the free market place of ideas and life styles where truth is accorded no privileged place among the chaos of ideological commodities. But He would do so through the heroic sufferings of His faithful and not thanks to the merits of the Pluralist "method" itself. A true Catholic pragmatism could not legitimately force believers into the spiritual equivalent of a game of poker with a team of card sharks, and then blithely demand supernatural intervention from God to protect them.”
	Other writings by Dr. Rao are available online here.

	B. Construction: Catholic Solutions to Secular Problems

	1. Signing Your Life Away (The Need to put Charity before Choice¹)
	(Last updated: 28/7/06)
	2. Innocent until Proven Guilty: The Origins of a Legal Maxim
	Above is a link to a paper by Kenneth Pennington, Professor of Ecclesiastical and Legal History at Catholic University of America. In this paper, Pennington demonstrates how jurists from the Ages of Faith* used Divine Revelation to justify making the process by which man judges his fellow man accord with that of God. It serves to highlight how the erosion of our historical rights of due process by Secularist governments², both murderous Conservative and murderous Labour ³, are a further example of what Pope John Paul II referred to when he observed, “[W]hen the sense of God is lost, the sense of man is also threatened and poisoned”⁴.
	* Note: The Ages of Faith are known to Protestants and others as “the Middle Ages”.

	(Back to top)