Russell Shaw - The Arlington Catholic Herald

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The Amazon synod and married priests

The news that Pope Francis has set in motion the planning for a synod of bishops of the Amazon region next year may not strike most U.S. Catholics as a matter of great interest. ... More

4/19/18

Russell Shaw | For the Catholic Herald

Secular coercion

Two Supreme Court cases raise the same free speech question: How far can the state legitimately go in forcing individuals and groups to communicate messages that support things they reject in conscience?
... More

4/3/18

Russell Shaw

Billy Graham and the American way

Much was said in praise of Graham after his death, and much that was said was well deserved. But along with praising Graham the individual Christian, one must also express reservations concerning the limitations of the version of culturally assimilated religion he stood for.
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3/20/18

Russell Shaw

Supreme Court considers pro-life cases

Defeat on a Senate procedural vote last January of legislation to ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy was a great disappointment. ... More

3/7/18

Russell Shaw | For the Catholic Herald

Students of Germain Grisez

“We are all students of Grisez now.” The man who said that several years ago was a Catholic theologian not generally seen as being a disciple of Germain Grisez. ... More

2/21/18

Russell Shaw | For the Catholic Herald

Religious liberty and U.S. foreign policy

Promoting international religious liberty is one of those things that America ought to be doing for its own sake, but doing it would also serve U.S. national security interests as an anti-terrorism tool. Yet indifference to religion at the upper reaches of the U.S. political culture has been a serious obstacle to that for years and remains so today.

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2/5/18

Russell Shaw

The morality of nuclear deterrence

“We are at the limit of what is licit.” In early December, Pope Francis offered that assessment of nuclear deterrence during a question and answer session with reporters on the plane back to Rome from Bangladesh.

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1/30/18

Russell Shaw

The morality of nuclear deterrence

The so-called logic of deterrence is clear: It is necessary to have nuclear weapons and be willing to use them, precisely so that they will not be used. But is that morally acceptable?

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1/24/18

Russell Shaw

The spiritual journey of Robert Hugh Benson

It’s said that Robert Hugh Benson’s conversion to Roman Catholicism was an act of rebellion against his father, Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1883 until his death in 1896. ... More

1/18/18

Russell Shaw | For the Catholic Herald

The prospects of a Catholic-Orthodox reunion

The key to progress beyond that already achieved during the last half-century through dialogue and friendly gestures rests with the Russian Orthodox Church, with slightly over 100 million members by far the largest body among worldwide Orthodoxy’s 260 million. For that reason if no other, Roman Catholics would do well to learn more about the Russian Orthodox than most probably know now.

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1/9/18

Russell Shaw

Living in a ‘post-truth’ world

The heart of the problem of fake news (and the post-truth culture, if there really is one) doesn’t reside in the traditional media but in the proliferation of ideologically polarized websites and social media in recent years. If you want to view something with alarm, start here.
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12/12/17

Russell Shaw

The Supreme Court’s new abortion case

Imagine the government ordered Ford dealers to post signs telling prospective auto buyers to check out Chevrolet or required vegan restaurants to give diners menus listing the offerings at neighborhood steakhouses as well as vegan fare — what would you say to that? More often than not, I suspect, you’d say the government had overstepped the line and ought to butt out.
... More

11/29/17

Russell Shaw | For the Catholic Herald

A key vote for the bishops

When the Catholic bishops vote for committee chairmen of their national organization, the balloting is typically a staid and gentlemanly affair, arousing little interest on the part of anyone except the bishops themselves — and, truth to tell, perhaps not all of them either.
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11/7/17

Russell Shaw

Marriage and social class

Among the benign myths that lie close to the hearts of many Americans is the belief that, in the end, social class differences don’t count for all that much. It’s the Horatio Alger story: hard work and perseverance will pay off for anyone who wants to get his or her slice of the American Dream.
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11/1/17

Russell Shaw

Talking past each other

The challenge of finding language in which believers and non-believers can communicate is unintentionally illustrated in a bestselling new book which predicts that human beings will soon reinvent themselves as gods.
... More

10/19/17

Russell Shaw

What does ‘America first’ mean?

