A few years ago, in his State of the Union speech, President Bush called for a massive increase in federal spending to help fight the AIDS epidemic in Africa. At the time, I was suprised that Bush -- who is not known as a friend of AIDS victims, people of…
For many months, I knew that something horrible was haunting Sophie. Finally, one quiet night, she broke down and told me all of the details about that awful dilemma she faced several years before, while she was a prisoner in a concentration camp. Sophie had arrived at the camp with…
The U.S. Catholic bishops have a lot to be concerned about these days. The Church has been closing numerous parishes. Fewer people are going to Mass. Catholics are struggling with the meaning of ancient Catholic doctrines.
It was with this backdrop that the bishops held their “vigorous debate” over another pressing matter. After all the dust settled, though, the resolution could finally be announced. Thanks to the bishops’ effort, freshly tweaked rote prayers can now be uttered at Catholic Mass. Bishop Donald Trautman declared that these new prayers were “the most significant liturgical action to come before this body for many years.”
So where do you get a few more dozen politicians like Senator Russ Feingold. How refreshing to listen to a politician who is not afraid to announce understandable positions on important issues. I listened critically. I wanted to be able to say that I found at least minor fault with…
Pope John Paul II, now deceased, was conflicted regarding the proper scope of science. He saw science as “a pathway in which many have traveled away from faith.” According to Monsignor Albacete, the pope urged us “to look beyond our intellectual ideas because reason, which limits man to the visible world, will kill faith.”
The extent of that ambivalence was revealed by an article released today by the Associated Press:
Famed physicist Stephen Hawking said Thursday that Pope John Paul II tried to discourage him and other scientists attending a cosmology conference at the Vatican from trying to figure out how the universe began.
The British scientist joked he was lucky the pope didn’t realize he had already presented a paper at the gathering suggesting how the universe was created.“I didn’t fancy the thought of being handed over to the Inquisition like Galileo,” Hawking said in a lecture to a sold-out audience at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. John Paul died in 2005; Hawking did not say when the Vatican meeting was held.
Yes, our sense of curiosity might ultimately destroy us, but do we know enough to know that to any degree of certainty? What is the true “conservative” position, unlimited science or limited science? If the scope of science should be limited, how should it be limited and by whom? By non-scientists such as the pope? If limited completely, what could serve as an alternative to science? We are naturally curious animals, you see.…