Here I repeat the text of a commentary post shared on Facebook June 27th. The world is being remade in every direction at once. There were just everywhere re-energized celebrations of Pride Month. Then, the day I thought I would finish such-and-such letter to the editor, the Supreme Court Dobbs Vs Jackson decision overturned both …
Category Archives: Morality and Commandments
Public Comment on Proposal 5
The following was sent to the Vermont statehouse on January 26, 2022, in anticipation of a public hearing on Proposal 5. The attached is Public Comment on Proposal 5 – Rev. Timothy Naples I submit this testimony specifically to comment on Proposal 5, which proposes to affirm in the Vermont constitution “an individual’s right to …
Is it right to say that “Love is Love”?
When people in society want me to say the love of eros between two men, or between two women, is “good” because “love is love,” I won’t say it.
Parenthood Known Naturally, and Embraced as a Great Good
The response to this deep relativism, manifested as an incoherent but aggressive utilitarianism, is quite simply the persistent, rational search for truth.
Ramblings: Catholic moral teaching, racism, and other sins.
Ramblings on Catholic moral teaching, racism, and other sins. I have always had a hard time being clear about the parameters of exactly what was included in the Church’s “Catholic Social Teaching.” Mainly, I mean I understood at least as much as the average seminarian all the principles articulated in the social teachings and the …
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Worship, and Religion in the Public Sphere
“My worship has found its most perfect expression, and fullness of power, when I come to hold the divine Body and Blood of God in my hands, and consume Him into my corporeal existence.”
Technology, Human Existence, and the Gift of Life
A significant number of the Catholic bishops of the United States are confident in saying “The threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself, because it takes place within the sanctuary of the family, and because of the number of lives destroyed.” (A sufficient number affirmed this statement to insist …
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Catholic-by-initiation, vs. Catholic-in-morals
Who can call themselves a Catholic? A Catholic becomes a Catholic by Sacramental initiation. Were you baptized Catholic? Were you confirmed Catholic? Have you received the Holy Eucharist as your first communion in a licitly offered Catholic rite of the Holy Eucharist? If yes, you are a Catholic. The Church insists that your Catholic initiation …
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Homily for 23rd Sunday, Year A (My homily notes, with additions for publication)
Our Gospel passage for this Sunday is from Mathew Chapter 18. It is a beautiful and rich chapter, known as the Church Order Discourse. It happens to be the only other place, in all the Gospels, where Jesus uses the Greek word “church” (ekklesia), after Matthew 16 (“You are Peter, and on this rock I …
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On Catholic Morality, and Voting
Among events local and national, with the news cycles and social media going full bore, you may have heard, through some medium or other, various apocalyptic portents to the effect that the fate of the world relies upon your vote in the November U.S. elections. Yes. Here we are: morality and voting. I give this …
Ubi Petrus VT 