Subsidiarity is integral to a social doctrine based on natural law rather than technology. That ought to be a feature rather than a bug, but in today’s world it means no one can make sense of it or apply it coherently.

The principle tells us that lower level associations such as families and local communities should carry on the greater part of the life of society, and higher level associations such as the state should facilitate their efforts. The point is to make social life more truly human, since face to face communities are more human than the stock market or the Code of Federal Regulations.

The approach is in line with social justice, understood in the Catholic manner as “conditions that allow associations or individuals to obtain what is their due, according to their nature and their vocation.” Lower level associations are due a setting that lets them pursue their vocation effectively, and subsidiarity calls on higher level associations to promote such a setting. It is also consistent with the Holy Father’s call in Evangelii Gaudium for “growth in justice [supported by] decisions, programmes, mechanisms and processes specifically geared to a better distribution of income, the creation of sources of employment and an integral promotion of the poor which goes beyond a simple welfare mentality.” The call is for measures that promote the growth of productive and rewarding connections between the poor and the rest of society, rather than direct delivery of material benefits (which would be “a simple welfare mentality”).

While the approach makes a great deal of sense, it is not always obvious how to apply it. Actions don’t come with labels saying whether they constitute direct state intervention or support for the functioning of individuals and local groups. Nor do general principles make it clear what specific situations are urgent enough to justify the temporary direct intervention in social and economic life for the sake of the common good that Bl. John Paul II mentions in Centesimus Annus. So it seems that subsidiarity is less an enforceable rule that can be applied by anyone regardless of his views on other subjects than a guiding principle for building a good social order that has to be applied prudently, keeping in mind the proper balance of goals and a deep understanding of human nature and the workings of the system.

Unfortunately, that kind of complex, steady, and statesmanlike approach is hard to find in politics today. A basic problem is the difficulty of limiting the modern state and modern economic life. The state doesn’t want to be limited, because people who like to run things believe they know best. And technology has multiplied our ability to buy and sell whatever we need, and seems to hold out the prospect of absolute freedom through unlimited wealth.More……

Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, will visit the Vatican and meet Pope Francis on Thursday, April 3. A statement from her Press Secretary states the Queen is coming to Rome in response to a lunch invitation from Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, and she is using the visit to Italy as an “opportunity to meet Pope Francis for the first time.” Queen Elizabeth II met with Pope Benedict XVI during his state visit to Great Britain in 2010.

The full statement from the Press Secretary of Queen Elizabeth is below

The Queen, accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh, will visit Rome on Thursday 3rd April. Her Majesty and His Royal Highness are visiting at the invitation of the President of Italy, President Napolitano.

The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh will visit the Presidential Palace where they will attend a private lunch hosted by The President.

Following the private lunch Her Majesty and His Royal Highness will have an Audience with His Holiness Pope Francis at the Vatican.

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The Catholic Church was slammed at the U.N. on Thursday about how they have historically handled cases of sex abuse by priests, as a committee investigated their adherence to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires all signatories “to take all appropriate measures to keep children from harm.”

Pope Francis has addressed the sexual abuse issue as part of his Vatican reforms with the creation of a commission on abuse, and on Thursday morning he also denounced the problem in a blistering homily that spoke of the scandal and shame of the church.

Vatican Radio reported that he said:

“But are we ashamed? So many scandals that I do not want to mention individually, but all of us know…We know where they are! Scandals, some who charged a lot of money…. The shame of the Church!

But are we all ashamed of those scandals, of those failings of priests, bishops, laity? Where was the Word of God in those scandals; where was the Word of God in those men and in those women? They did not have a relationship with God! They had a position in the Church, a position of power, even of comfort. But the Word of God, no! ‘But, I wear a medal,’ ‘I carry the Cross ‘ … Yes, just as those bore the Ark!

Without the living relationship with God and the Word of God! I am reminded of the words of Jesus about those for whom scandals come … And here the scandal hit: bringing decay to the people of God, including the weakness and corruption of the priests.’

The Vatican is currently facing criticism for rejecting an extradition request from Poland regarding the ex-papal nuncio to the Dominican Republic, Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski. Wesolowski, the highest-ranking Vatican official to be investigated for alleged sex abuse to date, is currently thought to be living in the Vatican.

This is a guest post by Joe Durepos.

Mother TeresaFrom 1966 to 1970 my family lived in England. One of our favorite television journalists was Malcolm Muggeridge. Muggeridge was not known as an overly religious man. But he began broadcasting mesmerizing stories about an unusual nun in the streets of Calcutta. His news reports, along with his documentary, Something Beautiful for God, introduced the world to Mother Teresa, the saint of the streets.
I was intrigued by Mother Teresa, as much as an adolescent could be. But truthfully, I was also horrified by the stories of this little nun picking lepers off the street and tending to their wounds, cleaning the maggots out of their running sores, bathing and sheltering sick street people, finding them food, medical care, and a place to die in peace. How could one little nun make a difference when everybody knew there was so much suffering?

