Prayer Request

By



Please join with me in praying for a dear friend who is undergoing treatment for cancer.   

Popular posts from this blog

War, Moral Principles, and Contemporary Conflicts

By
Image
  Introduction War presents profound moral challenges, forcing a confrontation with the limits of human reason and conscience. The Catholic Church offers a moral framework rooted in the intrinsic dignity of every human person and the immutable moral law, even in the chaos of conflict. This essay applies these enduring principles to two contentious military episodes of the modern era: the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, and Israel’s military campaign in Gaza following Hamas’s attack in October 2023. While the bombings on Japan represent a clear case of intrinsic evil under Catholic doctrine, the Gaza conflict illustrates the complexities of just war reasoning. By engaging these cases, the Church’s moral vision offers guidance on the ethical boundaries of warfare and the responsibilities of combatants to justice and human dignity. Catholic Teaching on Moral Acts and War Catholic moral theology teaches that the morality of any human act depends on three essential co...
Read more

When Mercy Meets Truth: How the Church Guides Us from Sin to Grace

By
Image
Edited Essay Introduction From the beginning, the Church has proclaimed the Good News of salvation in Christ. This Gospel message is one of mercy and a call from sin to conversion. Sin is not only the breaking of rules. It is a rupture in our relationship with God, with neighbour, and with ourselves. It distorts freedom and needs God’s healing grace. This understanding, drawn from Scripture, the Fathers, and the Magisterium, is the heart of Catholic moral theology. Alongside the teaching on sin is an emphasis on mercy and an understanding of personal culpability. While moral law does not change, personal responsibility can be lessened by ignorance, weakness, or coercion. Balancing truth and responsibility has always shaped Catholic thought. In recent years, this balancing has become sharply debated, especially since Pope Francis’s Amoris Laetitia . This essay explores how the Church seeks to uphold moral law while also exercising pastoral mercy. Drawing on the Catechism, John...
Read more

Prophets in Darkness: Apocalyptic and Christian Themes in Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne

By
Image
Yep, Happy Jack admits it - He was a Black Sabbath fan back in the day. Rest in Peace Ozzy.  Introduction: Hellfire and Heavy Metal No band has provoked more moral panic and theological misreading than Black Sabbath, the pioneering heavy metal group from Birmingham, England. With their ominous soundscapes, Gothic album art, and lyrics invoking Satan, war, and judgment, they became lightning rods for controversy. But beneath the doom-laden riffs and Ozzy Osbourne’s haunted vocals lies something more complex - a body of work rich in apocalyptic imagery, Christian motifs, and a moral vision not unlike that of the biblical prophets. Far from advocating for evil, Black Sabbath’s early albums offer a critique of human sin, institutional corruption, and spiritual blindness, often drawing implicitly on Christian categories of good, evil, and divine justice. I. Black Sabbath: The Sound of Judgment 1. Origins in Industrial Despair Formed in 1968, Black Sabbath emerged from the decayi...
Read more