The Bellarmine Forum

Three years ago, the federal government quietly took over the student loan program from private lenders. Today, the other shoe is falling, as Obama announces that the government will decide which institutions of higher learning merit the federal support, “in the government’s opinion.” Will Catholic institutions suing the Obama Administration make the cut?

Saint André Bessette cured so many cripples that their crutches line wall after wall of the Oratory of Saint Joseph, which he founded on Mount Royal in Montreal. Footnote looks at one of those miraculous cures, as chronicled by Laurent Bucher, CSC, Saint André’s biographer.

Saint André Bessette, known to millions simply as Brother André, was the porter at Notre Dame College (High School) in Montreal, Quebec. He is the first canonized saint of the Congregation of the Holy Cross (the CSC’s), which also founded Notre Dame University. Footnote looks at Brother André’s devotion to the spirit of the CSC’s, as expressed by the order’s founder, Fr. Basil Moreau, the year before Notre Dame was founded in Indiana. Has the university lived up to the spirit as Brother André did?

Professor Rice: 45 years ago, Notre Dame led a group of Catholic universities in declaring independence from the Catholic Church. Did it lead to academic excellence? Or more money for the school and more debt for the students?

Ten years ago, President George W. Bush invaded Iraq to “end evil in the world.” How has that worked out for Christians in the Middle East?

Footnote discusses Right or Wrong, the impressive new book by Bellarmine Forum Chairman Charles E. Rice, professor of Constitutional Law at Notre Dame Law School. What is Notre Dame’s approach to Church teaching, especially Humanae Vitae?

Besides allegedly funding the Syrian rebels and providing them with the bombs that are destroying Catholic and Orthodox churches in Syria, your tax dollars are used to aggressively push an anti-life agenda in the Third World. Hear direct reports from Fr. Peter Clovis.

Upside Down Catholics: Isn’t it curious that many Catholics who insist that the Church adopt their left-wing political agenda are the same dissidents who refuse to embrace the Church’s magisterial teachings?

Negotiating With The Church: When people challenge the magisterial teachings of the Church and offer views that are diametrically opposed, should the Church meet them halfway in the spirit of “Consensus”?

The Death Of The Common Good: Has diversity destroyed the sense of community and legitimate authority that, the Church teaches, is required for civic life?

Benedict’s Motu Proprio, Round Two: With Pope Benedict's new addition to Canon Law, will the Catholic Church in the U.S. have to stop taking billions a year from the federal government?

As he was preparing to leave office, Pope Benedict XVI promulgated a critical clarification of Canon Law regarding how the Church conducts Catholic charities of all kinds. The local bishop, not the national conferences, should be the point man, he says, and they must implement many common-sense rules that a lot of Catholic institutions are not going to like – at all.

In Footnote 33, Chris Manion observes that a whacko feminist recently insisted that children belong to the state, not to God or their parents. She thought she was being very avante-garde. Was she right? Far from it: it’s an old canard whose history deserves our attention.

The Bellarmine Forum’s Campaign for Humanae Vitae™ got a big boost in April, as Raymond Cardinal Burke urged the laity to encourage our priests and bishops to teach the truths of the faith in their dioceses. Waiting for national bishops’ conferences and their bureaucracies to do it means delay and a watered-down product, he says.

In Footnote 30, Chris Manion interviews Phil Lawler, Editor of Catholic Culture (catholicculture.org).