I remember asking my mother why anyone would do what Mother Teresa was doing. Without missing a beat, she said, “Mother Teresa sees the face of Christ in the poor, the sick, and the dying. Every day she spends helping the sick, the poor, and the dying, she’s mending our broken world by helping her beloved Jesus, who unfortunately most of us are still rejecting.”

With very little comprehension, I said something like, “Right, well, thanks, Mom, that certainly explains everything.”

It’s been 40 years now, and I’ve seen and experienced a little more of the suffering of the world. I’ve lost friends and family members. I encounter the urban poor and homeless on my way to work every day. It does feel like a broken world. But I also try to help in small ways, where I can, how I can. And I still think about what my mother said to me all those years ago.
I get it now-that does explain everything.

Joseph Durepos is an editor at Loyola Press and author of A Still More Excellent Way.

I feel like we’ve been solemn and serious for way too long so today I’m turning to our friends at Bad Newspaper (formerly Criggo) for help. I guffawed at this one.

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This is a guest post by Joe Durepos.

Mother TeresaFrom 1966 to 1970 my family lived in England. One of our favorite television journalists was Malcolm Muggeridge. Muggeridge was not known as an overly religious man. But he began broadcasting mesmerizing stories about an unusual nun in the streets of Calcutta. His news reports, along with his documentary, Something Beautiful for God, introduced the world to Mother Teresa, the saint of the streets.
I was intrigued by Mother Teresa, as much as an adolescent could be. But truthfully, I was also horrified by the stories of this little nun picking lepers off the street and tending to their wounds, cleaning the maggots out of their running sores, bathing and sheltering sick street people, finding them food, medical care, and a place to die in peace. How could one little nun make a difference when everybody knew there was so much suffering?

I remember asking my mother why anyone would do what Mother Teresa was doing. Without missing a beat, she said, “Mother Teresa sees the face of Christ in the poor, the sick, and the dying. Every day she spends helping the sick, the poor, and the dying, she’s mending our broken world by helping her beloved Jesus, who unfortunately most of us are still rejecting.”

With very little comprehension, I said something like, “Right, well, thanks, Mom, that certainly explains everything.”

It’s been 40 years now, and I’ve seen and experienced a little more of the suffering of the world. I’ve lost friends and family members. I encounter the urban poor and homeless on my way to work every day. It does feel like a broken world. But I also try to help in small ways, where I can, how I can. And I still think about what my mother said to me all those years ago.
I get it now-that does explain everything.

Joseph Durepos is an editor at Loyola Press and author of A Still More Excellent Way.

A Catholic priest has urged anti-government protesters in Bangkok to seek justice and reform through peaceful means following a night of sporadic violence in the Thai capital.

Addressing several thousand protesters in central Bangkok on Wednesday, Jesuit Father Vichai Phoktavi prayed for peace and justice in Thailand.

“I think that politics and our government in Thailand should be reformed, we need to reduce corruption and there should be more participation from the people,” he told ucanews.com.

Father Vichai said he was approached by protest organizers on Tuesday to help lead an interreligious prayer service to kick off the third consecutive day of citywide protests, dubbed “Shutdown Bangkok” by organizers. He followed on stage a Muslim imam who offered a similar prayer for peace and justice, Father Vichai said.

The religious leaders’ pleas for peace came after pockets of violence were reported across the city on Tuesday night. Two people were shot, an explosive device was thrown at the main opposition party leader’s house, a bus was set on fire and police were attacked in several separate incidents, authorities said.

The shootings occurred near the city’s Pathum Wan intersection, not far from where Wednesday’s prayer session took place.

Father Vichai, former director of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, said he reminded the crowd in a city still scarred from the deadly 2010 riots that the use of nonviolence was the best way for them to achieve their goals.

“I am not involved in politics and I am not here to choose sides. I am here to help strengthen Thai society and to promote justice and peace and good morals among Thai people and Thai politics,” he said.

Protesters have been seeking to oust the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and install an appointed government to institute political reforms before holding new elections. They and the main opposition Democrat Party have refused to participate in elections scheduled for February 2 unless reforms are made.

The ongoing protests involve blocking off several major streets and intersections in central Bangkok. While some offices and schools were closed and larger shopping centers closed early, organizers have fallen short of their goal to paralyze the city. At several protest sites, organizers have opened portions of roadways to allow traffic to pass through.

The protests were initially triggered by a failed amnesty bill that could have allowed Yingluck’s billionaire brother and former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, to return from his self-imposed exile without going to jail.

Thaksin, who lives abroad to avoid a jail term for corruption, is popular in northern Thailand, but reviled by many in the south and Bangkok’s middle class.

by Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific 

The Chinese Province is offering a 10-day introduction to China for Jesuits interested in learning about the country and the Society’s mission there.

