Fr. Ian Ker
Mary Ann Glendon
In Rome on Saturday 10 December there was a conference on the document Dignitatis humanae held by the Becket Institute. Among the speakers were Fr. Ian Ker, Mary Ann Glendon, George Weigel and the Italian Minister for Culture Rocco Buttiglione. Many of the talks were quite interesting for example, Fr. Ker spoke to how Dignitatis humanae lives up to John Henry Newman's 7 criteria for development of doctrine. John Rist of Cambridge contextualized Dignitatis humanae in the 60's and gave a realistic view of the implementation of such a thing as "religious liberty".
It is hard to single our any one talk for more focus, however Mary Ann Glendon delivered a rather alarming vision of how with the increase of anti-Catholic sentiment in the United States and litigation on the part of organizations such as the ACLU - intended to backrupt pro-life and Catholic defense initiatives, the recent Supreme Court decision concerning eminent domain could result is disastrous implications for the Catholic Church.
Rocco ButtiglioneEffectively, if it can be upheld in law that the state has the right to apply eminent domain and take someone's property for the sake of increasing a tax base, then someday they could target Catholic institutions which are tax exempt (and therefore producing no tax revenue), particularly in light of the annoying and counter-cultural things many consider the Church to stand for.
samwise on “The young are more to be pitied, since they know not of what they have been deprived.”: “@Venerator Sti Lot: excellent verses, thank you kindly”
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