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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Oct 8, 2012 15:33:33 GMT
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Post by hibernicus on Jan 20, 2013 17:52:12 GMT
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Post by hibernicus on Jan 20, 2013 18:23:36 GMT
cloversoldier.wordpress.com/A Catholic newsblog- creator was at the Pro-LIfe Vigil yesterday. A warning sign - they link to Thought and Action, but no other evidence that I can see (so far) that they share the outlook of that evil blog
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Post by hibernicus on Feb 9, 2013 13:56:22 GMT
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Post by shane on Nov 27, 2013 0:06:16 GMT
I came across a very interesting blog on the Irish media. The author of the blog is firmly pro-life (I don't know whether he's Catholic). Worth a read. irishpoliticsandmedia.blogspot.ie/
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Nov 27, 2013 11:06:23 GMT
Good on pro-life, but otherwise very pro-the current coalition and its policies.
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Post by hibernicus on Dec 2, 2013 23:11:49 GMT
A very good Scottish Catholic blog that has been going for two years - I came across it through a reference in Tom Gallagher's new book on the current state of Christianity (and especially Catholicism) in modern Scotland. I may post a bit more on that book when I find the time. Lazarus, the blogger, is a convert - first from atheism, then from Anglicanism. HE appears to have some philosophical training. Here is an interesting sample, in which he discusses how supporters of gay marriage (amongst others) have been junking the idea (which used to be very popular with intellectual Scottish nationalists like George Davie, author of THE DEMOCRATIC INTELLECT) that Scots' heritage in Calvinist scholasticism and Roman Law gave them an intellectual rigour lacking in the muddleheaded English. They have replaced it with the idea that the Scottish past was uniformly oppressive and detestable and must be junked en bloc and replaced by a shiny modern construction (whether this is seen as an independent Scotland seen as signifying a clean break with the past - there is an outspoken left-nationalist bloc that advocates it on precisely those grounds - or as continued Union in the name of a modernity seen as transcending national divisions). Lazarus suggests that this reflects the present-day weakness/virtual nonexistence of Burkean conservatism in Scotland, which is linked to various factors - including the Scots reaction against Thatcherism, which devastated much of industrial Scotland. This is an interesting point considering that Burkeanism can be seen as influenced by the Scottish Enlightenment and Scottish writers like Scott did much to propagate it. Parallels with the Irish situation, where much of what used to be perceived as beneficial Irish peculiarities are being comprehensively trashed and demonised (and they did have flaws - it's "comprehensively" that's the problem). A critic like Seamus Deane who sees Burke as the arch-enemy and reacts fiercely against his Catholic upbringing while glorifying a reinvented nationalism seems to me to have certain similarities with the left-nats of Scotland] cumlazaro.blogspot.ie/2013/07/killing-scotland-to-build-scotland.htmlEXTRACT This is Jetsonism is in full flight: the belief that the future will be shiny and full of rocket cars (but with the sad truth that really all you have produced is a second rate version of the Flintstones). There is a strain in modern Scottish politics and cultural life that erects Scotland on the grave of Scotland: only by killing off what characterizes Scotland can we be truly Scotland. And so Hassan talks about 'the dark place we have come from' as though it was all bad and that it will be all good. This juvenile optimism is the general problem. But specifically it attacks the two elements of the intellectual narrative I sketched above: the Kirk and Scots Law. The case with the Kirk is clear enough. Instead of being an intellectual powerhouse which kept Scotland in the mainstream of European culture, it becomes merely an outpost of the Quivering Brethren. The case of Scots Law is more complex. Instead of a system which prides itself on principled reasoning based on sources within Roman Law and Natural Law, it becomes -what? A quaint set of customs, to be distinguished from Anglo-Saxon Common Law by some amusing details? A system based on Platonic reasoning which owes nothing to more concrete sources of jurisprudence? I don't think I've seen a single reference to either Roman Law or Natural Law in the pro-same sex 'marriage' side's arguments. Tactically, it's not surprising. Whilst the anti-SSM side has referred constantly to Natural Law, there's very little, either in Roman Law or the tradition of Natural Law, to provide comfort for the pro-SSM side... it's quite clear that, if you were going to take seriously Roman Law and Natural Law as sources, same sex 'marriage' would be extremely tricky to justify to put it mildly. But it's odd that this abandonment of the specificities of the Scottish legal and intellectual tradition has gone almost unnoticed. You might