First, I welcome WWNN to Substack and welcome to Archbishop Chaput and his inaugural contribution on this venue. He is no stranger to the current cultural battle(s). However, the success of this site will only be measured to the extent that it criticizes not only the secular post-modern world (i.e. post-truth) but also to the extent that that world has infiltrated the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Let me be blunt—Amoris Laetitia. Witness if you will, what Pope Francis has done to the Pope John Paul II Institute in gutting the tenured faculty and replacing them with pro-homosexualists and even those in favor of abortion and contraception. As a former graduate of JPII Institute, I have already violate one of the missions of this site—bitterness. Go ahead and call me “Mara”, for I have reason enough. Hopefully, this site will sweeten that ecclesial aftertaste.
Here in a nutshell is what Veritatis Splendor is about: Pope St. JPII’s attempt to return, past modernism (the turn to the subjective), to the objective—a Aristotelian/Thomist morality. However, what we are up against is a huge pushback from a certain religious order that has not one but both of the Pope’s ears. And this has influenced the U.S.C.B. which is sitting on a document on what is being mis-labeled as “trans-genderism” but is really a gender dysphoria. Bishops recall your purpose—or as then Cardinal Ratzinger said, “You wear red for a reason.”
Many thanks to Archbishop Chaput for this essay as well as for its earlier version from First Things. Both the Church and the world badly need such clear teaching. St John Paul II and his encyclical will remain for all a trusted reference as regards truth and life. As the Pope himself put it in the first lines of the encyclical, it is the truth that "enlightens man's intelligence and shapes his freedom". If so, it is only "the freedom which submits to the Truth leads the human person to his true good" (VS, par. 84).
"Truth exists, whether we like it or not. We don’t create truth; we find it, and we have no power to change it to our tastes. The truth may not make us comfortable, but it does make us free. And knowing and living the truth ennobles our lives. It’s the only path to lasting happiness."
At John 14:6 we read: Jesus said to him, “I am the way and THE TRUTH and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
At John 14: 15-17 we read: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you.
In 2016, at the height of the “fake news” phenomenon, the Oxford English Dictionary announced its “Word of the Year 2016”:
“POST-TRUTH,” which it defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”
Archbishop Chaput also wrote: “Christian morality is about seeking fellowship with God, which is our TRUE happiness, the goal of our human existence. Moral rules, laws, and commandments do exist, and they’re important. But they have value because they point to something far more profound: how to live in order to grow in virtue and attain fullness of life.”
I say: Searching and finding the TRUTH affords us the opportunity to attain the fullness of life. We need to read and understand Christ much better.
First, I welcome WWNN to Substack and welcome to Archbishop Chaput and his inaugural contribution on this venue. He is no stranger to the current cultural battle(s). However, the success of this site will only be measured to the extent that it criticizes not only the secular post-modern world (i.e. post-truth) but also to the extent that that world has infiltrated the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Let me be blunt—Amoris Laetitia. Witness if you will, what Pope Francis has done to the Pope John Paul II Institute in gutting the tenured faculty and replacing them with pro-homosexualists and even those in favor of abortion and contraception. As a former graduate of JPII Institute, I have already violate one of the missions of this site—bitterness. Go ahead and call me “Mara”, for I have reason enough. Hopefully, this site will sweeten that ecclesial aftertaste.
Here in a nutshell is what Veritatis Splendor is about: Pope St. JPII’s attempt to return, past modernism (the turn to the subjective), to the objective—a Aristotelian/Thomist morality. However, what we are up against is a huge pushback from a certain religious order that has not one but both of the Pope’s ears. And this has influenced the U.S.C.B. which is sitting on a document on what is being mis-labeled as “trans-genderism” but is really a gender dysphoria. Bishops recall your purpose—or as then Cardinal Ratzinger said, “You wear red for a reason.”
Many thanks to Archbishop Chaput for this essay as well as for its earlier version from First Things. Both the Church and the world badly need such clear teaching. St John Paul II and his encyclical will remain for all a trusted reference as regards truth and life. As the Pope himself put it in the first lines of the encyclical, it is the truth that "enlightens man's intelligence and shapes his freedom". If so, it is only "the freedom which submits to the Truth leads the human person to his true good" (VS, par. 84).
Thanks be to God for Archbishop Chaput and his words.
In the article, Archbishop Chaput wrote:
"Truth exists, whether we like it or not. We don’t create truth; we find it, and we have no power to change it to our tastes. The truth may not make us comfortable, but it does make us free. And knowing and living the truth ennobles our lives. It’s the only path to lasting happiness."
At John 14:6 we read: Jesus said to him, “I am the way and THE TRUTH and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
At John 14: 15-17 we read: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you.
In 2016, at the height of the “fake news” phenomenon, the Oxford English Dictionary announced its “Word of the Year 2016”:
“POST-TRUTH,” which it defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”
Archbishop Chaput also wrote: “Christian morality is about seeking fellowship with God, which is our TRUE happiness, the goal of our human existence. Moral rules, laws, and commandments do exist, and they’re important. But they have value because they point to something far more profound: how to live in order to grow in virtue and attain fullness of life.”
I say: Searching and finding the TRUTH affords us the opportunity to attain the fullness of life. We need to read and understand Christ much better.