Two disparate cases have more in common than we might think Charles E. Bouchard, O.P. and Richard Peddicord, O.P. At first glance the death of an unborn child at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix and the death of convicted criminal Ronnie Lee Gardner in Draper, Utah, appear to have little in common. Yet analysis shows that both of them are governed by the Church’s teaching on the direct taking of innocent human life, by the technical but widely used principle of double effect, and by the principle of moral cooperation. It is not clear that these principles were applied equally in... [Read More...]

A word that has become more and more common in religious writing and discussion in the last twenty-five years is “spirituality.” Writers in this field of study offer various definitions for spirituality, but a simple description that can be helpful in living the Christian life is to understand it as the way we put into practice what we believe; how we live our faith in the daily thoughts, words and actions of our lives. If we believe that we are called to love and forgive one another, how do we incorporate that belief in our human relationships, especially with the significan... [Read More...]