MB recommends I read this piece by Archimandrite Grigorios Papathomas:
OUR 'POST‐ECCLESIOLOGICAL' AGE (pdf) [alternative link]

Related links:
Our 'Post-ecclesiological' Age Koinonia
pastoral mission by F. Papathomas
Solidarity and Justice in the Baltic Countries

Canon 28 of the 4th Ecumenical Council – Relevant or Irrelevant Today? (alt)

Dr. Berquist, Introduction to Philosophy

James Chastek, Notes on physics and metaphysics

FPJ: Foreign News on Intelligent Design by Virgil P. Nemoianu

"Grace in the spirituality of St. Josemaria Escriva," by Cardinal Leo Scheffczyk

Catholic Answers Live: The Theology of the Body Controversy, Guest: Christopher West (rm and mp3)

Michaël de Verteuil, On Michael Cerularius

Practical truth

"My aim is true." Are analytics and others trying to understand Aquinas' notion of practical truth -- unfamiliar with these other uses of "true" in normal everyday English? I am thinking specifically of these meanings.

One online dictionary has the following meanings for "true":

8. Exactly conforming to a rule, standard, or pattern: trying to sing true
B.
9. Accurately shaped or fitted: a true wheel.
10. Accurately placed,
delivered, or thrown.

The Longman English Dictionary Online:

11 straight/level[not before noun] technical fitted, placed, or formed in a way that is perfectly flat, straight, correct etc:
If the door's not true, it won't close properly.
12 somebody's aim is trueif your aim is true, you hit the thing that you were throwing or shooting at

Merriam-Webster:

5 a : that is fitted or formed or that functions accurately b : conformable to a standard or pattern : accurate

Not only does my action bring about a result that is intended, but the intended result is what is appropriate or in accordance with a standard or rule. So in the case of firing an arrow at a target -- my aim is true when it, coupled with my technique of drawing the bow and releasing it, leads to the arrow hitting the target.

While we may understand truth as it is defined with respect to products of art, truth as it is defined with respect to morality may be more difficult. But is it so hard for people to understand and re-present Aquinas's account of practical truth correctly? Perhaps it is the interplay between appetite and reason that trips people up.

Edward Feser, The Greek atomists and the god of Paley

Zenit: A "Green" Thomism?
Conference Sows Seeds of Catholic Environmentalism

Many other notable philosophers and theologians including Dominican Father Charles Morerod, Janet Smith, Steven Long, Christopher Blum and Stratford Caldecott focused their papers on providing a firm intellectual foundation for a renewed Catholic response to questions of creation and stewardship. Bishop Frank Dewane of Venice, Florida, literary historian Joseph Pearce, and Dale Ahlquist of the American Chesterton Society delivered the keynote addresses.

James Chastek, An Aristotelian view of logic vs. an Analytic view

Zenit: On Theology of the Heart or the Mind
"To Make Truth Triumph in Charity"

Enrico Maria Radaelli

Sandro Magister, "Most Holy Father, in This Era of Irrational Barbarism..."

[Enrico Maria] Radaelli, a disciple of the great Catholic philosopher and philologist Romano Amerio, is a sophisticated scholar of theological aesthetics. His masterpiece is: "Ingresso alla bellezza [Entryway to beauty]," released in 2008, a magnificent introduction into the mystery of God through his "Imago," which is Christ. Beauty as the manifestation of the truth.

(via NLM)

Accademia Aurea Domus / Enrico Maria Radaelli

Sandro Magister, The Theology That Suits the Pope Theologian

It is that of the monasteries and cathedrals of the medieval golden age. Benedict XVI has unveiled its marvels to the pilgrims who flock to the general audience. But he also means to give a lesson to the theologians of today

[Does the method of doing theology for the monastic theologians really differ from that of the scholastics? Do they not both start with the same sources, and reflection upon both? What sort of authorities do the monastic theologians incorporate into their writings? Would it be accurate to say that the major contribution of scholastic theologians is the use of logic? Do any of the monastic theologians incorporate the philosophy of the ancients into their speculation? Do they do any speculation, or is their theology more expository, a fruit of their reflection upon Sacred Scripture?]

James V. Schall, S.J., Last Things: Aquinas’s Oysters

Fr. Michael Sherwin, O.P. alerts us to this video of Cardinal Journet.

A friend and I were talking tonight, and the question arose, to whom do we have a greater obligation, a Catholic or a non-Catholic? This may not necessarily be the same question as, "Whom should we love more?" but I this is the question I will address here. If we accept what Aquinas says about the order of charity, it seems that it may be difficult to know whether a Catholic is actually closer to God than a non-Catholic. (We can certainly imagine that it is possible for a non-Catholic to be holier than a Catholic.) Nonetheless, on the basis of who is closer to us, it seems we should love a Catholic more than a non-Catholic, all other things being equal.

