Of course, aside from not voting or voting for one of the major parties that are against life, one can also vote for any of the *other* candidates running for President. It's quite possible the Pontiff is unaware of these options given his distance from the US, but certainly The Pillar is given the recent ASP profile!
> one can also vote for any of the *other* candidates running for President.
It depends on the state because the U.S. is a weird place. I am sure in my state I can write them in whether they made it onto the ballot or not (I am less certain about whether my state feels like counting write-in votes or not).
Assuming you’re talking about the ASP ticket, this handy map shows what states they are on the ballot on and which they are registered write in candidates in (meaning if you write them in, that vote will be counted by the state).
I think Pope Francis is too old and set in his ways to change his habits on in-flight press conferences, but at the very least I hope he has set a sufficient example for the next Pope, and future Popes on the perils of frequent and unfiltered speaking for one in such a position.
Especially given how the press of all ideological points on the spectrum always twist the Holy Father’s words to suit their ideological agendas and generate as many clicks as possible.
Thanks JD, your dad’s Snoopy shirt is awesome! If you ever find yourself in Saint Paul, MN again, definitely stop by Rice Park in downtown Saint Paul, there are bronze sculptures of Peanuts characters there, honoring Charles Schulz, who is a native of Saint Paul, MN.
Also, if you do go to Sydney next year, a photo of JD holding a Koala would be pretty awesome! Watch out for all the deadly animals in Australia, though! I think Australia has more deadly creatures on both the land and in the water than any place on earth, including deadly sharks, jellyfish, crocodiles, spiders, and snakes.
If there was ever some epic gathering of The Pillar subscribers, and I was able to make it to that, Phillip, you would be one of the people I’d hope to meet 🙂
It is my job as the husband, within the best of my ability, to get my wife and children into heaven. I'm sure the suffering from reading my comments is having the same effect on the reader.
I imagine if I were to attend a Pillar reader gathering, it would be best the other attendees consult with their spiritual advisor before undertaking that level of mortification. 😁
There have been two separate assassination attempts against the opposition candidate. This followed efforts by the opposition party to try to legally put the opposition candidate in jail, make him pay exorbitant fees for bail and use gag orders to try to stop him from speaking. If this were Russia, we would know where to place the blame. But hey Catholics, both candidates are evil. And apparently requiring migrants and refugees to wait in Mexico while their cases are decided is as morally evil as taking the life of an unborn child.
Well I do think they are both evil, as are most politicians, for that matter. Both of the major party nominees support access to legal abortion and the availability of the abortion pill. There is no pro-life major party ticket in this election, so if you vote for either major party ticket, you are voting for a pro-abortion ticket, including a supposedly devout Catholic VP nominee who has taken public positions on abortion in his VP campaign that are at odds with Catholic teaching on the matter. Plus the character of all the major party nominees is horrible. So for me, I’ve discerned in good conscience that I cannot and will not vote for either major party nominee. I cannot in good conscience and will not vote for any candidate for any office with power over abortion, including the presidency, who I don’t trust and who supports legal abortion. That’s a big part of why I’m voting for the Sonski/Onak ticket that the American Solidarity Party has nominated for President. When does the “lesser of two evils” become too evil to cast a vote for in good conscience. I mean, what if it were Hitler vs Stalin, or Sauron vs Saruman for major party nominees? What does a Catholic do when both major party nominees are evil people who support at least some evil things? That’s a serious question that we need to think and pray about.
Also, embracing a strongman tends to turn out poorly for the Church. Look at the damage that Francisco Franco did to the Catholic Church in Spain. There are far worse things that can happen to the Church than persecution, and what happened to the Church in Spain under Franco is arguably worse, in my opinion.
> There have been two separate assassination attempts against the opposition candidate.
This reminds me of the time some people on the internet were discussing whether Bonhoeffer was in favor of assassinating Hitler and whether this made him (Bonhoeffer) more of a good guy or less of a good guy (since he (Bonhoeffer) was not Catholic at the time[1] I paid approximately zero attention however.)
[1] here I gamely derail a train of thought "if everyone in heaven is Catholic, is everyone in purgatory also Catholic" (but I think the answer must be "yes of course", I.e. on admission to the Church Suffering congrats you are now Catholic) in order to finish the sentence
It’s true that Pope Francis doesn’t, and didn’t, speak with precision on those significant *insert topic* issues.
