Friday Free-for-All

A few links to start the day:

• Get ready: The New York Times has another lengthy article this morning looking at Cardinal Ratzinger’s time as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — “Amid Church Abuse Scandal, an Office that Failed to Act” — claiming that he actually had the authority to deal directly with sexual abuse allegations all along, but didn’t exercise it until late in the game. “The future pope, it is now clear, was also part of a culture of nonresponsibility, denial, legalistic foot-dragging and outright obstruction.” This could get interesting.
• Our good friend Lizzie Scalia has just been appointed the portal manager for the Catholic section of Patheos.com, a site that is “making a push to give religious voices (from all faiths) an opportunity to share their perspectives on social issues in the public square.” Her first contribution is a reflection on the story of Jan and Barry Peterson (which I blogged about yesterday). It’s excellent stuff, as we’ve come to expect from Lizzie. Be sure to bookmark this one.
• Praying for Christopher Hitchens: “I know he doesn’t want me to and I know he thinks it is useless but, Christopher Hitchens, I am praying for you.” (Hitchens announced this week that he has esophageal cancer.)
• Did you know the Library of Congress has a huge online archive of many of its treasures? I could spend the day looking at these WPA posters alone.
• The World Cup in Legos.