Several years ago, the Church was rocked by the scandal that Fr. Thomas Roscia had extensively plagiarized material for articles and speeches. He had been a Vatican advisor and the head of Canada’s Catholic TV network before the fall. I […]
Read moreCategory: Moral theology
Infertility Is a Cross, Not a Sexual Identity
Back in October, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) published a new definition of infertility. The definition changed from just trying for a kid and not having one to now also include sexual identities that are by nature not […]
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Fiducia Supplicans: Text vs. Media vs. “Spirit”
On Monday, the Vatican released Fiducia Supplicans, which is a document meant to finalize any discussions of blessing gay couples and people in irregular relationships (acting like they are married when they are not). Since then, there has been a […]
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23andMe Hacked: Genetic Privacy and HIPAA
I’m about a month late to the initial revelation that 23andMe got hacked, but more has been coming out over the month. This is a big issue given a bunch of the breech was grabbing whole extended family trees, which […]
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I Hosted a Podcast on Catholic Psychology
Belmont Abbey College has a podcast called conversatio. They rotate hosts, and a few weeks ago, I was asked to be the host for a discussion on psychology with two psychology professors. I think any of you are interested in […]
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Zagano & RNS Get Double Effect Completely Wrong
Phyllis Zagano recently wrote a piece in RNS where the first line is precisely wrong about double-effect. This is not some esoteric point: the first paragraph of Wikipedia on the topic or slides from the introduction to theology class I […]
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McElroy Makes a Good Point, But Misses Another One (How to define Grave Matter)
Not long ago, Card. Robert McElroy published a reply to the replies to his original piece on Communion in certain circumstances. In it, he gets into talking about categories of sin and what makes a mortal sin. I think he […]
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COVID Vaccines Are Ordinary Means & Thus Morally Obligatory (National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly)
Back in the spring, I posted two pieces in a series. In one, I argued that by a usual definition of “ordinary means,” widely (almost universally) recommended vaccines, including COVID vaccines, are ordinary means. In the second, I posted snippets […]
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Catholic Identity Conference Misses the Mark on All 3 Points
This week, several Catholics in Pittsburgh are going to declare their resistance to Pope Francis at the Catholic Identity Confernece. They claim three main issues where Pope Francis needs resisting but on all three they are wildly off-target. They interpret […]
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What to Do If the Seal of Confession Is Broken
Since issues regarding breaking the seal of confession from time to time online, I will write the “for dummies” version of how to respond if this happens. To begin, directly breaking the seal is latae sententiae (automatic) excommunication: they are cut off […]
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