Reditus: An Evening with Robert Louis Wilken

A summary of Alasdair MacIntyre's lecture last month for the DHS's Thomistic Circles: “What Should a Dominican Philosophical Education Be Nowadays?”

Papal Address to Astronomy Congress

"True Knowledge Is Always Directed to Wisdom"

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 30, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is the address Benedict XVI gave today when he addressed a group celebrating the International Year of Astronomy with a two-day congress. The International Year of Astronomy was convoked by UNESCO in memory of the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first use of the telescope.

* **

Your Eminence,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am pleased to greet this assembly of distinguished astronomers from throughout the world meeting in the Vatican for the celebration of the International Year of Astronomy, and I thank Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo for his kind words of introduction. This celebration, which marks the four hundredth anniversary of Galileo Galilei’s first observations of the heavens by telescope, invites us to consider the immense progress of scientific knowledge in the modern age and, in a particular way, to turn our gaze anew to the heavens in a spirit of wonder, contemplation and commitment to the pursuit of truth, wherever it is to be found.

Your meeting also coincides with the inauguration of the new facilities of the Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo. As you know, the history of the Observatory is in a very real way linked to the figure of Galileo, the controversies which surrounded his research, and the Church’s attempt to attain a correct and fruitful understanding of the relationship between science and religion. I take this occasion to express my gratitude not only for the careful studies which have clarified the precise historical context of Galileo’s condemnation, but also for the efforts of all those committed to ongoing dialogue and reflection on the complementarity of faith and reason in the service of an integral understanding of man and his place in the universe. I am particularly grateful to the staff of the Observatory, and to the friends and benefactors of the Vatican Observatory Foundation, for their efforts to promote research, educational opportunities and dialogue between the Church and the world of science.

The International Year of Astronomy is meant not least to recapture for people throughout our world the extraordinary wonder and amazement which characterized the great age of discovery in the sixteenth century. I think, for example, of the exultation felt by the scientists of the Roman College who just a few steps from here carried out the observations and calculations which led to the worldwide adoption of the Gregorian calendar. Our own age, poised at the edge of perhaps even greater and more far-ranging scientific discoveries, would benefit from that same sense of awe and the desire to attain a truly humanistic synthesis of knowledge which inspired the fathers of modern science. Who can deny that responsibility for the future of humanity, and indeed respect for nature and the world around us, demand -- today as much as ever -- the careful observation, critical judgement, patience and discipline which are essential to the modern scientific method? At the same time, the great scientists of the age of discovery remind us also that true knowledge is always directed to wisdom, and, rather than restricting the eyes of the mind, it invites us to lift our gaze to the higher realm of the spirit.

Knowledge, in a word, must be understood and pursued in all its liberating breadth. It can certainly be reduced to calculation and experiment, yet if it aspires to be wisdom, capable of directing man in the light of his first beginnings and his final ends, it must be committed to the pursuit of that ultimate truth which, while ever beyond our complete grasp, is nonetheless the key to our authentic happiness and freedom (cf. Jn 8:32), the measure of our true humanity, and the criterion for a just relationship with the physical world and with our brothers and sisters in the great human family.

Dear friends, modern cosmology has shown us that neither we, nor the earth we stand on, is the centre of our universe, composed of billions of galaxies, each of them with myriads of stars and planets. Yet, as we seek to respond to the challenge of this Year -- to lift up our eyes to the heavens in order to rediscover our place in the universe -- how can we not be caught up in the marvel expressed by the Psalmist so long ago? Contemplating the starry sky, he cried out with wonder to the Lord: "When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you set in place, what is man that you should be mindful of him, or the son of man, that you should care for him?" (Ps 8:4-5). It is my hope that the wonder and exaltation which are meant to be the fruits of this International Year of Astronomy will lead beyond the contemplation of the marvels of creation to the contemplation of the Creator, and of that Love which is the underlying motive of his creation -- the Love which, in the words of Dante Alighieri, "moves the sun and the other stars" (Paradiso XXXIII, 145). Revelation tells us that, in the fullness of time, the Word through whom all things were made came to dwell among us. In Christ, the new Adam, we acknowledge the true centre of the universe and all history, and in him, the incarnate Logos, we see the fullest measure of our grandeur as human beings, endowed with reason and called to an eternal destiny.

With these reflections, dear friends, I greet all of you with respect and esteem, and I offer prayerful good wishes for your research and teaching. Upon you, your families and dear ones I cordially invoke Almighty God’s blessings of wisdom, joy, and peace.

© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana