Zenit published my article on the pope’s new social encyclical: Encyclical Offers Opportunity to “Think With the Church” By Jennifer Roback Morse SAN MARCOS, California, JULY 17, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI’s “Caritas in Veritate” is his contribution to the course of Catholic social teaching. mentators seem to read this document as if it were a think-tank white paper, and ask whether the Pope endorses their particular policy preferences. I must say that I surprised myself by not reflexively reading it...

“I vote for Democrats for one primary reason. They raise taxes on the rich.” So says Michael Sean Winters at In All Things, the blog of the contributors to America Magazine. Of course, most Americans, perhaps even Mr. Winter, generally need excuses to raise taxes on the rich. The hottest reason at the moment is to pay for universal health care coverage. Winter likes this reason. If passed, he says that it will be the “first outstanding example of a...

Back in 1983, economist Thomas Sowell wrote The Economics and Politics of Race, an in-depth look at how different ethnic and immigrant groups fared in different countries throughout human history. He noted that some groups, like the overseas Chinese, Japanese, and Jews, tended to thrive economically no matter where they went, bringing new skills to the countries that they arrived in and often achieving social acceptance even after facing considerable hatred and violence. Other groups, like the Irish and the...

John Hartley, the founder and editor of the International Journal of Cultural Studies, does for that journal something like what I did for the Journal of Markets & Morality awhile back. He takes his experience as an editor to reflect on the current state of the scholarly journal amid the challenges and opportunities in the digital age. Hartley opens his study, “Lament for a Lost Running Order? Obsolescence and Academic Journals,” by concluding that “the academic journal is obsolete,” at...

Rev. Robert A. Sirico had two recent appearances on Relevant Radio’s Drew Mariani Show to discuss the new social encyclical from Pope Benedict XVI. His first appearance was prior to the release of the encyclical and he explained how Christians who support the free economy believe that it should not be based on greed. To have a just society, we must have just people. When money es the end of a person, and a person’s whole life is directed to...

Kathryn Lopez, editor of National Review Online, has a column on Caritas in Veritate titled, “Liberal Catholics Can’t Handle the Truth.” Lopez looks at mentary on Caritas in Veritate, especially by the left, and shows why the encyclical should not be politicized. The encyclical is about truth, which can not be bent to advance a political agenda, she asserts. Kishore Jayabalan, director of Acton’s Rome office, was also quoted in Lopez’s article: Neither side . . . seems ready to...

Kevin Schmiesing, research fellow at the Acton Institute, was interviewed by Ave Maria Radio recently on Caritas in Veritate. Schmiesing explains how the idea of human development and progress figure as central themes of the encyclical. It is important to remember that our ethical advancement must be ahead of material human development, and our ethics must be paired with our personal development. Furthermore, Schmiesing explains that Caritas in Veritate warns against an all passing role for the state. [audio: Kishore...

This morning, the New York Times reported that a broad bipartisan effort of senators convinced Democratic leadership to drop provisions in the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) that would have weakened the right of workers to hold secret ballot elections to determine whether or not they would unionize. EFCA had e known by many of its opponents as the “card check bill” because of its central proposal: if over half of workers at a firm signed cards authorizing a union...

The ius gentium, or law of nations, has an important place in legal history. Variously conceived, the law of nations often referred to the code of conduct for dealing with foreign peoples according to their own local, national, or regional standards. As a form of natural law, the ius gentium has often been appealed to as a basis for determining what has been believed everywhere, always, by everyone. It’s an approach used, for instance, with some qualification by C.S. Lewis...

Today marks the 40th Anniversary of the one of the greatest feats of human exploration, courage and innovation: man’s setting foot on the surface of the moon. Responding heroically to the challenges of the “Space Race” (while its arch-nemesis, the Soviet Union, was clearly in the lead), the United States stood proud to represent the free and enterprising West. To put the challenges of victory into perspective, America was running adrift amid pretty rough waters at the time: two great...