Volume > Issue > A Penny Catechism (for Philosophers)

A Penny Catechism (for Philosophers)

EDITORIAL

By James G. Hanink | January 1999

Fides et Ratio (FR) “Faith and Reason,” the Holy Father’s new encyclical, is an old philosopher’s gift to Mother Church, and it calls us to our lessons.

Warm-up question: What did The New York Times say in its news section?

The Times reported that the encyclical signals “paradoxes” — we have a papacy “marked by a return to rigid conformity in doctrinal matters,” and yet we have a Pope who “still meets regularly with scholars to debate ideas….”

Hmm. Was the Times’s dumbfounded woman on the beat, Alessandra Stanley, perhaps angling for an invitation? Are there scholarship funds (not that she’d really need them)?

Enjoyed reading this?

READ MORE! REGISTER TODAY

SUBSCRIBE

You May Also Enjoy

Letter to the Editor: October 1990

Graham Greene?... Freedom for Cuba?... What About God?

Spilling the Beans

"Oh no, we'd never blackball someone for being orthodox."

Communitarianism or Populism?

Populism has always rejected both the politics of deference and the politics of pity. It stands for plain manners and plain straight­forward speech.