The tort law system is designed to assure that a harmed individual has recourse to the legal system. That serves the common good. Over the past few decades, however, tort law has changed so that it now encourages lawsuits designed to maximize recovery regardless of culpability. This comes at great expense to the community-affirming values of apology, acceptance of responsibility, and forgiveness. As legislators and judges consider reforms, the goal must be to return to a system which affirms the dignity of the person and affirms the community by placing blame only on those who are truly responsible.

Prior to election to the see of Peter, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger had already called for renewed attention to natural law, the understanding of which is presently obscured not only in society at large but among scholars. He seems to view natural law under three aspects: First as a fact, reflecting the constitution of the human person and of created reality as a whole; second as a theory, an attempt to comprehend the fact; third, however, as a sign of contradiction, for it exasperates, offends, and enrages. The article explores the natural law under each of these three aspects.

This essay is a brief commentary on J. Budziszewski's work on natural law. The author first offers a personal narrative on how Budziszewski s notion of what we can't not know is cashed out in concrete experience. The author then critiques two different types of challenges to Budziszewski's work: (1) the Darwinian conservative challenge, and (2) the Protestant-Evangelical challenge.

J. Budziszewski has been a leading advocate for natural law theory over the past twenty years. His numerous works focus on articulating a conception of natural law rooted in the obviousness of some moral principles: "What we can't not know" as he memorably titles one of his books. This essay points out how Catholic philosophers and theologians have questioned whether faith and reason can be properly balanced in modern thought. It suggests that a Catholic natural law theory must also seek to balance faith and reason, but this poses a challenge to the obviousness of the moral principles that approaches like Budziszewski's seek.

The philosopher Jacques Maritain developed a rich, multilayered political philosophy which was thoroughly informed by his deep Catholic faith. While clearly reflecting a debt to the thought of Aristotle and Saint Thomas Aquinas, it nonetheless bears the pronounced stamp of originality. The philosophy is the result of the sustained development of four interrelated ideas. The first is a philosophy of the person which is uniquely Maritain's. The second is his interpretation and peculiar application of the classical distinction between the secular and the sacral realms. The third is his philosophy of democracy, and the fourth is his theory of a new Christendom.

The author discusses the writings of several of the leading critics, both scholarly and popular, of the American child protective system in charge of enforcing child abuse laws against parents. The common thread running through all their writings and motivating their critical stance is that the system massively, without legitimate grounds, intervenes into innocent families. The vagueness of what child maltreatment is under the laws and the ease of making reports under them is what has stimulated this. The writers surveyed point to different solutions for this overreaching of the child protective system.

This paper discusses for-profit social welfare and end-of-life issues in the U.S., and concludes that the strong profit motive, plus diminishing budgets, growing demands (such as an increased aged population) and other factors will result in increasing ethical problems vis a vis end-of-life issues. The paper divides as follows: (1) For-profit Social Welfare Policy Sector and Human Service Corporations; (2) Profit Motive Trumps End-of-Life Concerns; (3) Conclusion.

In a democracy, part of the Christian life is discernment regarding voting. How to do this is passionately contested. Political parties and organizations that misuse religious arguments and language to gain the support of Catholic voters harm the faithful. The battle for the "Catholic vote" in the 2008 presidential election will be of unprecedented ferocity. Catholics should avoid being manipulated; the faith must never be subordinated to the interests of any political agenda.

This article addresses the relationship between Catholicism and psychology through the lens of the Catholic Church s tradition of the relationship between faith and reason. The essay draws upon the statements of Pope Pius XII, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. Patterns of conversation in the past, including ones involving conflict are examined. A cellular template explaining some of the patterns is presented from the analysis developed by John Haught namely: Conflict, Contrast, Contact and Confirmation. The contemporary phenomenon of positive psychology serves as an illustration.