A few weeks back I woke up one morning to the news that 200 U.S. troops were participating in war games with the Egyptian army. My immediate, unpremeditated reaction was: Good grief — Egypt. What next?
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10/4/17

Russell Shaw

Groupthink in America

As a kind of back-to-school gift to students, professors at three of the nation’s prestige schools offered them a piece of good advice: “Think for yourself.”
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9/20/17

Russell Shaw

After Charlottesville

Amid the cries of alarm in the wake of the tragic violence in Charlottesville, one unanswered question stands out: After all these years — all this bitterness and anguish and even bloodshed — what, if anything, can be done to end racism in the United States once and for all?
... More

9/7/17

Russell Shaw

European identity

Looking at things from this side of the Atlantic, it is easy to think of Europe as a single, united entity. Seen up close it’s not so clear. National identity keeps getting in the way.
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8/23/17

Russell Shaw

After Trinity Lutheran

The decision in Trinity Lutheran v. Comer was good news for religious interests. Potentially even better news was the Supreme Court’s announcement the following day that it was returning four other cases to the state supreme courts in Colorado and New Mexico to be reconsidered in light of Trinity Lutheran.
... More

8/9/17

Russell Shaw

The case for chastity

Evidence for the destructive consequences of tyrannical sex abounds in wrecked relationships, wrecked families and wrecked lives. But there’s an alternative. The solution to the problem of sex run rampant lies in the cultivation and practice of chastity.
... More

7/7/17

Russell Shaw

America first

Taken simply as an ingenuous expression of patriotism, there’s no real objection to America First. Charity at the global level truly must begin at home, for unless it starts there — in love of one’s own country, that is — charity isn’t likely to thrive anywhere else.
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6/23/17

Russell Shaw

America’s addiction crisis

In the absence of temperance, we shall continue to apply patchwork, partial solutions here and there while piously decrying addiction as a bad thing.

... More

6/13/17

Russell Shaw

The media and Trump

Just when you think things can’t get any worse, they do. That’s been the story of President Donald Trump’s relationship with the media for a long time, and we aren’t seeing the end of it yet.
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5/31/17

Russell Shaw

Legalism and authentic morality

In case you didn’t notice, Pope Francis thinks legalism is a bad thing — and that’s good news. For legalism, correctly understood, is opposed to authentic morality.
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5/23/17

Russell Shaw

Responding to our toxic culture

In today’s America, as in other countries like it, people of faith are facing a question of critical importance: How should they respond to a dominant secular culture that’s not just hostile to their beliefs but bent on forcing them to conform to its values and, not incidentally, winning the allegiance of their children?
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4/20/17

Russell Shaw

Science and religion

The more science tells us about the operations of this remarkable world, the more light is shed on God’s extraordinary creativity.
... More

4/10/17

Russell Shaw

Cultural assimilation

It is commonplace to say that America, along with other Western countries, is currently experiencing a cultural — which is to say: moral — crisis. And, in some quarters at least, it’s hardly less common to say this presents the church with both a challenge and an opportunity.
... More

3/22/17

Russell Shaw

Cultural assimilation

It is commonplace to say that America, along with other Western countries, is currently experiencing a cultural — which is to say: moral — crisis. And, in some quarters at least, it’s hardly less common to say this presents the church with both a challenge and an opportunity.

