Once driven by the principle of favor vitae, Italian legislation began to shift its focus with the approval of Law 219 (2017) which sanctioned the right of a patient to refuse or suspend life support therapies and treatment, despite the mortal consequences, and to receive the assistance of a physician to that end. After ruling n°207 (2018), of the Constitutional […]
Book schel
A look at political Islam. A review of Marie ThérèsUrvoy, Islamologie et monde islamique
The Catholic world deals with the issue of Islam above all from the viewpoint of interreligious dialogue. The mounting presence of Muslims in countries of longstanding Christian tradition, however, makes it necessary to examine the Islamic world also from the strictly social and political viewpoints. This is something different with respect to the perspective of interreligious dialogue, but not at […]
The Social Doctrine of the Church: the new Manual by George J. Woodall
The destiny of SDC Manuals yesterday and today Is time still ripe for Manuals of the social doctrine of the Church? The publication of such a Manual at this time is a fact to be flagged with a certain sense of both surprise and satisfaction. I am referring to George J. Woodall, Dottrina Sociale della Chiesa, Fede & Cultura, Verona […]
God is accessibile to all because what is more cannot come from what is less. The ‘simple’ metaphysics of Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange.
St. Thomas Aquinas, as we know, worked out five “viae” (later called “demonstrations”) to the existence of God. His formulation of them was technical and availed itself of specific philosophical concepts. In their essence, however, the five ways of St. Thomas are simple, and put the spontaneous inferences of the ordinary person into words of philosophical formulation. They belong to […]
The difference between dignity and liberty. A book by Giovanni Turco straddling philosophy and rights.
According to classical and Christian philosophy, and particularly so in the mainstream of Aristotle and Thomas, liberty does not belong to the essence of man. In other words, man is not man insofar as free, even if each man is free. Liberty is a property that derives from essence, and in particular from the specific difference of rationality. Man is […]
The future of the Social Apostolate. The new book of most rev. Giampaolo Crepaldi.
This reader-friendly book entitled “The Italian Church and the future of the social apostolate” (“La Chiesa italiana e il futuro della Pastorale Sociale”: Edizioni Cantagalli) stands forth as an effort to reply to two essential questions posed by the situation now being lived by the Church: “Does the social apostolate of the Italian Church have a future? Does the organic […]
Law and moral action – Ley y acción moral
In this readily legible book published in Spain in the Prudentia iuris series directed by Prof. Miguel Ayuso, the Chilean philosopher José Luis Widow offers us an intelligent presentation of the classical doctrine of natural law and ably defends it against the objections launched by philosophical modernity regarding the classical claim of knowing a natural order normative for man. In […]
La luz brilla en las tinieblas. Cardenal Van Thuȃn: historia de una esperanza
Publisher: Ediciones Palabra Pages: 268 Price: €17,50 This biography by Miguel Angel Velasco, a Spanish journalist specialized in religious information and contemporary hagiography, fills an editorial gap in its own way. In fact, despite considerable research endeavors over the past few years, at present there aren’t many reasoned biographies on the life and teaching of Van Thuȃn, especially relative to […]
Black Book on the condition of Christians in the world
Publisher: Mondadori Pages: 604 Price: €20,00 Besides the periodical and meritorious reports of ‘Aiuto alla Chiesa che Soffre’ (Aid to the Church in Need), lacking in current affairs journalism in Italy until now has been a detailed and well reasoned study on the mounting spread of anti-Christian persecution around the world. This gap has now been filled by this collective […]
Economics and society: the challenges of Christian responsibility. Questions and answers about the Social Doctrine of the Church
Publisher: Edusc Pages: 124 Price: €13,00 “In the final analysis, man without God becomes inhuman. Without God we cannot construct a society worthy of man, as the atheistic regimes of the XX century so sorely experienced” (pg. 8). Thus does Professor Martin Schlag – professor of Social Doctrine at the Pontifical University of the Sacred Heart (PUSC) – explain in […]
The Chinese Model: The capital-socialism of social control. The 13th Report of the Van Thuân Observatory is now available