have thought that, in the midst of possibly the greatest opportunity Scottish national pride has had to reassert itself politically, there would be a corresponding cultural revival. You might not expect everyone to be running around proclaiming a revival of interest in the Scottish intellectual tradition -Roman Law, Scholastic Calvinism etc- but you might expect some to be doing so. You might expect some glimmer of interest in how, say, the Scottish Enlightenment thinkers would have dealt with current issues of fundamental human concern such as marriage. But, of course, as soon as you actually go back and look at what they really say, unless you confine yourself to the atypical Hume, you bash into Natural Law and Roman Law and God. And we can't be having that now, can we? But never mind. It was a 'dark place' after all. END OF EXTRACTS Overall a very impressive blog which well repays reading
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Post by hibernicus on Jan 1, 2014 14:56:19 GMT
The Scottish blogger Lazarus offers some Hogmanay reflections on the blessings of being a Catholic: cumlazaro.blogspot.ie/EXTRACT Personally, I've had quite a pleasant year: nothing dramatic happening, merely the slow drip of time washing me a bit nearer to the grave. (We Scottish Catholics believe in preserving the best traditions of Calvinism and in particular a sprightly sense of seasonal jollity and optimism for the coming days.) But really, my overwhelming feeling as I write this (apart from the immediate concern of wondering what we're going to have for dinner) is what a great privilege it is to belong to a Church which, quite apart from its supernatural role as the Body of Christ, is the reservoir for much of the best in human culture. We don't always live up to that inheritance intellectually, artistically or morally, but high culture is there and available to the ordinary Catholic in a way that, outside the Church, few beyond the elites will experience it and few of them in a coherent, fully integrated harmony of truth, goodness and beauty. St Andrews Cathedral in Glasgow is not my favourite Scottish church, but even it offers the weekly or even daily experience of a coherent aesthetic space which gestures to transcendent values and which is a rarity in the modern age [SUBSTITUTE WHATEVER IRISH CHURCH BUILDING COMES TO MIND - HIB] Morally, the techniques of the examination of the conscience, both privately and in the confessional, again offer to ordinary people a seriousness and depth in life that the modern secular world does its best to destroy. And intellectually, the Church offers a view of life that would be recognizable to Stoics, Neo-Platonists and Peripatetics and yet in a way that is livable by ordinary, non-philosophers. (And all this before we come on to the supernatural.) For many non-Catholics, the Church seems to be viewed as a harsh discipline, borne simply because of an illusory promise of a pay off after death. It doesn't feel like that inside: rather more like inhabiting a giant space with far too many rooms to explore in a lifetime. I really can't think of anywhere else I would rather live out my life and have my family live out theirs. Ignore the occasional bits of grit. Being a Catholic is just great. Happy New Year! END
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Post by hibernicus on Aug 27, 2014 10:03:14 GMT
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Post by hibernicus on Sept 8, 2014 20:31:09 GMT
The Central Catholic Library has its own little blog, which offers notices on forthcoming lectures and occasional posts on interesting items in the library. As I often say, the CCL is a scandalously neglected resource. Use it or lose it! Their new lecture season opens at 6.30 pm on Tuesday 30 September with a lecture on the late historian Fr FX Martin, OSA, by Felix Larkin. www.digitalfrontispiece.blogspot.ie/
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Post by Ranger on Jun 15, 2015 20:11:18 GMT
I have started blogging here, albeit sporadically: bygraceandbannersfallen.wordpress.com/I will of course continue posting here, but I felt that the blog format would help me to tease out some ideas I have in my head and of course you would all be welcome to comment upon posts etc. I will endeavour to post more frequently in the weeks to come.
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Post by hibernicus on Jun 15, 2015 21:07:20 GMT
Looks very interesting so far. Thanks for posting the link.
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Post by Young Ireland on Jul 10, 2015 22:10:22 GMT
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Post by Ranger on Jul 11, 2015 13:56:04 GMT
Thanks for the plug Young Ireland! Comments would be very welcome, hopefully I'll get that third post done over the weekend other work permitting.
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Post by maolsheachlann on Jul 11, 2015 18:38:28 GMT
Wordpress might be a deterrent to comments, I just tried to leave a comment myself but I couldn't remember my Wordpress account password, I tried a few different ones and eventually I had used up my log-in attempts! I'll have to write it down for the future, when I work it out.
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