Tag: moral

On
Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

The hidden power in our suffering

Making Sense out of Bioethics column by Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

In a 1999 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, patients with serious illness were asked to identify what was most important to them during the dying process.

Many indicated they wanted to achieve a “sense of control.” This is understandable. Most of us fear our powerlessness in the face of illness and death.

We would like to retain an element of control, even though we realize that dying often involves the very opposite: a total loss of control, over our muscles, our emotions, our minds, our bowels, and our very lives, as our human framework succumbs to powerful disintegrative forces.

Read More
On
Fr. Donald Lange

Being responsible stewards of creation

Seeing with Jesus' Eyes, by Fr. Don Lange

One morning as I walked to the Mound cafeteria for breakfast, I saw the rising sun, like a bright orange-red host, rise slowly from the chalice of the good earth. It was beautiful!

In the cafeteria, two Sisters were also deeply moved by its beauty. One of them exclaimed, “This is my morning prayer!”

Celebrating Earth Day

Sharing a beautiful sunrise or sunset can bond us with others and open us to God’s presence. It can invite us to respect God’s gift of earth. It can help prepare us for Earth Day.

We celebrate Earth Day on April 22. Earth Day was started by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin to teach and to inspire the public to take better care of the environment.

Read More
On
Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

Black and white, or gray?

Making Sense out of Bioethics column by Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

One widely-encountered idea today is that there is no black and white when it comes to morality, only a kind of “gray area.” This is often taken to mean that we really can’t know with certainty what is right and wrong, allowing us to “push into the gray” as we make certain moral decisions that at first glance appear to be immoral.

The behavior of the semi-legendary figure of Robin Hood is sometimes mentioned as an example of this “gray area” phenomenon, since he was a character who would steal money (morally bad) for the purposes of helping the poor (morally good).

‘Gray’ shrouds immoral actions

By focusing on the good intentions motivating our choices, and by arguing that morality is ambiguous and mostly “gray” anyway, a person can more easily justify and provide cover for morally problematic actions. When we begin to scrutinize the claim that morality is “gray,” however, we encounter significant problems and contradictions.

Read More
On
George Weigel

Remembering Pope John Paul II

The Catholic Difference by George Weigel

Strange as it may seem, I’ve been vaguely worried about the beatification on May 1 of a man with whom I was in close conversation for over a decade and to the writing of whose biography I dedicated 15 years of my own life.

My worries don’t have to do with allegations of a “rushed” beatification process; the process has been a thorough one, and the official judgment is the same as the judgment of the people of the Church.

I’m also unconcerned about the fretting of ultra-traditionalists for whom John Paul II was a failure because he didn’t restore the French monarchy, impose the Tridentine Mass on the entire Church, and issue thundering anathemas against theologians and wayward politicians.

Read More
On
Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

The courage to refuse to cooperate in evil

Making Sense out of Bioethics column by Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

An electrician by trade, Tim Roach is married with two children and lives about an hour outside Minneapolis. He was laid off his job in July 2009.

After looking for work for more than a year and a half, he got a call from his local union in February 2011 with the news anyone who is unemployed longs for, not just a job offer, but one with responsibility and a good salary of almost $70,000 a year.

He ultimately turned the offer down, however, because he discovered that he was being asked to oversee the electrical work at a new Planned Parenthood facility under construction in St. Paul on University Ave. Aware that abortions would be performed there, he knew his work would involve him in “cooperation with evil,” and he courageously declined the offer.

Read More
On
Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

Humans in ‘frozen orphanages’ need protection

A key argument in the embryonic stem cell debate — widely invoked by scientists, patient advocacy groups, and politicians — involves the fate of frozen embryos.

Barack Obama put it this way in 2008: “If we are going to discard those embryos, and we know there is potential research that could lead to curing debilitating diseases — Alzheimer’s, Lou Gehrig’s disease — if that possibility presents itself, then I think that we should, in a careful way, go ahead and pursue that research.”

The head of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, embraced this same line of reasoning by

Read More