The False ‘Science’ of Happiness, by Michael Pakaluk

The Wall Street Journal ran a story last week with the headline, “They’re the Happiest People in America.  We Called to Ask Them Why.”   If you, as a Catholic, clicked through to the story, to find out why, you are a fool.  Because there’s nothing you can learn from it; you might even be deceived.

There is probably no clearer teaching of the Church than what happiness is, and how to be happy.  Happiness is our chief goal, the ultimate purpose of our life.  We have a natural desire for happiness, the Catechism teaches, which “God has placed in the human heart in order to draw man to the One who alone can fulfill it.” (1718) …