Virtus In Medio Stat

This past Wednesday (01/05), I was part of a panel discussion on the issue of the Church's teaching on Labor and the rights and duties attached to Labor, as expressed in the social doctrine of the Catholic Church. We focused on the encyclical Rerum Novarum by Leo XIII. The panel consisted of four laymen of various expertise, as well as an SVD priest. I was the least qualified to contribute anything on this topic, so I stayed silent for the most part and allowed the others to speak. We focused a lot of attention on Socialism, and its uglier cousin Communism, and the weaknesses of Capitalism as well. My major contribution was on three points: According to St. Francis de Sales, it is a sin against charity for a married man to give up his entire wealth to the poor. This is so because he has a duty to provide for his wife and children. We have a right to private property, and this is so because we have a right to a just remuneration for our services and goods produced as a result of la...

About four months ago, I watched a documentary by famed or infamous documentarian Michael Moore. It was on capitalism. It was called “Capitalism: A Love Story” . I watched it, and I also invited friends over to watch it at my home. I think I am not afraid to say that I was a socialist for about 4 minutes after watching that film. The problem is: socialism is not the answer either. What the film critiqued was not so much capitalism, but corporatism. Socialism has its shortcomings, like forced or involuntary charity and enabling the culture of dependency or entitlement. But, capitalism surely has its shortcomings as well, like greed, jealousy, the exploitation of the working class to deepen the pockets of the rich and privileged. The gap between the haves and the have not’s continues to widen. This was what Leo XIII described in his encyclical on labor, Rerum Novarum . Leo XIII wrote, “To this must be added that the hiring of labor and the conduct of trade are concentrated in the hands ...

This came at an appropriate time considering what I had posted just a few days ago. I made the point that only authentically Catholic Psychology could really be a true science of mental health because it looks at the full picture instead of only half, as modern psychology does. In this video below, Michael Voris points out that good theology leads to good psychology. This make sense because if you are at peace with God, you will be at peace with life, with family, with friends, with neighbors, and the rest of society. God Bless, Laurence G.

This book was on my Amazon recommend list one day. The title intrigued me. I read some brief reviews and looked at his other books. This author was clearly a behaviorist, or even better a cognitive-behaviorist. I bought the book so that it could perhaps help me to understand and help others. However, I was in for a shock when I discovered it gave me more insights into my own personality and how I have dealt with my life's issues, than it did for any other purpose. He focused a lot on the notion of self esteem, that is, true self esteem, not the false self esteem which has been promoted in the last 30 years or so. He also pointed out that most kinds of emotional instability is related to low self esteem and as such, leads to defense mechanisms which seek to compensate for low self worth. Typically, this manifests itself in three ways, the first is the person who is a people pleaser. By pleasing everyone, the positive feedback of thanks boosts up self esteem artificially and temporar...

Grassroots Films Website The moment I have been waiting for, literally for years, has arrived, with the release of The Human Experience . The trailer has sent chills down my spine since I heard about this project 3 years ago. I had promoted their other films before, meriting for me a personal email from the administration of Grassroots Films about 2 years ago thanking me for promoting Fishers of Men on my apologetics blog. I just purchased my copy of The Human Experience today, about 5 seconds after knowing it was released. I am excited. This would be a wonderful pro-life or social justice documentary for parishes and dioceses to have and show on a wide scale! God Bless, Laurence G.

This was an impressive dialogue with a person who is pro-choice. Notice that the evangelist never lost his cool. he didn't yell at him, and he didn't make him feel stupid. St. Augustine once said, "When shooting the arrow of truth, dip it first in honey." Prima caritas, charity and love always must come first. God Bless, Laurence

"Unless souls are saved, nothing is saved; there can be no world peace unless there is soul peace. World wars are only projections of the conflicts waged inside the souls of modern men, for nothing happens in the external world that has not first happened within a soul." ~ Fulton J. Sheen, Peace of Soul There is a tremendous need for good Christian Psychology; a psychology which has a fundamental understanding of the nature of man, that is, understanding the toality of his nature, as both material and immaterial, physical and spiritual, body and soul. As such, it can be said that the only true science of psychology, is Catholic Psychology, since Catholic philosophy has the true understanding of man's two natures and their interaction. A science which ignores half the data to answer the questions they ask, is not a true science. So, only Catholic Psychology could ever be a true science of mental health. It takes into account not only the disorders of the mind and body, bu...