Austin Taliaferro // The Observer

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Truth, charity and the Laetare Medal

John VanBerkum | Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Let me begin with a quote from Michael Sean Winters, a reporter for the National Catholic Reporter and a supporter of University President Fr. John Jenkins’ decision to honor Vice President Joe Biden and former Speaker of the House John Boehner with the Laetare Medal: “This year’s Laetare award sends the unmistakable signal that the

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The importance of philosophy

John VanBerkum | Wednesday, February 24, 2016

If the Core Curriculum Review Committee had proposed taking away the theology requirement, it may as well have had one of the cranes from Campus Crossroads come to Main Building and rip off the statue of Our Lady from the dome and toss it into St. Mary’s Lake, where one day students would ask, ‘Who is that

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Nine justices walk into a bar

John VanBerkum | Monday, September 7, 2015

Everything is directly quoted from the Obergefell v. Hobbes opinion or dissents, with some wording changed for the sake of brevity and coherency. “The centrality of marriage to the human condition makes it unsurprising that the institution has existed for millennia and across civilizations,” Kennedy begins. “Cicero wrote, ‘The first bond of society is marriage;