Many of the questions that came my way were of a personal nature, owing to the fact that I was baptized and confirmed by Pope John Paul in 1996, during the Easter Vigil Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.
From the beginning of human history, humans have exercised dominion over the material world. All components of nature (other than persons themselves) are resources that can be rightly used, and in some instances used up, for the benefit of persons. Through their use of things, people cause much of the material world to become property: that is, material morally tied in a special way to a particular person or persons.
Modern media has the emotional power to make ideas feel true even when they are not. A single moment caught on film can render an entire story somehow “truthful” to an undiscerning audience.
Art and work are simply two manifestations of an essential human trait: creativity. Perhaps both artists and laborers are simply entrepreneurs working with different materials.
The Acton Institute is, at heart, a cultural enterprise. We are not concerned so much with politics or economics or sociology or philosophy as we are with the whole package—the effect they have on our culture. Our concern is with the health of society as a whole—the free and virtuous society.