... More

3/20/17

Russell Shaw

The discipline of self-denial

Up here in the northern half of the planet, where Lent coincides with the end of winter and the onset of spring, the imagery of rebirth and rejuvenation accompanying these natural events carries a powerful message: Shake off spiritual lethargy and be renewed in grace.
... More

3/8/17

Russell Shaw

Spotlight on the Supreme Court

Just as people who like sausage shouldn’t visit a sausage factory, so people who stand in awe of the United States Senate shouldn’t get too close to the confirmation fight over Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, President Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee, lest they see more senatorial sausage-making than they bargained for. It threatens to be an ugly affair.
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2/22/17

Russell Shaw

Child poverty in America

In setting out to confront a problem, it’s necessary to understand its causes in order to apply realistic solutions. Child poverty in America provides a painful illustration of what comes of ignoring that truism.
... More

2/15/17

Russell Shaw

Religious conservatives and President Trump

Many religious conservatives are looking to the Trump years with high expectations. R.R. Reno, editor of First Things, says Trump’s ascendancy marks a significant defeat for “anti-Christian” elites while offering religious conservatives an opportunity to speak up and be heard on behalf of their beliefs and values.
... More

2/6/17

Russell Shaw

A letter to the president-elect

Unsolicited advice is said to be the best kind because it is the most easily ignored. But even if this letter accomplishes nothing else, at least it will help me focus my own thinking about what I expect from you as president.
... More

1/10/17

Russell Shaw

The cure for Christmas blues

For many people, the season of good cheer is a deeply trying affair. I don’t mean souls who have good reason to be sad — the loss of loved ones, poor health, loneliness — but those who feel let down when Christmas doesn’t deliver all the personal gratification they were looking for. The funk they experience is what I call the Christmas blues.
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12/14/16

Russell Shaw

Trump faces pro-life issues

Many social conservatives, though by no means all, were ecstatic at the election of Donald Trump. Whether they’ll still be ecstatic a few months down the line cannot be predicted — and by no means is this uncertainty entirely of Trump’s making.
... More

12/8/16

Russell Shaw

Post-election thoughts

The events of the past year have made it overwhelmingly clear that America’s process for choosing a president as it has evolved is now seriously flawed and stands in need of reform. Responsible leaders of both parties have a duty to examine the system and adopt the changes needed.
... More

11/10/16

Russell Shaw

Discerning what God wants

When the pot is boiling, turn down the heat. You can’t be sure, but that could well have been part of the reasoning behind Pope Francis’ decision to choose as the topic of the next world Synod of Bishops “Young People, Faith, and Vocational Discernment.”
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11/10/16

Russell Shaw

New threats to religious liberty

Last June five justices of the U.S. Supreme Court thumbed their noses at religious liberty.
... More

9/29/16

Russell Shaw

A firm purpose of amendment

In a message to a gathering of bishops of the Americas in Bogota, Colombia, Pope Francis made a point that’s always worth recalling but especially timely now in this Year of Mercy. Sin exists, he said, within “a history of sin to be remembered.”
... More

9/20/16

Russell Shaw

Anti-Sodomy Laws

When the Supreme Court hears oral arguments March 26 in a case challenging Texas's anti-sodomy law, more will be at stake than may appear at first. If the question were only whether to uphold or strike down anti-sodomy statutes in Texas and a dozen other states, most people probably wouldn't lose too much sleep.
... More

9/19/16

Russell Shaw | Herald Columnist (From the issue of 3/13/03)

What's wrong with the system?

If this presidential campaign isn’t the strangest race for the White House ever, it will do until a stranger one comes along — and I’m in no hurry for that. With good reason, many Americans are asking what went wrong with the system that it should have come to this. The question needs an answer — and effective remedies too — before the election of 2020 rolls around.
... More

9/7/16

Russell Shaw

In pursuit of human perfection

I'd been running into references to the book every now and then for years. People told me I really ought to read it. But somehow I never got around to that.
... More

8/18/16

Russell Shaw

Al Smith, the ‘Happy Warrior’

Eighty-eight years ago a "happy warrior" from the streets of New York ran for president of the United States. His name was Al Smith, and he deserves to be remembered now as another bitter presidential campaign enters its decisive phase.
... More

8/4/16

Russell Shaw

Recognizing the value of shared dignity

Speaking at a memorial service for the five Dallas police officers killed by a gunman in retaliation for police shootings of blacks, President Obama rightly stressed the need for Americans to come together around shared values arising from "a common humanity and a shared dignity."
... More

7/25/16

Russell Shaw

Building a culture of life

In the dead of winter every year thousands of pro-lifers throng the streets of downtown Washington making a public statement on behalf of life. Converging on the Mall for speeches in the shadow of the Washington Monument and the White House, they march up one of the capital city's broad avenues to the marble palace that houses the Supreme Court.
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7/7/16

Russell Shaw

What happened to the Catholic vote?