-Repeat ad-nauseam until a new pope is elected.
"the pontiff would be well-advised to reconsider the prudence of speaking extemporaneously on complex and highly divisive issues, when his words, whatever they are, are used in ways he seems rarely to anticipate."
-It's been 11 years. Anecdotally, it's this point in a marriage where divorces tend to flare up because one party, the other, or both realize that the other won't change. They either walk away or begin working on themselves. Pope Francis isn't going to change. I will not leave the Church. So, I can only work on myself (assuming that this isn't a sin against synodality).
Since the Pope only has one lung and air travel further decreases oxygen levels, I assume everything the Pope says on airplanes is not worth noting and not going to be well thought out. I sometimes thing journalist take advantage of this hypoxic situation for click bait. The Vatican ought to know better and let the Pope travel without interviews.
I also love that JD and Ed and their colleagues can stir the pot on hot button issues, and this is the only place on the internet where that can be done and at least 99% of the people who comment on here act like adults and have reasoned conversations about those issues that respect the dignity of all participants in the conversation, as well as the readers of the comments. That gives me hope for the future. It’s the virtual equivalent of a giant dinner table or front porch conversation 🙂
Woo-hoo! Steelers shirt! Hey JD, tell your pop that the Steelers hold their summer training camp at the same campus my monastery is on. It all starts at Saint Vincent!
In more serious news, I admit that struggling with remarks from the Pope has probably been the hardest part of working my way back into full communion with the Church. Luckily the Pillar is always here to help me. Subscription money well spent.
Thanks for the review of the latest Papal interview at 35,000 feet. There is unfortunately a long history of gaffes on these flights. And I don't know how you stop them unless His Holiness recognises that these informal chats are very ill advised. No one can force him to settle down in his bed (I assume he flies at least business class) for a refreshing slumber all the way to Rome.
2016: I refuse to accept Islam is violent (Krakow to Rome, just after Father Hamel got his throat cut in Rouen)
Trump's position on immigration is that people who want to enter our country should do so LEGALLY. We have a processes in place now to accomplish that. These are being ignored and aliens are allowed to cross our southern border in untold numbers. They are breaking our laws. No other country in the world allows this kind of invasion. Interesting that the Pope has nothing to say about that. Try sneaking across the border into France or Hungary. I doubt if you would be given medical care, food stamps housing and education for your children. Legal immigration is the American way. ILLEGAL immigration is the issue. The Pope is in error equating the two and condemning a leader who is trying to preserve his country. A country is not a country without borders.
When I lived in TX from 2019-2023, I saw virtually no political ads on securing the southern border. Now that I live in Montana, nowhere near the southern border, both senatorial candidates are campaigning on it, and I find that absolutely fascinating.
“ These are being ignored and aliens are allowed to cross our southern border in untold numbers.” On this point I’m wondering how many aircraft loads of illegal migrants from the U.S. would it take to make the 764 population of the sovereign country city-state in Rome to feel uncomfortable?
The Pope had great praise for Singapore, so I looked up how Singapore dealt with illegal immigration. According to Google, a person entering Singapore illegally, is caned and then put in jail.
If JD and Ed are planning for Sydney, please make room in your schedule for Christchurch, New Zealand. It’s just a hop across the pond. I might even bribe you with funds for this leg of your journey (if I’m still alive).
Sounds like a tourist trap all right. Wouldn't the actual "middle of the world" be a spot in the Atlantic Ocean near Africa where the Prime Meridian and the Equator intersect?
for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.
You shall not wrong any widow or orphan.
If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me,
I will surely hear their cry.
My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword;
then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans
--------
I think that is chronologically and ontologically prior to any self-assumed right of a Nation State.
I am suspicious of the "prudential issues are left to civil government" argument. It can be used to frame any issue: "Policies and decisions related to the provision of healthcare are left to the prudential judgement of civil authorities." Or "Criminal law and the operation of the judiciary are entrusted to the prudential judgement of civil authorities ..." (Therefore the Church has no right to complain about the conviction and imprisonment of Bishop Rolando Álvarez in Nicaragua ...)
