At a funeral liturgy this morning our presider (somewhat unusually, I thought) wore a white chasuble & stole with the Knights of Columbus logo. (The deceased was not a Knight.)

It was an occasion for me to notice for the 1st time the fasces at the heart of the logo.

Fasces... ...you ask?

The fasces were carried before the Roman army and Roman officials by bearers called lictors. You'll see the fasces is an axe with reads bundled and tied around the handle. They symbolized the power of the state. You'll actually find them in all sorts...

Not long ago I was talking with a #Catholic priest I know, a good man. You'd want him to be your pastor.

We were talking abt perceptions abt the #CatholicChurch & he asked me sincerely, "Do you think it's still Spotlight?"

I said yes, of course. But I was struck by how... ...fixed his imagination was by the idea that the #CatholicChurch might weather the abuse crisis and move on. It's been >20yrs, etc.

I was thinking abt that a few nights ago when I was watching this. I'm not a big fan of the comedy-news industry, but...

tiktok.com/@lastweektonig…

The critical question before the #CatholicChurch in 2023 isn't abt ordination, marriage, sexuality, etc. Rather it is whether the #Catholic Church will be governed by the Bishop of Rome with the College of Bishops in a #synodal dialogue with the whole People of God, or whether... ...the #CatholicChurch will be governed on the internet from its back pew by a perspective shaped less by the #Catholic Church than be well-funded organizations that call themselves Catholic.

The question is abt whether the institutional structure of the Church will direct...

Seeing a lot of the neuroses of a certain sort of #Catholic on repeat today: Latin Mass, LGBTQ+, abortion, gender. The #Synod has them on high alert.

This could be an opportunity to recall that #Catholicism is a wholeness larger than those 4 things and that our Tradition... ...is a history of the development of doctrine as responses to lived conditions. E.g., we only have a doctrine of just wars because Augustine responded to what was happening in the world around him.

As Stephen Bevans tells us, there is only contextual theology. That always...

I often get called a leftist here.

I'm not a leftist. Let me explain.

First, every reasonable person in the US now supports @TheDemocrats. That's not because of Democrat issue positions or partisan tilt. It's because the @GOP has abandoned the field, gone to the... ...fringes where the rule of law is a nuisance and constitutional govt is an obstacle. Reasonable ppl didn't leave the @GOP, the #GOP has left us.

Second and more important—I spent the early part of my life firmly in the Buckley-ite camp that coalesced during the Reagan...

Like too much the @USCCB does this is contingent on a limited, 20th century US historical understanding.

Embalming didn't become widespread (for everyone) in the US until the 19th century. Embalming was available earlier of course, variably...

usccb.org/news/2023/us-b… ...through history technology and other factors limited its availability. The earliest Christians used no embalming, mirroring the customs of their place and time (no conference of bishops issued a statement, Christians disposed of human remains as those around them did...)....

1/ It came to me very clearly while writing about the #consistentethic and #Catholics this morning.

The consistent ethic, on one view, sought to join what we might call 'sexual morality' to 'social morality,' our concern abt #abortion to other issues. 2/ Bernardin hoped a call for consistency would bring together these strands of what the #CatholicChurch teaches us.

The divisions that would thwart him already existed in 1983 when he proposed the consistent ethic. But there would be other problems.

1/ I am alert to the insistent appropriation of "ideology" as a sort of tell here. It signals a lack of confidence that I think insidiously nags #Catholic bishops on #gender identity questions. It poses them with a problem. Spare me a moment to say why.

ncregister.com/blog/bishop-da… 2/ It comes to this—the science is becoming quite clear that #gender is understood best as 2 clusters of characteristics we draw from, not a strict binary. We often draw characterictics from both clusters even if one clearly predominates.

To comprehend fully the gross folly into which our US bishops have led the #Catholic Church, sit on the Feast of #ChristTheKing in a mostly empty sanctuary listening to the embarrassingly flowery language of the 2011 Roman Missal.

The absurd collision of the... ...triumphally sacral vernacular with so many empty pews, the energy level that rivals chair aerobics at Casa Tranquila while we 'glory in obedience to the commands of Christ, the King of the universe,' is a lot of dissonance to process.

This is a result of choices, mostly...

1/ Here is an #ElectionDay thread about #Catholics and #democracy. You should read it all but here is the TLDR headline: Catholics have done our part to bring US politics to this point, and we need to fix it.

Let's begin with a long view. 2/ The #CatholicChurch spent 1900 years avoiding #democracy, quite comfortable with empire and monarchy. The closest the church ever got was the Council of Basel (1431-1449) that followed something like democratic procedure to challenge papal supremacy, suggested a conciliar...