And so, in this exceedingly strange political year, what has become of the Catholic vote?
... More

6/29/16

Russell Shaw

Angry American voters

Americans, a goodly number of them anyway, are angry. Opinion polls and both parties' primaries are evidence of that. But will this anger be put to good use or squandered? At the moment, squandering appears the better bet.
... More

6/21/16

Russell Shaw

Dorothy Day, crusader

It wasn't so much the look of poverty as she saw it a century ago in the teeming tenements of New York that outraged Dorothy Day as it was the smell. Many years later in her autobiography The Long Loneliness, she described it like this:
... More

5/31/16

Russell Shaw

America’s cultural polarization

Although the wave of battles now underway in several parts of the country over religious freedom laws and LGBT rights may come as a surprise to some people, it shouldn't. At least since last year's Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage, and probably longer than that, it's been clear that something like this was bound to happen.
... More

5/17/16

Russell Shaw

A document both maternal and pastoral

Now that the dust stirred by publication of Pope Francis' new document on marriage and the family has started to settle, it's time for assessments that avoid the overwrought tone of some early responses. Here, then, some preliminary thoughts.
... More

5/12/16

Russell Shaw

The election dilemma

As the presidential primaries wear on, a potentially serious dilemma has begun to take shape for some voters.
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4/19/16

Russell Shaw

The Western response to Islamic terrorism

While President Obama is correct in saying the war on terror is not and mustn't become a war against Islam, it would be foolish to ignore the religious dimension of Islamic terrorism as now reflected in the Holy Week attacks in Brussels. To do that would risk making the secularist world view underlying the strategic thinking of many Western commentators and policy types an obstacle to understanding the present crisis.
... More

4/13/16

Russell Shaw

Ecumenism and the Reformation

News that Pope Francis will travel to Sweden in October for an event marking the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation underlines the fact that the Catholic Counter-Reformation is over. Whether Protestants are prepared to say the same about the Reformation is for them to decide. A Catholic can only hope.
... More

3/23/16

Russell Shaw

The conflict within the conflict over the Supreme Court

To no one's particular surprise, the process of filling the Supreme Court vacancy created by Antonin Scalia's death has morphed into a huge Washington-style power struggle. What may not be so obvious is that the struggle is actually three struggles in one.
... More

3/8/16

Russell Shaw

Three reasons for priests to be celibate

Speculation and trial balloons floating lately over the Vatican walls suggest that Pope Francis wants to open up a discussion of married priests in the church. According to reports, this will be the topic of the next world Synod of Bishops in a couple of years.
... More

3/2/16

Russell Shaw

Lent discernment

It would be like telling the story of World War II and leaving out Hitler. That's what telling the story told in the Gospels would be like without taking account of the devil. He and his evil companions are a sinister presence throughout.
... More

2/17/16

Russell Shaw

Catholic intellectual tradition

In one of his informative dispatches from Rome during the Synod on the Family last fall, Robert Royal remarked with regret on the extent to which the synod fathers appeared to have taken their prescriptions for families from a secular playbook instead of from their own Catholic tradition.
... More

2/3/16

Russell Shaw

The media’s influence

The potential presidential candidacy of Donald Trump, a media critic when it suits his purposes, is a creature of the media. Trump has a knack for saying outrageous things, and journalists have heaped lavish free coverage on his outrageousness. The result: a candidate who has never held public office and has made the art of personal insult a significant part of his chosen path to the White House.
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1/27/16

Russell Shaw

Belloc and Christendom

Chatting with a British bishop who'd said the famous Catholic writer Hilaire Belloc sometimes came to his home when he was a child to visit his father, a friend, I asked the obvious question: What was Belloc like?
... More

