Quick Hits: Things worth fighting for—a saint’s body, a woman’s honor

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Mar 07, 2017 | In Quick Hits

• Have you been following the news of the contest between the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Peoria over the remains of Archbishop Fulton Sheen? That dispute has delayed the cause for the late archbishop’s beatification, and many people find it appalling that Catholic prelates are fighting—as Archbishop Sheen himself might put it—“over my dead body.” But Elizabeth Anderson offers a different perspective for Catholic World Report. This is not an analysis of the legal and canonical arguments, but rather a reminder that reverence for the body of a reputed saint “reminds us of the Incarnational world in which we lie, and draws attention to deep elements of the Catholic faith.” Prescinding from the argument over whether New York or Peoria has the better claim, Anderson remarks that “squabbling over the body of a saint falls in the category of things at least worthy of fights, in which multiple opinions could be correct.”


• There was a time, not so long ago, when it would have been taken for granted that an honest man would be ready to fight to defend the honor of the women he loved. Today the President of the United States is apparently unmoved—and in any case powerless to do anything about it—when nude photos of his wife are posted on popular internet sites. The objectification of women, in a porn-soaked culture, has had a devastating effect on the notions of both intimacy and honor. David Warren reminds us that a man can best appreciate the beauty of a woman when both her appearance and his thoughts are modest, and “the moment lust enters the configuration, that beauty is destroyed.”