Time for a few Friday links: Rhode Island Representative Patrick Kennedy has announced that he won’t be running for reelection. No word on whether it’s because he’s tired of tangling with Bishop Tobin. President Obama appears ready to shut down Constellation, NASA’s manned space exploration program. Some say that the cost-benefit analysis simply makes sense, … Read more
The Washington Post has published the findings of a recent poll showing that, when it comes to health care, Americans want it all. Over at the American Catholic blog, “DarwinCatholic” breaks down the numbers: Solid majorities think that the current HCR bills are too complex and too expensive, but majorities also approve of the main components: … Read more
This is what my neighborhood here in Baltimore looked like after our storm over the weekend. And today we just got another 15 inches dumped on us. So, naturally, that must mean it’s time for idiots to try driving in it! It amazes me that anyone would consider heading out in this mess; the city … Read more
Well this is unsettling: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security conducted a threat assessment of local pro- and anti-abortion rights activists before an expected rally last year, even though they did not pose a threat to national security. The DHS destroyed or deleted its copies of the assessment after an internal review found it … Read more
A Vatican economist has a very different suggestion for stimulating the economy: have more babies. Ettore Gotti Tedeschi explains: “The true cause of the crisis is the decline in the birth rate,” Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, said in an interview on Vatican Television’s “Octava Dies.” He noted the Western world’s population growth rate is at … Read more
News has been spreading through the blogosphere that the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, will be appearing on Oprah tomorrow afternoon. The sisters explained how it all came to be in an e-mail update: Oprah was interested in doing a show on religious life as a hidden way of life which many people never … Read more
So, if what the weather forecasters are saying is true, I will apparently be buried up to my neck in snow by the time you read this. Better get moving, then: Pope Benedict speaks out on England’s proposed “Equality Bill,” saying that it would in fact limit religious freedom and that it “violates the natural law.” … Read more
Things got a little heated around here last week on Zoe’s post about marriage and annulments. In response to the news that Pope Benedict was asking marriage tribunals to tighten up the annulment process, Zoe suggested that we should be taking marriage prep more seriously at the same time — with an eye toward obviating the … Read more
How had I never heard the story of the Four Chaplains before? On February 3, 1943, a German submarine torpedoed the USAT Dorchester, which was serving as a transfer ship for Allied troops, off the coast of Newfoundland. Four chaplains on board — a Methodist, a Jewish rabbi, a Catholic priest, and a Reformed Church minister — … Read more
Behold, the latest pitch to attract more men to church: In the back room of a theater on Beale Street, John Renken, 42, a pastor, recently led a group of young men in prayer. “Father, we thank you for tonight,” he said. “We pray that we will be a representation of you.” An hour later, a … Read more
Sally Jenkins, a Washington Post sports columnist who is openly pro-choice, is on a tear in her column today, explaining why she thinks the world needs more Tim Tebows — and fewer demands from groups like NOW who are offended by the very idea of his upcoming Super Bowl ad. On NOW’s protest: Tebow’s 30-second ad hasn’t … Read more
A new study of an abstinence-only sex-ed curriculum showed it to be more successful at delaying teen sex than a comparable “safe sex” program — and even one that combined abstinence and safe-sex messages: Only about a third of sixth- and seventh-graders who completed an abstinence-focused program started having sex within the next two years, researchers … Read more
Readers may remember that I wasn’t the biggest fan of The Catcher in the Rye when I read it in high school. But J. D. Salinger’s passing last week brought the book to mind for Father Dwight Longenecker, who says that its message may be even more important for adults than for teens: Holden’s problem is that he can’t learn how … Read more
Good morning! A few links to start your day: Well that didn’t take long: With CBS having already accepted Tim Tebow’s pro-life ad to run during the Super Bowl, a gay dating Web site has also submitted an ad for consideration. But as all the spots are already filled for next Sunday, it largely looks … Read more
A very different set of photos from the ones I posted this morning: The images accompanying this New York Times article about the children of Haiti will break your heart. From the story: Not long after 14-year-old Daphne Joseph escaped her collapsed house on the day of the earthquake, she boarded a crowded jitney with … Read more
Radley Balko links to an incredible Flickr set of images where modern-day scenes are overlapped with older photographs to give a seamless impression of different moments in time. Some have a great ghostly quality: While others give a startling look at just how quickly landscapes change, as in this shot of Dubai: … Read more
Hoo boy. This story is just tailor-made for breathless secular reporting: Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the “postulator” for Pope John Paul II’s cause for sainthood, has published a book titled Why He’s a Saint that claims, among other things, that the former pope practiced self-flagellation: In the book, Oder wrote that John Paul frequently denied himself … Read more
It’s just not the Super Bowl without controversial advertising! But this year’s most talked-about ad is coming from an unlikely source: A national coalition of women’s groups called on CBS on Monday to scrap its plan to broadcast an ad during the Super Bowl featuring college football star Tim Tebow and his mother, which critics say is … Read more
In his “World Day of Communications” address released over the weekend, Pope Benedict encouraged priests to take advantage of the new media on behalf of the new evangelization: The pope, whose own presence on the Web has heavily grown in recent years, urged priests on Saturday to use all multimedia tools at their disposal to … Read more
Time for your Friday morning link round-up: The fallout from the Murphy Report on the sex-abuse scandal in Ireland has been so dramatic — for both laity and clergy alike — that Pope Benedict has called a special meeting at the Vatican next month with all the Irish bishops to determine the best way forward. … Read more