1/ I've responded 2x today to #Catholics whose shared premise seems to be that outward performance & practice is a good measure of the #CatholicChurch's success.

And I think this pathology sits deep in the church—

https://twitter.com/stevenpmillies/status/1589313061562724353?t=dHEN_kUZs00qlRHJR8uMQA&s=19

https://twitter.com/stevenpmillies/status/1589269740681560064?t=dHEN_kUZs00qlRHJR8uMQA&s=19

2/ 'If people fulfill their obligation & show up, the #CatholicChurch is successful.'

I think this approach to inner spiritual conversion as a factory production problem needs serious, sustained attention.

So much of our #Catholic life is built to produce this attitude.

1/ Ok. Serious question. Now that #abortion has been returned firmly to the status quo ante #RoeVsWade, to its status before the grave, urgent situation that mobilized #Catholics into a #ProLife mvmt, why was this article written?

ncregister.com/news/downplayi… 2/ And, I lied. That's not a serious question. I already know the answer. (I suspect @Pontifex does too.) I wrote it here 3yrs ago-americamagazine.org/politics-socie…

The answer is plain. "[D]ecades of binary cultural and political argument means that reversing Roe is no longer enough"

"Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost" ~Leonard Cohen

“[W]hat happened, is happening and will happen to us all, from the very beginning until the end of human life upon this earth.” ~John Cowper Powys, on The Iliad

1/ I'm signing off for a while. 2/ I've come to realize I've spent 30yrs with faith what's happened could be prevented—our divisions could be healed before they break us beyond repair, the #CatholicChurch could end its antagonism w/the world before it destroyed its own ability to witness to the public square.

Dear @POTUS @JoeBiden @WhiteHouse,

1/ I've been an admirer since the 1980s when I would've identified as @GOP. Joe Biden always seemed like one of our smartest and most decent public servants. You were my 1st choice in 2008 & I was very happy when you were chosen as VP. 2/ Obv I supported you in 2020 & was able to help advance that campaign in small ways. Having a good person for the nominee was a happy bonus. But overall it was a crisis that called all-hands-on-deck. I would've helped anybody.

That crisis still is here. It hasn't gone away.

SHORT 🧵

1/ #Catholicism is not an identity. There is no "#Catholic identity."

Catholicism is the proclamation of an encompassing message of transformation suited to all times & places.

Identity is a #postmodern preoccupation. 2/ As #Catholicism is suited to all times & places that's fine. But the assertion of #Catholic identity rarely (if ever) intends to embrace #postmodernism (or even modernity).

1/ Some things have been on my mind that maybe we need to try to remember and think about at this fulcrum moment in the #abortion debate.

Since I wrote my book several years ago & re-read #Roe for the 1st time in years, I've been wondering abt something.

litpress.org/Products/4467/… 2/ #Roe, let's remember, divided pregnancy into trimesters. #Abortion was more or less unrestricted in the 1st 12wks, practically prohibited in the last 12wks. Interests of mother & child were balanced this way.

This amts to a legal recognition of personhood.

1/ This arrived from @JBPritzker and it's going on the lawn. It's gushing enthusiasm for a candidate I don't normally indulge but I've gotten very weary of the "@GovPritzker Sucks" signs.

#Pritzker's done an outstanding job ... if you care about governing. 2/ Under #Pritzker #Illinois is paying its bills on-time for the first time in **years.**

(Yes, the stimulus money helped. But it was used thriftfully to pay debt, not to buy something new.)

kwqc.com/2021/04/28/ill…

1/ Reflecting a while on the #scotusleak, I have a few thoughts for #Catholics about what we lose with the overturning of #RoeVWade.

FIRST While #abortions will continue after #Dobbs, the defense of life will be built precariously on the shaky ground of results-oriented judging. 2/ This reversal of #Roe will be a narrow decision, there will be a lot in a concurrence and dissents for future courts to lean on. And, we all know this will not settle the #abortion question. So the victory here will be rather hollow legally & politically.

I worked for a public university. Technically it was a state agency.

But once legislators intervene to control it like a state agency it ceases to be a university.

They might think they are protecting taxpayers. But taxpayers will be the ones hurt by diminishing the university. Public universities are entering an era where they face challenges like #Catholic universities faced from Land o Lakes to Ex Corde when astute ppl understood― if they aren't great universities they can't be a good Catholic anything.

Accountability demands clarity abt mission.