Various Catholic Feeds

Thomistica contributor Michael Dauphinais has a new essay at Crisis Magazine entitled "Laudato Si' and the Selling of Body Parts." I think it will be of interest to many readers. Here is an excerpt:

It is no accident, however, that the modern technological paradigm that challenges the uniqueness of human beings also undermines moral truths. Pope Francis writes, “Human ecology also implies another profound reality: the relationship between human life and the moral law, which is inscribed in our nature and is necessary for the creation of a more dignified environment” (LS 155); he then quotes Pope Benedict XVI, who “spoke of an ‘ecology of man,’ based on the fact that ‘man too has a nature that he must respect and that he cannot manipulate at will’” (LS 155). Such manipulation is seen most clearly in abortion, when more powerful human beings end the life of the less powerful. This is why the references to embryos and abortion are not extraneous to the encyclical.

A connected thought... Isn't it interesting that, on the one hand, there is in the West (and quite clearly in the US) a rage for the "natural" and the "organic," when it comes to food, while, on the other hand, also in the West, there is rampant skepticism and sometimes outright denial of the organic and natural in the human context.