Category: Church
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How My First Catholic Mentors Taught Me Spirituality
Deal W. Hudson June 27, 2010 When I arrived at Emory University for my doctoral studies in 1974, I had just finished three years at Princeton Theological Seminary as an aspiring Southern Baptist minister. Despite being a Southern Baptist from Texas, and having pursued Reformation studies – Calvin, Luther, and the Anabaptists – at Princeton,…
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A Catholic Governor Embraces Subsidiarity
Deal W. Hudson July 11, 2010 The new governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, is distinguishing himself in two ways as a Catholic politician. Not only he is pro-life, but he is also aggressively pursuing a set of policies grounded in the principle of subsidiarity. At a time when most prominent Catholic politicians – Nancy…
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The Pro-Life Leader Who Is Also an Exorcist
Deal W. Hudson July 18, 2010 Having just read Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuers’s new book, Exorcism and the Church Militant, one of the first things I asked him was whether he was afraid of demons. I shivered more than once reading through its short chapters, arranged as basic questions about the devil, demons, possession, and the…
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Honoring a Bishop from the Northwest
Deal W. Hudson August 16, 2010 Too often, Catholic commentators, including myself, speak about American bishops in the plural. The existence of a national bishops’ conference, unfortunately, encourages this habit, one that obscures a basic fact about the Catholic Church: It is individual bishops who are responsible for sanctifying the lives of the Catholic faithful. There’s no…
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More Problems at the Catholic Campaign for Human Development
Deal W. Hudson August 23, 2010 The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), the anti-poverty program run by the USCCB, came under fire this past year for funding groups who were explicitly supporting abortion, contraception, and same-sex marriage. After its internal investigation, the CCHD claimed there were problems with only five groups out of the 51 listed…
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What Nietzsche Can Teach America
Deal W. Hudson August 31, 2010 I have often learned my most valuable lessons from my worst enemies. In graduate school, I spent several years wrestling with the texts of the atheistic philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who taught me one unforgettable lesson: Those who lack the tragic sense of life are apt to invent realities to…
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The USCCB and Cultural Diversity
Deal W. Hudson September 8, 2010 The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has set five goals to pursue until the end of 2011. They are: Strengthening marriage Faith formation focused on sacramental practice Priestly and religious vocations Life and dignity of the human person Recognition of cultural diversity The USCCB Web site contains a link…
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The Whole Story
Deal W. Hudson September 9, 2010 During four years of college and seven of graduate school, most of it in philosophy and theology, I heard only one lecture on virtue – the virtue of art. Thus I consider it miraculous that the language of virtue has returned to public discourse. But the virtues don’t tell…
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The Catholic Tea Kettle Continues to Boil
Deal W. Hudson September 23, 2010 Over the past two weeks, I’ve had extensive discussions with a wide group of Catholic leaders about the state of the Church in the United States. The frustration and impatience among Catholics, which I discussed last February in “Is It Time for a Catholic Tea Party?” continue to grow.…
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If We Become Like Them, Will They Like Us?
Deal W. Hudson September 27, 2010 Hardly a day goes by when I fail to see some news report or op-ed on the advisability of the Catholic Church to end the male-only priesthood, the mandatory celibacy requirement, the ban on contraception and abortion, or its view of homosexuality. Usually, the story is set against the…
Deal W. Hudson 