cormacburke.me.ke

Do men and women no longer admire and trust each other?
Homiletic and Pastoral Review, December 2016
[A public lecture given at Strathmore University, Nairobi: Oct. 2015]
As it is posed, the question is too absolute. And I would not give any absolute answer to it. However, it does imply something; and yes, I think there is less admiration and trust between the two sexes than before. Nevertheless, there remains a strong natural attraction between the two. That makes for a more complex and perhaps more unstable relationship; and there I wish to offer some reflections.
Sexual attraction can be noble; then it inspires respect, and can be a preface to sexual love that is truly generous. But it can also degenerate into a mean desire that just wants to use sexuality in a self-centered way. In the case of men, the self-satisfaction sought can often be one of simple lust; in the case of women, it may just as much be one of vanity.

Woman and the Cardinal Virtue of Temperance
Faith Magazine, Nov-Dec 2013

[In the final part of his series on woman and the cardinal virtues Mgr Burke examines the virtue of temperance and its specific calls upon women, especially with regard to sexuality.]

What is Temperance?.
Temperance or moderation implies self-control. To control oneself well is as necessary as to drive an automobile well. An untrained or unpracticed driver, lacking control of his car, ends up by crashing, perhaps killing himself or others. And so with people who lack self-control; they are heading for a crashed and self-destructive life.

Brave New Ireland (Position Papers (2015, no. 492), pp. 11ss)
For the last forty years we have been forming a generation to think that the fewer ties or commitments one has, the freer one is. This is just not so. Freedom is useless unless it ends in a choice. And perhaps it is worse than useless if one has been taught that all choices must be temporary, because nothing can give more than a passing satisfaction, nothing in fact is worth a definitive or binding choice. Always keep yourself 'free' for something or someone else. That is the philosophy our new generations are being taught.

Feminism v. Femininity: the Threat to Woman's Identity [1]
(New Oxford Review, October, 2013)

Lest the title given to my presentation cause confusion, may I begin by emphasizing that I am a feminist. Radical feminism is what I see as a threat to woman's identity. Ask any radical feminist what should be the most logical question to put to them (a question incidentally they don't like) - what he or she understands by "feminine," and they have no answer. They don't want women to be feminine, just as they don't want men to be masculine. Down with the difference!