Category: Moral theology

Card. Jean-Claude Hollerich at a summit in Spain on youth

The Church Cannot Change Teaching on Homosexuality (Hollerich Errs)

February 12, 2022February 12, 2022 Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC 16 comments

Last week, another leader in the Church has suggested we should change our teaching on homosexuality. However, “should” implies there that the one doing the action is able. However, the Church has no power to change her teaching on homosexual […]

Summarizing My Thought from Twitter

February 3, 2022February 3, 2022 Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC

Mark Wilson over at Catholic Bard has searched through my Twitter pretty extensively to catalog / summarize my thought. He compiled a long piece that might be helpful for those wanting a summary of what I have posted on rather […]

Suing Social Media for Addiction?

February 1, 2022February 1, 2022 Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC

It is almost a joke that many have social media addiction today. Tons of people seem to have at least a low-level and manageable addiction. Now we need to raise questions about the ethical and legal responsibilities of social media […]

What Is Medical Testing? (A Response to Dr. Paul Casey)

January 26, 2022February 25, 2022 Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC 8 comments

Dr. Paul Casey wrote a piece arguing that very few medicines had medical testing on fetal cell lines, specifically HEK-293. The main issue with his argument is that he uses non-standard definitions of terms like medical testing and lying, and […]

Privacy & Social Media on the Ethics and Culture Cast

January 24, 2022January 24, 2022 Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC

Back in November, I was at the de Nicola Center’s annual Fall Conference at Nore Dame. I presented on human dignity and privacy focusing on the social encyclicals, Alan Westin, and John Paul II. Ken Hallenius, one of the people working […]

Causarum Cognitio (Knowledge of Causes) by Raphael

Catholic Anti-Vax Arguments & Reductio ad Absurdum (2/2)

January 19, 2022January 19, 2022 Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC 11 comments

Yesterday, I posted a piece explaining the structure and possible counterarguments to a reductio ad absurdum. If you haven’t read that, you might want to go and read it. Now we deal with a claim where a reductio ad absurdum […]

Identifying and Arguing Against Reductio ad Absurdum (1/2)

January 18, 2022January 19, 2022 Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC 1 comment

A common mode of argument is formally called reductio ad absurdum. The point of this is to take your opponents’ arguments and show absurd conclusions that follow from those arguments. The point of the reductio is quite obviously to argue […]

Conscience and Law, detail from the Justicia sculpture on the court house in Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany

A Catholic Religious Exemption for Being Muslim?

January 10, 2022January 11, 2022 Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC 3 comments

We need to distinguish between religious and conscience exceptions. They have been confused in the debate about exemptions from vaccine requirements. I think even a brief examination would find this equivocation faulty. This argument is that due to Catholic teaching […]

Why Can Verizon Compromise Your Privacy Without Consent?

January 5, 2022January 5, 2022 Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC

Privacy is a moral issue. Verizon seems to be doing something that lacks respect for this moral issue. There are times we might exchange some lack of privacy for some other good. Like we exchange Google tracking for having a […]