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D.W. Lafferty Profile picture
D.W. Lafferty
@rightscholar
Canadian, disaffected Catholic, PhD. Bluesky: https://t.co/goojfyYEuL Substack: https://t.co/cR69M9mjZQ
Oct 9, 2024 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Reading @gareth_gore's book on Opus Dei, and it seems to me that the core problem with the organization lies in Escriva's one real innovation: cultivating an organization of lay professionals who live like priests and religious and whose income goes to Opus Dei. This is... ...very different from the "sanctification of the everyday," which could be promoted through traditional means. Escriva came up with an objective structural innovation that crossed some important lines that typically separate the Church and secular society. All of the...
Jun 21, 2024 • 17 tweets • 3 min read
While there are some examples of truly malevolent networks of abusers, I'd argue that much of the abuse coverup has been the result of the way the Church *thinks,* and its approach to scandal, sin, and reconciliation. Many coverups happened because bishops and priests thought... ...that the scandal of the publicization of such cases would harm the souls of faithful, causing people to doubt or even leave the Church. They chose the lesser evil of keeping things quiet. Further, the Catholic view of sexual morality is focused on volitional acts...
Mar 22, 2024 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
The Nazis were not Left. Any confusion on this point is usually due to the party name or the economic theory that guided the early NSDAP. One of the party's founding members was economist Gottfried Feder (whose 1919 manifesto is shown below), who... Image ...distinguished between "productive capital" and "loan capital." The former he considered good, the latter bad. This may sound a bit "left," but for Feder loan capital was specifically the means by which Jews placed Aryans in economic slavery, according to the Nazi worldview.
Dec 18, 2023 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
I know this new declaration may seem like crumbs from the table for many gay Catholics, but despite all its qualifications and restrictions this document—which is beautifully written, btw—represents the Church opening its arms to same-sex couples. Superficially, the declaration seems more akin to the recent DDF statement regarding single mothers and access to the Eucharist. Such blessings (of two or more gay people) have theoretically always been allowed, but prejudice and fear sometimes...
Aug 13, 2023 • 17 tweets • 3 min read
This little clip has provoked discussion because Barron is tapping into a narrative that has long shaped North American conservative Catholicism. Michael Cuneo, in his 1988 paper "Soldiers of Orthodoxy," offered a study of the brand of Catholicism this narrative represents. /1 Cuneo's paper looks at the characteristics of what he refers to as North American "Revivalist Catholicism"—an alternate term for "conservative Catholicism." Fundamental to this form of Catholicism is the idea that Catholicism after Vatican II made too many /2
May 6, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
If you want something more concrete, let's go to the example that started this while conscience discourse. If you are struggling with the Church's teaching on contraception—not for frivolous reasons but because experience, observation, and careful moral discernment... ...lead you to believe, on the deepest levels both emotionally and intellectually, that it is flawed—you must obey your conscience. It's not something one does lightly, and it may have negative consequences. But you should never preach or practice what you believe to be a lie.
May 6, 2023 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Lord help me, I read this whole thing. And it is revealing. @FeserEdward's argument makes sense within the boundaries of a neo-manualist approach to moral thinking, which is not, however, how most people make moral decisions in real life. We are not scholastic robots who make decisions according to deductive reasoning, harnessing the appropriate syllogism for every situation and resorting to theories like probabilism when in difficulty. This is how confessors once analyzed acts retrospectively,...
Nov 3, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
🧵Catholic anti-Semitism rarely takes the form of explicitly racial anti-Semitism, but instead is usually framed in terms of traditional (pre-VII) anti-Judaism. Not all anti-Judaism is anti-Semitic, but much of it is. Some key ideas behind anti-Semitic anti-Judaism: 1) All Jews must convert to Catholicism; 2) Christians are the true Jews; 3) God's covenant with Israel was revoked; 4) Jews, as a people, are cursed for having killed Jesus;
Nov 1, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
This makes explicit the subtext of pro-life discourse in some circles. The hedonistic libs will die out because they love their abortion, but the Christian/white/trad/based youth will pop out kids until they take over. Care for the unborn should not be instrumentalized this way. As someone in the comments pointed out, Aischa is an Arabic name. The battle outlined here is a demographic one between pro-life white/Christian youth and a rapidly-breeding immigrant/Muslim population.
