Our society’s new ‘drunk driving’ threat is talking or texting behind the wheel. I’m guilty of it, particularly when I’m stuck in traffic. But as of this Friday, Maryland’s hands-free law goes into effect, so my bad habit will have to end. An analysis of road fatalities from “distracted driving” was just published in the American … Read more
InsideCatholic contributor Ron Rychlak has done yeoman’s work defending Pope Pius XII’s record during World War II against an ever-changing raft of accusations. First it was Pius’s supposed failure to act during the war; then it was what he supposedly failed to do after the war. With both of those charges handily debunked, critics have … Read more
Early this morning, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released its survey on religious knowledge in the United States, and the results are sure to draw attention. Here’s why: On average, Americans correctly answer 16 of the 32 religious knowledge questions on the survey. Atheists and agnostics average 20.9 correct answers. Jews and … Read more
Many people have the idea that the Church functions according to the principle: “That which is not forbidden is compulsory.” But this is not the case. The Church has relatively few dogmatic teachings, particularly when it comes to the interpretation of a biblical text. Almost never will the Church say, “Verse X or story Y … Read more
In yesterday’s Washington Post, a column by Kwame Anthony Appiah asked, “What will future generations condemn us for?” We tend to marvel at the shortsightedness of our ancestors with respect to, say, slavery; Appiah argues that actions we unthinkingly accept today will be viewed with similar incomprehension somewhere down the line. He offers three criteria … Read more
Hardly a day goes by when I fail to see some news report or op-ed on the advisability of the Catholic Church to end the male-only priesthood, the mandatory celibacy requirement, the ban on contraception and abortion, or its view of homosexuality. Usually, the story is set against the backdrop, imagined or otherwise, of declining … Read more
Well this is interesting: First Lady Michelle Obama said last month that her husband “always carries a picture of Mary Help of Christians in his wallet.” She made her remarks while visiting a house of the Salesian community in Ronda, Spain. Under the title of Help of Christians, Our Lady is the patroness of the … Read more
Two health-related articles caught my attention this weekend. The first is on a subject I’ve been loosely following for a while: the mammogram. To mammogram or not to mammogram… I’ve long questioned the benefit of this test for women over 38, and have had doctors stare me down on this one. I’m not saying you shouldn’t … Read more
Exactly 70 years ago, in 1940, Rev. John Courtney Murray gave a series of three college talks. For his theme, he chose the “concept of a Christian culture.” After his death, his Jesuit brothers fused the talks into a single essay called “The Construction of a Christian Culture.” It’s a modest word change. But that … Read more
Here’s part three of 1952’s Catholics in Action series, which ran over ten issues of Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact. These stories focused on Catholic social doctrine as lived on the personal level, instead of the political. As always, these pages come from Catholic University’s online archive. Has anyone worked a mission before? Are … Read more
For Christianity, gender is both important and irrelevant. God creates, Christ redeems, and the Holy Spirit sanctifies men and women alike, along with Jews and Greeks, rich and poor, black and white. But, apart from salvation, gender possesses a special importance in Christianity that cannot be viewed as either accidental or superficial. Both views flow … Read more
Courtesy of OpenCulture.Com, here is Aardman Animation’s latest offering, billed as “the smallest stop-motion animation ever,” featuring a 0.35-inch-tall main character “aptly named Dot,” and shot entirely using a Nokia N8 cell-phone: [video:http://vimeo.com/15055444 600×338] Bonus Aardman Animation news: a Raving Rabbids TV show is underway.
Over at First Things, our friend David Mills thumbs through an eye rolling interview with Boston College Theology Dean Mark Massa, SJ. Father sounds all the usual progressive Catholic notes, and in doing so, reveals a surprising confusion over the distinction between the Church’s eternality and her theological and institutional development. “The current battles between … Read more
I’m reading books to my older girls when my 16 month old starts opening and closing her chubby hands (the sign for “milk”; lest you be too impressed, she knows about four signs: “book,” “more,” “milk,” and “please,” all the important things in life). “Maa! Maa!” (her word for milk) she says emphatically, hands still … Read more
Not many articles at the National Catholic Reporter begin with, “My friend Deal Hudson.” But Michael Sean Winters bucks the trend by framing his polished polemic as a“shout out” of sorts to a friend on the other side of the Catholic political spectrum. (How far apart we really are is something to be determined down … Read more
Time for a few links to get the day rolling: Teresa Lewis was the first woman put to death in Virginia in almost 100 years today. At the National Catholic Register, Danielle Bean says her case doesn’t fit the Catechism’s guidelines of when the death penalty is acceptable. What do people think of the GOP’s … Read more
On May 11, 1879, Rev. John Newman had been in Rome for some weeks when he was called to the Vatican by Pope Leo XIII and was informed that he was to be made a cardinal. It was not a surprise, since then-Father Newman had already been unofficially told the previous year that this great … Read more
Timothy Carney, senior political columnist for The Washington Examiner, notes an interesting distinction between the fiscally libertarian Tea Partiers scoring upsets in political races across the country and their defeated, standard-bearing Republican counterparts: The economy, taxes, spending, health care, and bailouts dominate the headlines and Tea Party rallies this year. But just beneath the surface, … Read more
Does the Tea Party have a foreign policy? P. J. O’Rourke explores the question in a recent World Affairs article. He begins by saying that it’s difficult to answer because first of all, there is no Tea Party: …There are, of course, any number of Tea Party Coalition groups across the country. But these mix … Read more
I have loved reading since I first put “see,” “spot,” and “run” together, and so one of the great joys I anticipated from motherhood — not in vain — was the pleasure of revisiting childhood books and being introduced to ones I’d missed the first time around. At first there were board books and Pat … Read more