I felt the question coming like a dog feels the pulse of the earth before a quake. I had tracked Monsignor’s comments from, “How quickly they grow,” to, “What grade are you in this year, Ann?” and I knew what came next. So did Ann. Exactly one beat before the question came, we exchanged a … Read more
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is becoming quite a political star, and for good reason: He’s facing down a terrible state financial crisis and he’s doing it with courage and principle. Happily, some in the mainstream press are noticing: Christie is tackling the nation’s worst state deficit — $10.7 billion of a $29.3 billion budget. … Read more
Please consider signing the Catholic League’s petition in response to the decision made by the owners of the Empire State Building to reverse an earlier decision to light its towers in white and blue on August 26, the day the U.S. Postal service issues a stamp honoring the 100th anniversary of her birth. Â Â
A few links for your Friday morning: News outlets are shocked — shocked! — that Pope Benedict doesn’t approve of gay marriage. Much like the recent Denver case, a boy in Massachussetts was denied re-enrollment in a Catholic school because of his parents’ homosexual relationship. Unlike the recent Denver case, the archdiocese has offered to … Read more
Today is Pope Benedict’s final day in Portugal. He departed from Fatima this morning for the northern city Opporto, where he celebrated Mass. Opporto is a port city (famous for Port wine), the second largest in the country, and significant not only as a commercial center but because of the large number of immigrants. In … Read more
Last week, the Holy See gave the formal recognitio, or official approval, to the new English translation of the third edition of the Roman Missal, the book that contains the prayers and rubrics of the Mass. The third edition of the Roman Missal was itself approved by Pope John Paul II in 2000.While the approval of … Read more
I must admit to feeling a bit lost in the sea of ink being spilled over the BP oil spill. It’s not that I want to ignore the drastic impact it’s having on the surrounding area. I just find myself having a difficult time comprehending what exactly is happening down there in the Gulf. I’m a visual person, and written descriptions of … Read more
In his New York Times column this week, Ross Douthat examined the thesis of the recently released book Red Families vs. Blue Families, which argues that, with all their emphasis on no sex before marriage, families in Red States are “trying to sustain an outdated social model” that leads to “teen childbirth, shotgun marriages and … Read more
Today is the Feast of the Ascension, at least at the Vatican. Elsewhere, though, it’s the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. And that is the Mass the Pope celebrated this morning at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal, where many thousands of people were gathered. The official text of the Holy … Read more
Steve Jobs has been getting a lot of flak lately for his decision to keep porn off the iPhone. In April, he said Apple was staying away from that: So where should you go to get naked people on mobile phones? The Android. “Folks who want porn can buy and [sic] Android phone,” says Jobs. … Read more
This was unexpected: The national security conservatives at the popular military group blog Blackfive have released a joint statement on the expected repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, and it may surprise you. Just to the left of an ad for a t-shirt that blares “Sometimes Violence is the ONLY Answer,” they write: … Read more
It had already been a harrowing spring for me and my family. Two weeks before, my daughter was walking our family pet, an eight-pound terrier, on a leash, when they were rushed by a big dog that grabbed ours by the neck and shook him to death. My wife was devastated; the little fellow had … Read more
Scientists are stunned by the recent sighting of a grey whale off the shores of Israel. Grey whales haven’t been seen outside the Pacific ocean for several hundred years. This one has traveled thousands of miles from the north Pacific. “What has amazed the entire marine mammal research community is there haven’t been any grey … Read more
Lately I’ve felt like Lex Luthor without any Kryptonite. For the past few weeks here I’ve been vindicating the rights of the merely natural against the claims of supernature. (Sheesh, that even sounds boring to me.) It’s not a project calculated to win me friends among the pious. In Christian circles, who really wants to … Read more
Logic divorced from compassion will lead you to some ugly conclusions. Like advocating openly for euthanizing some people to use their organs for other people. Would it prove or violate Godwin’s Law for me to raise the spectre of the Nazi eugenicists in this post? That will prevent the comboxes from having to bring it … Read more
Pope Benedict, on his flight to Portugal yesterday, regarding the sex-abuse scandal (emphasis added): [A]ttacks against the pope or the church don’t come just from outside the church. The suffering of the church also comes from within the church, because sin exists in the church. This too has always been known, but today we see … Read more
The Mississippi Gulf Coast still has not fully recovered from the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and yet here we are, awaiting another catastrophe. Massive quantities of oil are being released from a sunken off-shore drilling platform, about 5,000 barrels per day. The full impact of this disaster has not yet been realized, … Read more
Figures. No sooner do I switch out my snow tires in anticipation of our impending trip to Sunny SoCal than a May storm descends on the area. That’s the view from my office window this morning, and the weather man is predicting snow accumulation of somewhere between 10″ – 20″. I love it! (Though I must … Read more
An Introduction, in which the reader’s attention is firmly but politely grasped It is out of fashion, to say the least, to speak of gentlemen. Perhaps that is why there are so few of them. As Aristotle, the gentleman’s philosopher, said somewhere or other, when they are not gentled, men are worse than beasts. It … Read more
The high-fructose corn syrup scare is so passe, Zoe — the new terror lurking in our foods is salt. One New York assemblyman has already taken steps to fight this insidious additive by proposing a ban on the substance in New York restaurants, with a corresponding fine of $1,000 per salty infraction. My favorite curmudgeonly … Read more