Oct 31, 2022 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
So Fr. Z accuses me of being a follower of the nefarious Saul Alinsky. But isn't the "pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it" method exactly what the American right has been doing with the figure of Nancy Pelosi? wdtprs.com/2022/10/youve-… Image I mean, Fr. Z has been ranting about her for years: ImageImageImageImage
Oct 21, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
From early in his pontificate, Pope Francis has been signalling a change in the Church's approach to life issues. He rightly sees the threats of economic inequality, nuclear war, environmental collapse, global pandemics, etc. as life issues alongside abortion and euthanasia. The problem is that those who care about Group B (abortion and euthanasia), show little regard for Group A (environment, etc.), and vice versa. In fact, a great ideological divide has formed. So Pope Francis has shown a willingness to ally with those who are part of Group A...
Oct 20, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Pope Francis: "Mariana Mazzucato's book The Value of Everything provoked a lot of reflection in me. I was struck by the way that business successes lauded in our economic thinking as the result of individuals' efforts or genius are in reality the fruit of massive public..." "...investment in research and education. Yet the shareholders collect vast profits, and the state is regarded as placing a burden on the market." - from Let Us Dream
Sep 30, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Koch brought up the Barmen Declaration, which was a unified Protestant statement against the 'German Christian' movement from 1934. It stated that "The source of revelation is only the Word of God—Jesus Christ. Any other possible sources (earthly powers, for example)... ...will not be accepted." The 'Germany Christian' movement was a Nazification of Christianity, and was (quite rightly) seen by Karl Barth and others to be drawing upon some kind of "new revelation" outside of scripture. This was the 'German Christian' flag:
Sep 27, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
To clarify, I am not talking about the existence of Jesus. There is an overwhelming scholarly consensus that Jesus existed. But there is not the same consensus regarding the resurrection of Jesus, except among orthodox Christians (as one would expect). There has been a good 200 years or so of historical criticism of the New Testament, and while there have certainly been skeptics and deniers, the resurrection of Jesus remains hard to treat largely because it is a miracle.
Feb 3, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Do you have to police my tweets? I post what I post. If you want to tie it back to @Where_Peter_is or whatever because you loathe it so much, then go ahead and play that stupid game, but I only speak for myself. Really think it's best to find another use of your time, though. People have different opinions. I sometimes question things. I lean certain ways at different times. Deal.
Jan 18, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
This article by Professor Jacques Rouillard uses deceptive techniques of persuasion, such as creating a straw man narrative based on media exaggerations and misconceptions, and debunking those instead of grappling with accessible, well-researched facts. dorchesterreview.ca/blogs/news/in-… Through selective quotation, the author portrays Dr. Sarah Beaulieu as some kind of amateur who is hesitant regarding her findings, but she is an expert trained in Canadian Forces Base Borden, who previously worked on excavation of WWI internment sites. ufv.ca/health-and-soc…
Jan 10, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Classic Peterson. Take a grain of truth (since there are legit arguments against precautionary overreach in our COVID response), mix with generous amounts of narcissism and anecdote, and serve with a side of misinfo and masculinism. Just to be clear, this is what Canada is dealing with today. beta.ctvnews.ca/national/coron…
Nov 4, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Compare the Francis paraphrase from @ArchbishopGomez (left) with what I think is its source in Fratelli Tutti (right). Francis was talking about finding common ground through inter-religious dialogue. Gomez uses it to disparage a caricature of today's social justice movements. With @ArchbishopGomez, it's Christians against the world. No compromise. With Francis, it's Christians working within the world—guiding, participating, and also learning through dialogue.
Jul 10, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
The narrative outlined here (which has settled into the accepted take over the last few weeks) is designed to make Catholics feel not only guiltless but also aggrieved. Many half-truths and things left out. The focus is on the Catholic Church because there has not been an official apology and the schools in the news recently were Church-run. Benedict XVI apologized in a private meeting in 2009, but the context was the sexual and physical abuse that occurred at the schools.
Mar 18, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
I accept the CDF ruling. It makes sense in terms of doctrine. At the same time, it's obvious why gay Catholics are hurt, and I wish I could see a clearer path forward for the inclusion of same-sex couples in the Church. Honestly, I can only see a path of loneliness for most gay Catholics. Conservative Catholics demand of them what most of them would never demand of themselves, and there are a significant number of Catholics who actively promote hate toward LGBTQ people.
Mar 15, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The CDF statement makes sense according to the understanding of the sacramentals that it describes. It's hard to see how they could have come to a different conclusion. I do hope everyone reads the full Explanatory Note. I find it significant that the CDF statement contains a clear recognition that irregular unions, though they may objectively contradict Church teaching, do not necessarily bear bad fruit. They contain "positive elements" that should be "valued and appreciated."