Daily Archives: November 17, 2014

Pope Francis’ Opening Address to Humanum Conference

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Good words from the Holy Father. Show me a society with strong families, not redefined, and I’ll show you a strong society.

Pope Francis pictured during private audience with Austrian President Fischer at VaticanIt is necessary first topromote the fundamental pillars that govern a nation: its non-material goods. The family is the foundation of co-existence and a remedy against social fragmentation. Children have a right to grow up in a family with a father and a mother capable of creating a suitable environment for the child’s development and emotional maturity. That is why I stressed in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium that the contribution of marriage to society is “indispensable”; that it “transcends the feelings and momentary needs of the couple.” (n. 66) And that is why I am grateful to you for your Colloquium’s emphasis on the benefits that marriage can provide to children, the spouses themselves, and to society.

In these days, as you embark on a reflection on the beauty of complementarity between man and woman in marriage, I urge you to lift up yet another truth about marriage: that permanent commitment to solidarity, fidelity and fruitful love responds to the deepest longings of the human heart. I urge you to bear in mind especially the young people, who represent our future. Commit yourselves, so that our youth do not give themselves over to the poisonous environment of the temporary, but rather be revolutionaries with the courage to seek true and lasting love, going against the common pattern.

Do not fall into the trap of being swayed by political notion. Family is an anthropological fact – a socially and culturally related fact. We cannot qualify it based on ideological notions or concepts important only at one time in history. We can’t think of conservative or progressive notions. Family is a family. It can’t be qualified by ideological notions. Family is per se. It is a strength per se.

Read the whole speech.

NFL Agent Says Domestic Violence Crisis Due to Ungodly Men

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I’m really encouraged that someone finally gets it. Wish more “analysts” and social commentators would do likewise.

NFLAnother day, another football player arrested for domestic violence.

Frank Clark, a senior defensive end for the University of Michigan, was arrested Sunday for allegedly attacking his girlfriend in a Perkins, Ohio hotel room. Sports analysts predict Clark will be a third-round NFL draft pick next year. It’s the latest in a string of scandals involving football players this year–including Baltimore Ravens’ Ray Rice and Minnesota Vikings’ Adrian Peterson–that has prompted the NFL to implement a revamped domestic violence policy.

But Drew Pittman, a Christian NFL sports agent whose firm has negotiated almost $1 billion in player contracts, claims we’re missing the real problem. He says America–not just sports–is experiencing an epidemic of men who are not equipped to be husbands and fathers. He’s compiled stories and principles from his career in a new book, First Team Dad: Your Playbook for a Winning Family  (foreword by Super Bowl winning coach Tony Dungy), and argues that our real problem is ungodly men. Here we discuss his book, sports scandals, and what he believes every parent can learn about parenting and marriage from professional sports.

Read it all.

Bill Crawford: Good Politicians Care for all of Their Constituents

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Yep.

The good governor will do what is best for his whole state.

Consider Ohio Gov. John Kasich, just re-elected to a second term. A Fox News commentator said, “Kasich’s empathy for others is one of his strongest qualities.”

Kasich is a fiscal conservative, an adamant tax cutter, a small government champion, an effective job creator, and pro business. He is also an evangelical Christian whose pro-life actions dramatically reduced abortions in Ohio.

But, he believes the Bible calls him to do more.

“The right way to live is to make sure that those who do not have the blessings that we have, those who are beleaguered, those who have fallen on hard times — we can’t ignore them, we have to help them, and we’re expected to do that, and I believe the Lord expects us to do that,” he said. “And it’s spelled out pretty clearly in the Old and New Testaments, consistently.”

For that reason he signed Ohio up for Medicaid expansion under Obamacare, one of a handful of Republican governors to do so. “I had a chance to bring … Ohio money back to Ohio to do some things that frankly needed to be done. And that’s to treat the mentally ill, to get them across the bridge so they can get employment. The same for the drug addicted — and you know drug addiction is in every demographic, every income, every community — to treat those people, rehab them, and get them to work. And also to make sure the working poor have a system that makes sense, instead of showing up and getting their health care in emergency rooms.”

Read it all.