The "prudential judgement" argument is incredibly narrow. Sure, the government may determine how to process immigrants at the border, but that does not imply that it has the right to deny access in such a way as to contradict Scripture. The government may have the right to determine what claim form is used to process healthcare payments, but it does not have the right to authorize actions in violation of natural law. The government may have the right to determine how long you have to file an appeal in a criminal case, but that does not imply that it has a right to imprison in violation of fundamental human freedoms.
They say a lawyer's superpower is to transform any case into an issue of procedure. Their regular power is to frame any argument so as to determine the outcome. It is simply a matter of semantics to pick a level of generality such that issues that violate natural law simply become an issue of "prudential judgement."
Also it is the feast of St Albert of Jerusalem, lawgiver of the Carmelite Order (they wrote to him and said "could you please write us a rule of life" and he wrote a very nice and very short one.)
Lots of great food for thought, as always. That’s why I pay for the subscription. But the thing that warmed my heart the most was seeing your dad wearing Steelers colors! I’m sure he’s as happy about our W against the Broncos in Denver as I am, a few hours south of the mile high (yes, a Steelers fan in Broncos Country)!
Of course, aside from not voting or voting for one of the major parties that are against life, one can also vote for any of the *other* candidates running for President. It's quite possible the Pontiff is unaware of these options given his distance from the US, but certainly The Pillar is given the recent ASP profile!
true.
But why wouldn’t he just say, “The American presidential election isn’t anything that the Pope should comment on”? The virtue of prudence, anyone?
> one can also vote for any of the *other* candidates running for President.
It depends on the state because the U.S. is a weird place. I am sure in my state I can write them in whether they made it onto the ballot or not (I am less certain about whether my state feels like counting write-in votes or not).
Assuming you’re talking about the ASP ticket, this handy map shows what states they are on the ballot on and which they are registered write in candidates in (meaning if you write them in, that vote will be counted by the state).
https://www.petersonski.com/
In a previous election, my write-in for President was something to the effect of “Literally Almost Anyone Else”
I think Pope Francis is too old and set in his ways to change his habits on in-flight press conferences, but at the very least I hope he has set a sufficient example for the next Pope, and future Popes on the perils of frequent and unfiltered speaking for one in such a position.
Especially given how the press of all ideological points on the spectrum always twist the Holy Father’s words to suit their ideological agendas and generate as many clicks as possible.
Thanks JD, your dad’s Snoopy shirt is awesome! If you ever find yourself in Saint Paul, MN again, definitely stop by Rice Park in downtown Saint Paul, there are bronze sculptures of Peanuts characters there, honoring Charles Schulz, who is a native of Saint Paul, MN.
Also, if you do go to Sydney next year, a photo of JD holding a Koala would be pretty awesome! Watch out for all the deadly animals in Australia, though! I think Australia has more deadly creatures on both the land and in the water than any place on earth, including deadly sharks, jellyfish, crocodiles, spiders, and snakes.
I wouldn't mess with Koala's, the cousin of the deadly Drop Bears!
The Fearsome Australian Drop Bear! (Killer Koalas?) - Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jx3X2A4XFM
Thanks! I love that podcast, Phillip!
If there was ever some epic gathering of The Pillar subscribers, and I was able to make it to that, Phillip, you would be one of the people I’d hope to meet 🙂
Thanks, Michael.
It is my job as the husband, within the best of my ability, to get my wife and children into heaven. I'm sure the suffering from reading my comments is having the same effect on the reader.
I imagine if I were to attend a Pillar reader gathering, it would be best the other attendees consult with their spiritual advisor before undertaking that level of mortification. 😁
There have been two separate assassination attempts against the opposition candidate. This followed efforts by the opposition party to try to legally put the opposition candidate in jail, make him pay exorbitant fees for bail and use gag orders to try to stop him from speaking. If this were Russia, we would know where to place the blame. But hey Catholics, both candidates are evil. And apparently requiring migrants and refugees to wait in Mexico while their cases are decided is as morally evil as taking the life of an unborn child.
