Recently, one of my readers wrote me: Here is a thought I’ve come back to after a time. Understand that I come at this as someone who has a bit of detachment from the idea of “love one’s country,” etc.; not of disdain, or despite of fellow man, but as one who can look hard … Read more
Thanks to Margaret’s helpful reminder last week (and “aided” by the unexpected appearance of a fever that nearly wiped me out for the entire weekend), the boys and I were able to catch up on the first four episodes of Life – Challenges of Life, Reptiles and Amphibians, Mammals, and Fish – airing on The Discovery … Read more
The recent attacks on Pope Benedict and the Church have brought forth some excellent responses. First, over at National Review Online, Fr. Raymond J. de Souza says that the New York Times‘ Friday expose’ of the pope’s alleged intervention into a Milwaukee abuse case is undercut by the very evidence the reporters cite. The documents … Read more
A red array of metaphors can be read in the wounds Christ received on the cross. The wounds can stand for our suffering and its sources, for our sins, for our vulnerabilities. They can be the cruel divisions torn in the Body of Christ, the Church, by heresy and history. Here are five small thoughts … Read more
The apostolic visitation of the Legion of Christ was wrapped up this month, and the contents of the final report will be revealed in late April. Meanwhile, the organization has come forward with an official statement about their founder, Father Maciel, and the future of the order: We had thought and hoped that the accusations … Read more
I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard “Stupak” in the past couple of weeks, but I can’t say the same about the name “Lipinski.” Yet, Rep. Dan Lipinski of Illinois seems like exactly the kind of pro-life Democrat so many were hoping Rep. Bart Stupak would be. Lipinski voted against the health care … Read more
There are only two facts Catholics need to know about the health-care bill to decide it must be repealed: The bill signed by the president includes federal funding for abortion, and the executive order does nothing to remove that funding. You don’t have to accept those facts on my authority — they have both … Read more
Here’s part two of Frank Borth’s 10-part 1962 serial. As always, these pages come from Catholic University’s online archive of Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact. I like the litle civics lesson they snuck in there…
Today’s YouTube treasure is neither particularly humorous nor stop-motion-animation-y. But what it lacks in those departments, it more than makes up for with its high “math geek” quotient and sheer mind-blowing awesomeness: Cristóbal Vila, the man behind the short, has a fascinating website documenting the ideas and process behind his creation: Artists and architects have … Read more
Call it the Lord Jim Effect. Like the hero of Joseph Conrad’s great novel, most of us go along most of the time thinking we know ourselves pretty well. Then something happens — a new experience, a new friend, a crisis — to open our eyes to a previously overlooked piece of the puzzle that … Read more
It would be funny if it were not so frightening: British spies with MI5 say Al Queda is outfitting female suicide bombers with explosive breast implants : The shocking new Al Qaeda tactic involves radical doctors inserting the explosives in women’s breasts during plastic surgery — making them “virtually impossible to detect by the usual … Read more
A few links to kick off your Friday: CNS on the Vatican’s response to the New York Times article yesterday claiming that the Holy See was involved in covering up the horrifying abuse of boys at a school for the deaf in Milwaukee. Social security goes into defecit for the first time, six years ahead … Read more
Some years ago, when speaking at a Catholic meeting, I said that the older rite of the Mass — what we then called the Tridentine rite — should be allowed more widely. I received a massive round of applause. At the time, I attended the Mass in that form fairly rarely; I just thought … Read more
This morning at Mass, while trying to keep my pack in line/sitting on the pew/speaking in a stage whisper rather than shouting/etc., I was struck by how unsettling yet fitting it is to be celebrating the glorious commemoration of the Incarnation only a week before Good Friday. In many ways, the seemingly awkward juxtaposition is a perfect example of … Read more
I found Todd’s post particularly interesting today, especially as I had just stumbled across a very different take on Stupak’s health-care capitulation over on Ross Douthat’s New York Times blog. While he would agree with Todd that the executive order is “probably meaningless,” and that the new health-care legislation “effectively tilts public policy in a … Read more
This wasn’t what Bishop John Shelby Spong expected. Meeting in a posh ballroom of the glitzy, glass Marriott Hotel on Times Square, his audience was overwhelmingly white-skinned, white-haired, well-educated, and well-heeled. Nothing unusual there. But the questions? “All evidence suggests that pre-modern forms of Christianity are in better health than the small strands within Christianity … Read more
Rep. Bart Stupak’s stupaking on the health care reform bill has led Wall Street Journal columnist William McGurn to wonder if the pro-life Democratic politician, already an endangered species, has finally gone the way of the Dodo: By caving at the last hour, he discredited all who stood with him. (What does it say about … Read more
Last week I mentioned that food companies are beginning to phase out high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Some of the discussion that followed my post questioned whether HFCS was any different than regular table sugar. Now a Princeton University research team says it is. Research, the results of which were published in the Journal Pharmacology, … Read more
In yesterday’s Washington Post, columnist Kathleen Parker debuted a new term: Stupak. Etymology: Eponym for Rep. Bart Stupak. Function: verb 1: In a legislative process, to obstruct passage of a proposed law on the basis of a moral principle (i.e., protecting the unborn), accumulating power in the process, then at a key moment surrendering in … Read more
Yesterday afternoon, I spoke with Rev. Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R., on the phone from his Trinity Retreat Center in Larchmont, New York. Father Groeschel is recovering from a nasty cold, and we were speaking about other matters, but I couldn’t resist keeping him on the phone long enough to hear his thoughts on the health-care vote. … Read more