Time for your Friday-morning link round-up — but first, a public service announcement: Don’t forget to set your clocks back tomorrow night! Also, today is Guy Fawkes Day. Please don’t go blowing up any government buildings. Thanks. On to the links: Forbes names Pope Benedict the fifth most powerful person in the world, just behind … Read more
Over at the Public Discourse, Micah Watson argues that the “you can’t legislate morality” argument in politics is one of the most specious around: The governing authority’s power to pass and enforce laws takes account of the beastly side of human nature while holding that some wrongs are so fundamental that they demand a robust … Read more
As expected, Republicans fared well in last night’s elections — regaining control of the House, picking up at least six Senate seats, and adding several more governors to their ranks. I’m sure there will be plenty of feedback and analysis throughout the day, as well as much rejoicing from the GOP, but Ross Douthat cautions … Read more
The story of Sunday’s attack on the Syrian-Catholic church in Baghdad is still unfolding; it appears that there are now as many as 58 dead and 75 wounded in what has been the largest attack on Iraqi Christians since the war began. The exact timeline of events in the church has been hazy, but two … Read more
Horrifying news out of Iraq: Gunmen took 100 people hostage in a Syrian-Catholic church in Baghdad yesterday, and by the time Iraqi antiterrorist forces were able to regain control, as many as 37 hostages and security officers were killed and another 56 wounded. According to official estimates this morning, the death toll has risen to … Read more
Good morning! In honor of the silliness that will be descending upon us this weekend with the arrival of Halloween, today’s wrap-up is completely devoid of any valuable news content. Consider it candy for your brain. Virtually no child has ever been harmed by the ol’ “poisoned Halloween candy” trick. So why are we still … Read more
I am shamelessly stealing this from the Deacon’s Bench, because it was too beautiful not to share. It’s a brief look at this year’s ordination of priests in Milwaukee, but it could just as easily apply to all our priests everywhere. It’ll make you want to run out and shake the hand of every one … Read more
Yesterday, the pope released a statement on immigration for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, coming up in January 2011. Titled “One Human Family,” Benedict addresses the dignity of all immigrants while acknowledging nations’ rights to regulate their flow: “The World Day of Migrants and Refugees offers the whole Church an opportunity to reflect … Read more
Well, this is charming: The ad is the brainchild of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, and Matthew Archbold at the National Catholic Register calls it “the most anti-Catholic political ad you’ll ever see.” Could be… but frankly I find it so confusing as a piece of advertising that I’m not sure it even rises to that … Read more
Read the first few paragraphs of this AP story on Catholic bloggers, and see if anything in particular strikes you: Pressure is on to change the Roman Catholic Church in America, but it’s not coming from the usual liberal suspects. A new breed of theological conservatives has taken to blogs and YouTube to say the … Read more
Time for some Friday morning links: In the wake of Juan Williams’s firing from NPR, many are again calling for an end to public funding for the news organization. Bill O’Reilly announced that Jim DeMint will introduce legislation to do just that later today, calling NPR a “totalitarian outfit functioning as an arm of the … Read more
Archbishop John Nienstedt of St. Paul-Minneapolis made headlines recently when he distributed a DVD to his 800,000-member diocese reiterating the Church’s teaching on marriage. In an interview with AP about the project, reported by USA Today, he defended the Church’s involvement in what some see as a purely political issue — encouraging other Catholics to … Read more
Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York City is not happy with the New York Times. In a post from his personal blog yesterday, he bemoaned “the common, casual way [the paper] offends Catholic sensitivity, something they would never think of doing — rightly so — to the Jewish, Black, Islamic, or gay communities.” He cites … Read more
Cristina Odone is against doctor-assisted suicide, and she knows whereof she speaks: Her own father asked her to help him die. She tells the story of how she came to see that the medical community has it exactly backwards when it comes to matters of life and death: “Put me out of my misery.” The … Read more
Pope Benedict released a letter to seminarians today, encouraging them in their vocation. It starts with an incredible story from his youth in Nazi Germany, explaining why priests are so desperately needed — “today, tomorrow, and always”: When in December 1944 I was drafted for military service, the company commander asked each of us what … Read more
Time for some Friday morning links: Archbishop Burke addressed obedience and the magisterium at a Human Life International conference in Rome, touching on the scandal of Catholic politicians who disregard moral law: “When a person has culpably espoused and cooperated in gravely sinful acts, leading many into error and confusion over fundamental questions regarding respect … Read more
The diocese of Green Bay is reporting some interesting results from its recent run of the “Catholics Come Home” series of ads: This month, the diocese released survey findings that show Mass attendance increased an average of 7.4 percent after the commercials began to air. In addition, more than 95 percent of parish leaders and … Read more
The rescue of the 33 miners in Chile, trapped below ground for 68 days, continues today (as of right now, ten miners have reached the surface), and the stories of each one are incredibly moving. Here, the video of the first miner, Florencio Avalos, reaching the surface and greeting his wife and son: [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JAyr0NPvqo 635×355] … Read more
Watching the trailer for the recent documentary Waiting for Superman, about our floundering public school system, is enough to make a school-choice activist out of anyone: [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKTfaro96dg 635×355] Ross Douthat, writing in the New York Times, says the movie is right to highlight the benefits of school choice, but that choice alone won’t fix the … Read more
Heather King, whose memoir Redeemed Matthew Lickona reviewed for IC here, has a new blog at “Shirt of Flame” that’s well worth your time. Last Friday, she reflected on Simone Weil, the French philosopher whom King (affectionately) calls a “Catholic-in-spirit nutcase,” and the motivations behind Weil’s refusal to be baptized in the Church — in … Read more