Well I do think they are both evil, as are most politicians, for that matter. Both of the major party nominees support access to legal abortion and the availability of the abortion pill. There is no pro-life major party ticket in this election, so if you vote for either major party ticket, you are voting for a pro-abortion ticket, including a supposedly devout Catholic VP nominee who has taken public positions on abortion in his VP campaign that are at odds with Catholic teaching on the matter. Plus the character of all the major party nominees is horrible. So for me, I’ve discerned in good conscience that I cannot and will not vote for either major party nominee. I cannot in good conscience and will not vote for any candidate for any office with power over abortion, including the presidency, who I don’t trust and who supports legal abortion. That’s a big part of why I’m voting for the Sonski/Onak ticket that the American Solidarity Party has nominated for President. When does the “lesser of two evils” become too evil to cast a vote for in good conscience. I mean, what if it were Hitler vs Stalin, or Sauron vs Saruman for major party nominees? What does a Catholic do when both major party nominees are evil people who support at least some evil things? That’s a serious question that we need to think and pray about.
Also, embracing a strongman tends to turn out poorly for the Church. Look at the damage that Francisco Franco did to the Catholic Church in Spain. There are far worse things that can happen to the Church than persecution, and what happened to the Church in Spain under Franco is arguably worse, in my opinion.
Well said! Crystallized! Amen.
> There have been two separate assassination attempts against the opposition candidate.
This reminds me of the time some people on the internet were discussing whether Bonhoeffer was in favor of assassinating Hitler and whether this made him (Bonhoeffer) more of a good guy or less of a good guy (since he (Bonhoeffer) was not Catholic at the time[1] I paid approximately zero attention however.)
[1] here I gamely derail a train of thought "if everyone in heaven is Catholic, is everyone in purgatory also Catholic" (but I think the answer must be "yes of course", I.e. on admission to the Church Suffering congrats you are now Catholic) in order to finish the sentence
Congratulations, purgatory is real! Maybe that will be enough of a penance for some of the souls there.
It’s true that Pope Francis doesn’t, and didn’t, speak with precision on those significant *insert topic* issues.
-Repeat ad-nauseam until a new pope is elected.
"the pontiff would be well-advised to reconsider the prudence of speaking extemporaneously on complex and highly divisive issues, when his words, whatever they are, are used in ways he seems rarely to anticipate."
-It's been 11 years. Anecdotally, it's this point in a marriage where divorces tend to flare up because one party, the other, or both realize that the other won't change. They either walk away or begin working on themselves. Pope Francis isn't going to change. I will not leave the Church. So, I can only work on myself (assuming that this isn't a sin against synodality).
I pray that it is not a sin against synodality!
I mused about this in today's Starting Seven (subscribe today for more introspective musings!). Dan gave his opinion. I am open to others.
🤣
Since the Pope only has one lung and air travel further decreases oxygen levels, I assume everything the Pope says on airplanes is not worth noting and not going to be well thought out. I sometimes thing journalist take advantage of this hypoxic situation for click bait. The Vatican ought to know better and let the Pope travel without interviews.
I also love that JD and Ed and their colleagues can stir the pot on hot button issues, and this is the only place on the internet where that can be done and at least 99% of the people who comment on here act like adults and have reasoned conversations about those issues that respect the dignity of all participants in the conversation, as well as the readers of the comments. That gives me hope for the future. It’s the virtual equivalent of a giant dinner table or front porch conversation 🙂
Ok the most important thing here is whether or not JD's Proud Poppa is a Steelers fan! We must know!
He is. He lived in the South Hills for a while and picked up a Steelers fandom there.
My family lived in and around the South Hills area! That's awesome!
Woo-hoo! Steelers shirt! Hey JD, tell your pop that the Steelers hold their summer training camp at the same campus my monastery is on. It all starts at Saint Vincent!
In more serious news, I admit that struggling with remarks from the Pope has probably been the hardest part of working my way back into full communion with the Church. Luckily the Pillar is always here to help me. Subscription money well spent.
Please don’t let anything or anyone block you from full communion with the Church. Focus on Jesus Christ. God bless you.
Thanks for the review of the latest Papal interview at 35,000 feet. There is unfortunately a long history of gaffes on these flights. And I don't know how you stop them unless His Holiness recognises that these informal chats are very ill advised. No one can force him to settle down in his bed (I assume he flies at least business class) for a refreshing slumber all the way to Rome.
2016: I refuse to accept Islam is violent (Krakow to Rome, just after Father Hamel got his throat cut in Rouen)
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/01/488223541/pope-francis-say-it-is-wrong-to-identify-islam-with-violence#:~:text=Francis%20responded%20that%20the%20characterization,violence%2C%22%20the%20pope%20said.