1/12/16

Russell Shaw

Catholic voters in 2016

With the election of a new president less than a year away, at least one thing about the outcome seems reasonably clear: Whoever the winner turns out to be, a majority of the voters identifying themselves as Catholics will probably have voted for him or her.
... More

12/29/15

Russell Shaw

Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics

The Christians of first-century Corinth must have been a rowdy lot. St. Paul, writing to these converts, chided them for their less-than-edifying manner of celebrating the Eucharist and added a stern warning: "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Cor 11:27).
... More

12/8/15

Russell Shaw

Cultural consensus

The inability of parties to America's culture war to communicate meaningfully with one another on issues like abortion, same-sex marriage and assisted suicide is a disturbing fact of national life today. One observer remarks that the two sides seem to be living in "different moral universes."
... More

11/17/15

Russell Shaw

The pope and the synod

So now it's up to Pope Francis. Followup to the Synod on the Family rests firmly in the hands of this paradoxical pontiff who champions consultation, collegiality and synodality while practicing a highly centralized management style.
... More

11/2/15

Russell Shaw

Is assisted suicide inevitable?

As Robert Hugh Benson's apocalyptic novel Lord of the World moves toward its shocking conclusion, a naive young woman who has placed simple-minded faith in the utter goodness of the Antichrist figure at the center of the story awakens to the fact that her hero artfully has constructed a regime of violence, oppression and thought control.
... More

10/20/15

Russell Shaw

The struggle to control the synod

In years gone by, it was hardly unusual for periodic assemblies of the world Synod of Bishops to pass largely unnoticed by the media and just about everybody else. Not this time. The Oct. 4-25 Synod on the Family, the second to be held in barely a year, is being viewed with something approaching apprehension by some serious church observers - and with the expectation of a good story on the part of journalists.
... More

10/7/15

Russell Shaw

The need for conscientious objection

Let's begin by recognizing that the case of the Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples because same-sex marriage conflicts with her religious faith raises questions that both sides in this argument need to take seriously.
... More

9/29/15

Russell Shaw

The vagaries of papal popularity

Journalists understandably are fond of conflict - after all, it gives them something to talk about. Media coverage and commentary relating to a drop in Pope Francis' popularity rating in a recent Gallup poll was an illustration of that.
... More

9/16/15

Russell Shaw

A prayer for vocations

In the prayer of the faithful said at Mass in my parish day after day we regularly ask God for "an increase of vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life." Sometimes "lay ministry" gets added to the list.
... More

9/2/15

Russell Shaw

Is the culture war over?

Does the Supreme Court decision constitutionalizing same-sex marriage mean we've lost the culture war and need to raise the white flag? (As should be obvious, "we" here are traditional Catholics, evangelical Protestants, and others who hold similar views on social issues.)
... More

7/27/15

Russell Shaw

Complementarity

Does Henry Higgins hold the key to settling the same-sex marriage debate? Not quite. But in the wake of the Supreme Court decision declaring a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, it's well worth considering what Higgins has to tell us.
... More

7/14/15

Russell Shaw

Spiritual direction

Is spiritual direction intended only for a small elite group composed of clergy and nuns and a handful of laity with special vocations? Not really. Direction is generally for serious Christians, whether cleric, religious or lay. But since that is seldom said these days, it needs explaining. Here goes.
... More

7/1/15

RUSSELL SHAW

Proclaim the truth of the Gospel

The first and arguably most important thing to say about the Pew Research Center's new overview of American religion is that it offers no grounds for either complacency or panic. What it does instead is invite - perhaps demand - that it be taken very seriously by responsible church people.
... More

6/17/15

RUSSELL SHAW

Persecution

The persecution of the Catholic Church and other morally conservative religious bodies has begun in the United States. As predicted, it isn't - thank God - bloody persecution like the persecution of Christians in many countries. But it's real persecution and likely to get worse.
... More

6/3/15

RUSSELL SHAW

Give the pope's encyclical a chance

Not long after St. John XXIII's social encyclical "Mater et Magistra" made its appearance in 1961, a wisecrack began making the rounds among Catholics who'd taken umbrage: "Mater, si; magistra, no" - mother, yes; teacher, no. In other words, the church has a maternal relationship with her members but is not their teacher on matters of an economic, political and social nature.
... More

5/22/15

Russell Shaw

Pope will walk fine line in U.S.