China is one of the apostolic preferences of the Society of Jesus, and the Jesuit Chinese Provincial Fr John Lee SJ said that the aim of China Contact Programme is to provide young Jesuit priests and scholastics with “a better knowledge and first-hand experience of China” as well as “form better and solid young Jesuits for foreign mission in our Society today, especially for the China mission”.

The Society’s interest in China dates back to its early days, when Francis Xavier, the great Jesuit missionary travelled to Asia. He never made it there, dying of a fever on the island of Shang Chuan, while waiting for a boat to take him to mainland China. Xavier’s dream of a mission to China was fulfilled 30 years later by Matteo Ricci, is one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China Mission, as it existed in the 17th and 18th centuries. An Italian Jesuit, he spent 28 years evangelizing, absorbing Chinese culture and bringing Western science to China. His scientific acumen and enthusiasm for cultural exchange won the trust and admiration of the Ming Dynasty Emperor Wanli. The history of the missions of the Jesuits in China is part of the history of relations between China and the Western world.

“This programme is not only about the history of the Catholic Church and the Jesuits in China, but also about the contemporary issues of China in terms of economics, culture, politics, etc,” said Fr Thierry Meynard SJ, director of The Beijing Centre, the Jesuit work that will conduct the programme. “It is important that Jesuits learn from China, so they can understand better the impact of China in the world and in their own culture and country, and also can develop educational or cultural exchanges with China.”

The China Contact Programme will be held in Beijing from August 2 to 11, 2014, and will be conducted in English. It will include lectures, sharing, formative activities, and visits to Jesuit sites including the old Jesuit Observatory, the old Summer Palace, and the Tomb of Matteo Ricci. There will also be opportunities to experience some Jesuit works in nearby areas.

The invitation is open to all Jesuits, particularly those aged 40 and below, who are mature in their personality and vocation; open to change in their ways of thinking and behaving, open to learning from a new culture, and open to cooperating with others for God’s Mission; and have the desire to be sent to a foreign mission.

Fr Meynard said that some young Jesuits who attended the China Contact Programme in the past later joined the three-year programme of international regency.

Questions or applications should be directed to Scholastic Vincentius, Chinese Province Curia Assistant, at sectpo1@gmail.com before January 31, 2014.

“They didn’t know who they were.” This is how Hilary summed up the problem with the Arian heretics of the fourth century.

Hilary, on the other hand, knew very well who he was — a child of a loving God who had inherited eternal life through belief in the Son of God. He hadn’t been raised as a Christian but he had felt a wonder at the gift of life and a desire to find out the meaning of that gift. He first discarded the approach of many people who around him, who believed the purpose of life was only to satisfy desires. He knew he wasn’t a beast grazing in a pasture. The philosophers agreed with him. Human beings should rise above desires and live a life of virtue, they said. But Hilary could see in his own heart that humans were meant for even more than living a good life.

If he didn’t lead a virtuous life, he would suffer from guilt and be unhappy. His soul seemed to cry out that wasn’t enough to justify the enormous gift of life. So Hilary went looking for the giftgiver. He was told many things about the divine — many that we still hear today: that there were many Gods, that God didn’t exist but all creation was the result of random acts of nature, that God existed but didn’t really care for his creation, that God was in creatures or images. One look in his own soul told him these images of the divine were wrong. God had to be one because no creation could be as great as God. God had to be concerned with God’s creation — otherwise why create it?

At that point, Hilary tells us, he “chanced upon” the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. When he read the verse where God tells Moses “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14), Hilary said, “I was frankly amazed at such a clear definition of God, which expressed the incomprehensible knowledge of the divine nature in words most suited to human intelligence.” In the Psalms and the Prophets he found descriptions of God’s power, concern, and beauty. For example in Psalm 139, “Where shall I go from your spirit?”, he found confirmation that God was everywhere and omnipotent.

But still he was troubled. He knew the giftgiver now, but what was he, the recipient of the gift? Was he just created for the moment to disappear at death? It only made sense to him that God’s purpose in creation should be “that what did not exist began to exist, not that what had begun to exist would cease to exist.” Then he found the Gospels and read John’s words including “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God…” (John 1:1-2). From John he learned of the Son of God and how Jesus had been sent to bring eternal life to those who believed. Finally his soul was at rest. “No longer did it look upon the life of this body as troublesome or wearisome, but believed it to be what the alphabet is to children… namely, as the patient endurance of the present trials of life in order to gain a blissful eternity.” He had found who he was in discovering God and God’s Son Jesus Christ.More……

What you have long suspected is true… I am a secret mystic. Look at my stigmata!
I probably shouldn’t admit that I got it from a panicked and over-enthusiastic use of a toilet plunger, should I?