2015 Punch the doctor! (Sri Lanka to Philipines, No 4 gaffe below)
https://worldcrunch.com/culture-society/pope-francis-gaffes
2015 Catholics need not breed like rabbits (Manila to Rome)
https://www.reuters.com/article/world/africa/pope-says-birth-control-ban-doesnt-mean-breed-like-rabbits-idUSKBN0KS1WX/#:~:text=ABOARD%20THE%20PAPAL%20PLANE%20(Reuters,approved%20natural%20family%20planning%20methods.
2013: Who am I to judge?
(Rio de Janeiro to Rome)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-23489702
“GO STILLERS!!” JD, thank your Dad for bearing the colors! ❤️ 🙏
Trump's position on immigration is that people who want to enter our country should do so LEGALLY. We have a processes in place now to accomplish that. These are being ignored and aliens are allowed to cross our southern border in untold numbers. They are breaking our laws. No other country in the world allows this kind of invasion. Interesting that the Pope has nothing to say about that. Try sneaking across the border into France or Hungary. I doubt if you would be given medical care, food stamps housing and education for your children. Legal immigration is the American way. ILLEGAL immigration is the issue. The Pope is in error equating the two and condemning a leader who is trying to preserve his country. A country is not a country without borders.
" No other country in the world allows this kind of invasion."
Nope. Canada ran similar idiocy for about eight years along our southern border, starting in the middle of the Teens.
When I lived in TX from 2019-2023, I saw virtually no political ads on securing the southern border. Now that I live in Montana, nowhere near the southern border, both senatorial candidates are campaigning on it, and I find that absolutely fascinating.
“ These are being ignored and aliens are allowed to cross our southern border in untold numbers.” On this point I’m wondering how many aircraft loads of illegal migrants from the U.S. would it take to make the 764 population of the sovereign country city-state in Rome to feel uncomfortable?
My best guess is one.
The Pope had great praise for Singapore, so I looked up how Singapore dealt with illegal immigration. According to Google, a person entering Singapore illegally, is caned and then put in jail.
If JD and Ed are planning for Sydney, please make room in your schedule for Christchurch, New Zealand. It’s just a hop across the pond. I might even bribe you with funds for this leg of your journey (if I’m still alive).
I would love to visit Kiwi Country.
You’re on!
See you and Ed in 2028, God willing.
Sounds like a tourist trap all right. Wouldn't the actual "middle of the world" be a spot in the Atlantic Ocean near Africa where the Prime Meridian and the Equator intersect?
yes. but SHHHH. they've got a good thing going.
Thus says the LORD:
“You shall not molest or oppress an alien,
for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.
You shall not wrong any widow or orphan.
If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me,
I will surely hear their cry.
My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword;
then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans
--------
I think that is chronologically and ontologically prior to any self-assumed right of a Nation State.
I am suspicious of the "prudential issues are left to civil government" argument. It can be used to frame any issue: "Policies and decisions related to the provision of healthcare are left to the prudential judgement of civil authorities." Or "Criminal law and the operation of the judiciary are entrusted to the prudential judgement of civil authorities ..." (Therefore the Church has no right to complain about the conviction and imprisonment of Bishop Rolando Álvarez in Nicaragua ...)
The "prudential judgement" argument is incredibly narrow. Sure, the government may determine how to process immigrants at the border, but that does not imply that it has the right to deny access in such a way as to contradict Scripture. The government may have the right to determine what claim form is used to process healthcare payments, but it does not have the right to authorize actions in violation of natural law. The government may have the right to determine how long you have to file an appeal in a criminal case, but that does not imply that it has a right to imprison in violation of fundamental human freedoms.
They say a lawyer's superpower is to transform any case into an issue of procedure. Their regular power is to frame any argument so as to determine the outcome. It is simply a matter of semantics to pick a level of generality such that issues that violate natural law simply become an issue of "prudential judgement."
Also it is the feast of St Albert of Jerusalem, lawgiver of the Carmelite Order (they wrote to him and said "could you please write us a rule of life" and he wrote a very nice and very short one.)
Lots of great food for thought, as always. That’s why I pay for the subscription. But the thing that warmed my heart the most was seeing your dad wearing Steelers colors! I’m sure he’s as happy about our W against the Broncos in Denver as I am, a few hours south of the mile high (yes, a Steelers fan in Broncos Country)!