ROME 26/5– Day 61: initial notes on the encyclical

Liturgically busy day, just as it was in life.  I’m getting behind.  By the end of the day, I’m…. ugh.

The Roman sun rose at 5:39.

The Roman sun set at 20: 36.

In the Curia the Ave Maria Bell is in the 21:00 cycle.  However rang on my phone app while we were having supper last night.    Such a great app.

Along with being the 145th day of the civil calendar, it was the Feast of Mary Mother of the Church, of St. Gregory VII, Venerable Bede and Maria Maddalena de Pazzi.

Jammed.

I read the new encyclical.  It is not without problems.   There are some inconsistencies in it, demonstrating that it was a committee work (they all are now) but also that the editor wasn’t very good.  I was disappointed at the overriding anthropocentric turn and the seeming watering down about abortion as being “gravely wrong” rather than “intrinsically evil”.   I don’t see how the Church’s “just war” doctrine can be thinned out into “outdated”, given the fact that states have a right to defend its citizenry at several levels and that force must be used to end obvious evil.  I’m reminded of Francis once saying that there should never be bombing and then soon after saying that the allies should have bombed to train tracks to the concentrations camps.   As a Latininst, I note that who ever worked on this does understand the impact of “novae” in “res novae” as seriously negative in connotation (not neutrall) and that the name of the document Quadragesismo anno is throughout called Quadragesima anno.  Really?   It is fun to see Tolkien quoted, but one wonders if the author of that section realizes that Gandalf is a fictional character.   I also wonder if the contributor to the theme of Nehemiah knew that the workers rebuilding the walls were also armed.  Also, how did Nehemiah, who essentially engaged in ethnic cleansing and the disfigurement of those who married outsiders as a paragon of synodality?   I could go on.

However, there were some interesting passages and some fair warnings about unbridled use of AI by those who are not responsible to anyone else.   And yet, the encyclical, if I got this right, suggests strong oversite by the state.  Oh?  China?

Enough of that.  Many people will look at this in the next few days.  Will it succeed in the view of authentic experts in the Church’s social teaching as being integrated into that body?   It is economically a little thin, for example.   I really didn’t like the suggestions about redistribution.  Who is supposed to do that?

Friends, including The Great Roman™ and The Great Roman Wife™ with Midwest Travelers™ and I sought to fend off death by starvation.

Great salad.

That’s grated bottarga.

Goodies.

Really good steak tartare.

Black mates in 4.