When Pope Francis comes to the United States in late September, chances are good that he will arrive in the middle of a bitter, highly politicized national debate on same-sex marriage and religious liberty.
... More

5/6/15

Russell Shaw

Catholic triumphalism

Is it time to revive Catholic triumphalism? On the whole, I'd say yes. At the very least, the question isn't frivolous and deserves serious consideration. For after several decades during which Catholics have offered repeated apologies for a host of mistakes, sometimes real and sometimes imaginary, the feeling grows that a comparable effort devoted to tooting the church's horn is now long overdue.
... More

4/22/15

Russell Shaw

The euthanasia debate

When religion and secularism butt heads on public policy - a regular occurrence these days - religion typically is obliged to fight with one hand tied behind it. Unfair, you say? Certainly it is, but that's how the game is played now.
... More

3/25/15

Russell Shaw

Decency persists

A man I know was walking his dog when a neighbor woman approached him and inquired about his wife. Not having seen her out and about in quite some time, the lady wondered: Was she well?
... More

3/10/15

Russell Shaw

The church must find a better way

The likelihood that the Supreme Court will announce its discovery of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage next June raises an obvious question for the Catholic Church: What do we do now?
... More

2/24/15

Russell Shaw

We need more ‘adult conversations’

I try to take American politics seriously, I really do. Serious issues are at stake, after all. But sometimes, entirely too often in fact, the realities of American political discourse make taking it seriously awfully hard. Considering the seriousness of what's at stake, this may be what hearing Beethoven's Ninth performed on the harmonica would be like.
... More

2/10/15

Russell Shaw

Norms and ideals

Is the Catholic Church's teaching on marriage, including indissolubility, an ideal or a norm? Although the question may sound abstract, even esoteric, it has urgent, immediate practical implications. To say one admires the church's teaching as an ideal is, intentionally or not, to undermine that teaching in the act of admiring it.
... More

2/3/15

Russell Shaw

A look at the ‘Great Society’

President Lyndon Baines Johnson had spoken the words "Great Society" before, but on Jan. 4, 1965, he brought the pieces together as a legislative package for Congress. His State of the Union message stirred a remarkable flurry of congressional activity that in short order produced major new programs in civil rights, health care and anti-poverty.
... More

1/20/15

Russell Shaw

The shortage of heroes

Let's face it, 2014 was a rotten year for heroes and hero worship. Sure, the ones it brought were plucky, admirable people who did praiseworthy things. But all too often their good deeds were upstaged by the misdeeds of individuals in many walks of life - entertainers, politicians, sports figures, even clergy - jostling one another in their rush to trip over their feet of clay and drag their reputations in the dust.
... More

1/13/15

Russell Shaw

Culture warriors

For months after the Supreme Court abruptly legalized abortion in its Roe v. Wade decision in January 1973, people who welcomed the result repeatedly declared that the struggle over abortion had now come to a close. The Supreme Court had spoken, the matter was settled, and pro-lifers could pack up and go home.
... More

1/7/15

Russell Shaw

The morality of the war in Afghanistan

When the United States and its allies went into Afghanistan almost eight years ago, they had the support - quiet but real - of Pope John Paul II and the Holy See. But when, not long after, America and its friends attacked Iraq, the pope and his people were strongly and publicly opposed.
... More

9/16/09

Russell Shaw

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Russell Shaw

Russell Shaw is a consultor of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, and teaches at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome. He is author or coauthor of twenty books on ethics and moral theology, the Catholic laity, clericalism, the abuse of secrecy in the Church, and other topics. He and his wife have five children and ten grandchildren.
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