cormacburke.me.ke - English

Do men and women no longer admire and trust each other?

webmaster — Fri, 02 Dec 2016 05:56:35 +0000

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

webmaster — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 14:57:46 +0000

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

webmaster — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 16:23:02 +0000

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

webmaster — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 08:10:04 +0000

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!

Masculinity & Femininity: The Enchantment of Complementarity

webmaster — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 12:28:46 +0000

Masculinity & Femininity: The Enchantment of Complementarity [1]
(Position Papers, Dublin, no. 470. June-July 2013, pp. 22-27)
A disenchanted world
What are we to make of the world we live in? A world dominated by science, overawed by technology - and disenchanted with humanity. We have no wonder left for our own life, no sense that the big mysteries around us are those which touch us in the depths of our most personal existence: love, friendship, sexuality, marriage, family life, freedom, commitment...
One of the main things gone is romance. We live in a cynical world, bereft of ideals, where good and noble dreams are only for kids, and no longer even for them. It is indeed a disenchanted world.

Opus Dei in the service of the Evangelizing Mission of the Church

webmaster — Sat, 07 Sep 2013 14:24:52 +0000

The Personal Prelature of Opus Dei in the service of the Evangelizing Mission of the Church (Conference, CEFA, Kinshasa, November, 2007) [translation]

Woman and the Cardinal Virtue of Fortitude

webmaster — Sat, 06 Jul 2013 08:30:01 +0000

Woman and the Cardinal Virtue of Fortitude (FAITH Magazine, Jan-Feb 2013)

[Mgr Burke offers a meditation upon the exercise of fortitude in the context of the vocation to womanhood. This was one of a series of lectures given at Strathmore University, Nairobi, last year. We hope to publish the complementary reflections upon the other cardinal virtues.]

Introduction
Firstly, I am going to speak about virtues; not in a theological or religious context, but simply in philosophical human terms.
Virtue is not a very popular word today. It is hard to say why, but perhaps the reason is that while everyone can have and in fact needs virtues, they cannot be acquired without an effort: an effort to rise above self-centeredness. And rising above self is not seen as an attractive proposition nowadays. Yet to rise above self is the only way to true personal fulfilment. Let us briefly consider why.

THE QUEST FOR FEMININE IDENTITY

webmaster — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 04:50:21 +0000

THE QUEST FOR FEMININE IDENTITY (Faith. 2010, vol. 42)
To Henry Higgin's expostulation, 'why can't a woman be more like a man?'[1]... the brief answer is of course that she can; but then she will be less like a woman. Is that progress? Is she made richer or poorer by that? Is humanity made richer or poorer? Or is everyone made richer if woman is more like a woman?
But - do these questions make sense? A woman is born a woman, isn't she? Can she, as she grows, become more like a woman or less like a woman? Does it make a difference? I think she can; and I think it makes an immense difference. This implies - as I believe - that sexual identity, masculine or feminine, is not just a 'given' at birth, but also a goal to be sought; and to be achieved - or not. Some aspects of feminine identity and its achievement are what I propose to consider in this study.

I. A DISENCHANTED WORLD

The Vocation of Marriage

webmaster — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:45:29 +0000

The Vocation of Marriage Faith, vol, 43, no. 4 (2011), pp. 6-9
Marriage is a vocation; it is the vocation to which the vast majority of people are called. It has two clear purposes or, as the Catechism says, a "twofold end...: the good of the spouses themselves and the transmission of life" (n. 2363). It is a call both to faithful love and to fruitful love.
1. The first purpose is that spouses grow together in goodness, and in that openness to goodness which prepares them for heaven. This means specifically that they are meant to grow in loving God (the first commandment) by means of growing in love for each other throughout their lifetime.

The De-humanization of marital sex

webmaster — Thu, 05 May 2011 12:58:07 +0000

The De-humanization of marital sex (Faith (2011), pp. 11-15)

1. Humanae Vitae initiated a new analysis of the conjugal act

Humanae vitae, Paul VI's 1968 Encyclical is principally recalled as reiterating the Church's perennial condemnation of artificial birth-control. But it is much more than that. It opened up the way for a deeper human understanding of what, in sexual intercourse between husband and wife, justifies its being termed the conjugal act.