Lest we forget that our Catholic brothers and sisters in China are still suffering great persecution: A priest and a nun who were both members of China’s underground Catholic church were murdered in the north of the country this week but the motive was not clear, police said Thursday. AsiaNews, a Vatican-based news service, said … Read more
In many ways, the American experience is all about forgetting. Since this is a nation where almost everyone descends from immigrants, homogenization of cultural differences is necessary for creating a harmonious social order. It is only a matter of time before this affects the religious sphere of any given group. It is at least arguable … Read more
Ionarts’ Charles Downey reminds his readers of one of the more interesting historical events being commemorated today: One hundred fifty years ago today — July 7, 1860 — Gustav Mahler was born in Kaliště, a Bohemian village in what is now the Czech Republic. Today we begin the projected Mahler anniversary year, which will extend until … Read more
The Poor Clares of York are a great example of contemplative meeting contemporary. Since their founding, the Poor Clares have prayed for the outside world, receiving prayer requests in various formats over the centuries. Hardly an area for business process improvement, I imagine the nuns have their prayer processes fine-tuned. Enter the Interaction Research Studio … Read more
In New York City, if you ask someone his nationality, there’s only one way he’s going to answer “American”: If he’s black. Everyone else I’ve ever known will volunteer something like, “Irish, County Mayo,” “Half-Irish, a quarter German, a quarter Polish,” or “Sicilian — you got a problem with that?” You see, we keep track … Read more
There’s been a lot of talk in the last week about Elena Kagan’s role in influencing partial-birth abortion legislation during the Clinton administration by rewriting a crucial passage of a statement by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) on the necessity of such a procedure. (Shannen Coffin has an excellent summary of the … Read more
The Netherlands managed to hold back Uruguay yesterday to earn a spot in the World Cup finals this weekend, and CNA notes that one of its star players — Wesley Sneijder, who scored against the Brazilian favorites in last week’s quarterfinals — recently converted to Catholicism: At the end of May he converted to Catholicism … Read more
Every summer I take a group of high school students on a mission trip to El Salvador. Our hosts there come from the landowning class, and over lunch a woman I’ll call Rosa told me about her husband’s family. “They are very wealthy landowners,” she said. “They own a lot of land and run … Read more
Why does it seem that there are no Catholic games for the Nintendo Wii video game system? I mean, there aren’t even any Christian ones. Sure, there are ones that are inoffensive, and Nintendo does try to severely limit the quantity of “M” games they carry, but that doesn’t mean there are actually any Christian … Read more
John Allen reports that the Vatican will be streamlining the process by which sex-abuse cases are handled: The church’s current law in sex abuse cases was laid out in a 2001 document, known as a motu proprio, meaning under the pope’s personal authority, from Pope John Paul II, titled Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela. Sources say the new revisions … Read more
“You’re a married priest? I didn’t know we had married priests. I think the Church should let all her priests marry.” Words like these have greeted me frequently since my ordination to the priesthood in 1983, with dispensation from the rule of celibacy. I always assure those who favor optional celibacy that both my … Read more
This most recent press release from Relativity Media, as noted by /film’s Peter Sciretta, is a bit of a bombshell: Netflix, Inc. and Relativity Media, LLC today announced a long term agreement through which major theatrically released films owned by Relativity will be licensed directly and exclusively to Netflix for streaming to its subscribers during … Read more
While we’re talking about admonishing the sinner, can someone admonish this guy already? Wired’s Dylan Tweney recounts his live-tweeting of Wagner’s Die Walküre at the San Francisco Opera. I cannot fathom how he escaped the opera house alive. Look, fussing with your phone constantly—even on “minimum brightness”—is kind of a d— move at any performance, but it’s borderline sacrilegious … Read more
On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 aboard and 11 on the ground. The plane was brought down by a bomb planted by Libyan terrorist Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was later arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment… …That is, until al-Megrahi contracted prostate cancer, and was released … Read more
Of all the works of mercy, probably the most thankless and despised is admonishing the sinner. Nobody wants to do it (except human toothaches and people who never get invited to parties), and nobody wants it done to them. “Repent!” is one of those words that eats at the heart of all but the most … Read more
The phrase “Après moi, le déluge” is attributed to Louis XV on his deathbed. Fifteen years later, in 1789, the French Revolution confirmed his prediction: “After me, the flood.” Whether the king felt a sense of foreboding of things to come or simple indifference, the expression seems an apt description of where our nation stands … Read more
In his New York Times column this morning, Ross Douthat says that, in spite of the dark economic news on the horizon, we should beware the “pessimism bubble.” Just as there is such a thing as being irrationally optimistic about the future (the housing boom, anyone?), we can take the tendency to doom and gloom … Read more
Happy Day after Independence Day! Things might be a little slow around here today, as we all emerge from our hot dog hangovers; meanwhile, here’s a little thought experiment that should make us glad there were no blogs in 1776. James Joyner imagines how the Declaration of Independence would have been received… by bloggers: He … Read more
That watercolor picture in Peter Rabbit of Old Mrs. Rabbit coming along a sandy path in the woods with her red kerchief and market basket may have stuck in the memory of readers. Certainly it has in mine. The Beatrix Potter books drew my young imagination into a world that seemed to cast a warm … Read more
For Independence Day, let’s do something different. This 1961 story in Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact reveals the adventures of Colonel Stephen Moylan, an aide to George Washington during the American Revolution. As always, these stories come from Catholic University’s online archive. ” Muster-Master Moylan” does have a nice ring to it, you must … Read more