The impact of pro-life legislation on the incidence of abortion among minors is a topic that has received little attention from scholars. In this study I examine the impact of pro-life legislation by analyzing a comprehensive dataset of minor abortion rates from over 40 states over a span of 15 years. Regression results indicate that parental involvement legislation and other types of pro-life laws are correlated with reductions in the incidence of abortion among minors. A set of natural experiments provide further evidence of the effectiveness of pro-life legislation.

On August 15, 1790, John Carroll was consecrated as the first Roman Catholic bishop of the United States at a private chapel in England. An Account of the event was published in London, marking the importance of the moment for the now-tolerated American Catholic Church, but also serving the purposes of certain English Catholics who hungered for similar signs of toleration. The English Catholic situation included a struggle between pro-Roman, pro-papal sentiments and tendencies more willing to accommodate their church to modern and liberal ideas of authority and personal autonomy. It might be argued that the Account was taking the pro-papal side in the English Catholic discussion, revealing parallel but now intersecting stories of the journey toward complete religious liberty in two English-speaking lands lately separated yet still ironically connected.

This essay suggests and analyzes six themes that the author concludes are crucial both in understanding the past course of events in the Catholic Church of the United States and that may well shape its future. These themes involve 1) the nature and effectiveness of the Catholic sub-culture over time, 2) the issue as to which source of authority the Catholic people have historically deferred; 3) how the Catholic Church and people have related to the central American value of individualism, itself under constant revision; 4) the institutionalized dissent which overtook much of the Catholic organizational infrastructure from the mid-1960s onwards; 5) the revitalizing possibilities for the Catholic Church regarding the recent massive Hispanic immigration and 6) the reasons for the historic failure of the Catholic Church to effectively evangelize among the black African American population and some suggestions to reverse the situation.

This article examines the increasing problem of health care employees other than physicians and nurses, especially pharmacists, facing discipline or termination for refusing to engage in immoral practices such as dispensing contraceptives. The article considers the limitations of current anti-discrimination statutes in protecting such employees, and believes that "conscience laws "—which so far only a minority of states have enacted, but many are considering—afford the best possibility for protection.

Sister Margherita Marchione has been one of the leading academic defenders of Pope Pius XII against the untruthful, dishonest, and often scurrilous attacks against him in recent years by some writers who have claimed that he not only did not do enough to help the Jews during World War II, but actually somehow collaborated with the Nazis. Sister Margherita has published several books about Pius, showing that the original understanding of his efforts was indeed true: he worked intensively to do all in his power to protect the Jews and other groups. Indeed, his efforts surpassed that of most political leaders of the time. Currently, as the draft letter below indicates, she is on a campaign to solicit the testimony of Jews who were first-hand beneficiaries of his efforts, or those who know directly of such cases, in order to get Pius recognized at the Vad Vashem Memorial in Israel as "Just Among the Nations." Two testimonials are apparently required and history tells us that many, many more than two Jews were saved by Pius's efforts. For her efforts to restore the reputation of Pius XII and to once again set the historical record straight about him. Sister Margherita will be honored in 2007 with the Society of Catholic Social Scientists' Blessed Frederic Ozanam Award for Catholic Social Action, named after the Society's patron. Below are four recent short articles that Sister Margherita wrote about Pius s efforts and leadership during the War and a sample letter in which she requests anyone who knows Jews who can provide testimony to contact her. There is also some biographical information about Sister Margherita.

As a professor in a secular university for forty years, my teaching responsibility has been to teach students of political science as well as I could. Mere worldly success depends on doing that, as well as on being a successful scholar, as the profession and ones colleagues define successful. As a Christian, one's salvation depends partly on how conscientiously one fulfills these worldly responsibilities to others. "Thou shah not steal" and "Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself" It is obviously a challenge to try to sanctify one s daily professional work but it is not impossible. The following is a record of how one man has attempted to do that in the admittedly unpromising environment of a secular university. Perhaps these experiences and reflections on them may be useful for others who are considering an academic career.