Faces of Virtue – Can Democracy Survive Without Virtue?
by Donald DeMarco The noted Harvard sociologist Gordon Allport worked on his classic study, The Nature of Prejudice, during the aftermath of World War II. This was a period of high unemployment and...
View ArticleFaces of Virtue – Can Science Survive Without Virtue?
by Donald DeMarco Michael Polanyi changed his career path from science to philosophy so that, paradoxically, he could help protect science from being absorbed into a narrow ideology. In his 1962 Terry...
View ArticleFaces of Virtue – Why it is Difficult to Export Democracy
by Donald DeMarco The noted Harvard sociologist Gordon Allport worked on his classic study, The Nature of Prejudice, during the aftermath of World War II. This was a period of high unemployment and...
View ArticleFaces of Virtue – Balancing Charity with Truth
by Donald DeMarco A kindly priest, who is the editor of an orthodox Catholic newspaper in the United States, told me about the misgivings he had concerning an article he had published. The article...
View ArticleHeroes and Saints
Donald DeMarco From the May/Jun 2009 Issue of Lay Witness Magazine It is a truism that children need role models. Parents, surely, are solemnly obliged to fill this role. But children also need models...
View ArticleThe Manliness of St. Thomas Aquinas
Donald DeMarco From the Sept/Oct 2009 Issue of Lay Witness Magazine The virtue of manliness, therefore, is a natural element in the development of the saint. We are drawing our attention here to...
View ArticlePride
Donald DeMarco From the Nov/Dec 2010 Issue of Lay Witness Magazine Pride As Good or Bad Like cholesterol, there are two kinds of pride: one good, one bad. With good pride, a person can be justified in...
View ArticleDietrich von Hildebrand: His Fidelity, His Life, His Legacy
Donald DeMarco From the Sep/Oct 2011 Issue of Lay Witness Magazine In his Way to Wisdom, the distinguished German philosopher, Karl Jaspers, expands upon his observation that the innate disposition to...
View ArticleOn Being Virtuous in a Not-So-Virtuous World
Donald DeMarco From the Mar/Apr 2012 Issue of Lay Witness Magazine Virtue is understated, underappreciated, under-valuated, and misunderstood. This is a sad litany for something as important as virtue....
View ArticleAristotle and Aquinas: The Vital Difference
An easy, but accurate way of distinguishing the ethics of Aristotle from that of Aquinas lies in examining the fundamental questions they ask. Aristotle’s ethics is the protracted answer to a few basic...
View ArticleIs Suffering Ambiguous?: Finding That Which Does Not Disappoint
When Teresa of Avila was thrown from her carriage and landed in a mud puddle, she questioned God. His answer, “This is the way I treat all my friends,” did not set well with her. “Then, Lord,” she...
View ArticleLagging Behind the Times
It is supremely ironic that secular newspapers that take great pride in being in tune with the times, up-to-date and au courant, can be, when writing about the Catholic Church, 2,000 years behind the...
View ArticleThe Wisdom of Being a Patient Pilgrim
The phrase “patient pilgrim” is attributed to Blaise Pascal, the great scientist, theologian, and philosopher of seventeenth century France. It was a favorite theme for Simone Weil and implied in the...
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