The Associated Press reported today that Pope Benedict has appointed a senior Vatican official, Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, to serve as papal delegate of the Legionaries of Christ. De Paolis, an Italian, currently heads the Holy See’s financial office. The news report says it is not known what this means for Father Alvaro Corcuera Martinez … Read more
Here’s an interesting story from LifeSiteNews.com, quoting British performer Jackie Clune on her twelve-year stint as a lesbian. Her frank memories of those relationships ring true: Despite the closeness of her relationships, Clune admitted that the hyper-emotional world of a female-to-female sexual bond was “exhausting.” “The women I went out with were by and large more … Read more
Time for some Friday morning links: 2010 has been a rough year so far for the Holy Father, but Sandro Magister says that, “for Pope Benedict, the Horrible Year 2010 is a year of grace.” Sad follow-up to Brian’s post yesterday about the murdered Chinese priest and nun: A fellow monk in the underground Church … Read more
Time for some Friday morning links: 2010 has been a rough year so far for the Holy Father, but Sandro Magister says that, “for Pope Benedict, the Horrible Year 2010 is a year of grace.” Sad follow-up to Brian’s post yesterday about the murdered Chinese priest and nun: A fellow monk in the underground Church … Read more
Writing at Catholic Advocate, Matt Smith comments on the decision by Federal District Judge Joseph L. Tauro that the Defense of Marriage Act violates the Constitutional Right of married, same-sex couples to equal protection before the law. The decision was a classic case of a judge legislating from the bench: This court has determined that … Read more
Every year, as the country works its way through the Dog Days of Summer, I find my attention drawn more and more inextricably to baseball. Perhaps it’s because early July is about the time the races really become interesting, or perhaps it’s connected to the weather. Maybe it’s just a fortuitous combination of an increased level of daylight in the summer evenings … Read more
IC’s own Bob Reilly doesn’t just know music; he also has a keen understanding of the history of Islam and insight into its radicalization and current struggle with the West. All of this is laid out in his latest book The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist, which he … Read more
According to The Guardian, archeologists working in Norfolk, England, have discovered “78 pieces of razor-sharp flint shaped into primitive cutting and piercing tools” in an area of sediment previously believed to have been formed 840,000 or 950,000 years ago. This means the earliest humans were living in modern-day Britain at least 80,000 years earlier than … Read more
Lest we forget that our Catholic brothers and sisters in China are still suffering great persecution: A priest and a nun who were both members of China’s underground Catholic church were murdered in the north of the country this week but the motive was not clear, police said Thursday. AsiaNews, a Vatican-based news service, said … Read more
Ionarts’ Charles Downey reminds his readers of one of the more interesting historical events being commemorated today: One hundred fifty years ago today — July 7, 1860 — Gustav Mahler was born in Kaliště, a Bohemian village in what is now the Czech Republic. Today we begin the projected Mahler anniversary year, which will extend until … Read more
The Poor Clares of York are a great example of contemplative meeting contemporary. Since their founding, the Poor Clares have prayed for the outside world, receiving prayer requests in various formats over the centuries. Hardly an area for business process improvement, I imagine the nuns have their prayer processes fine-tuned. Enter the Interaction Research Studio … Read more
There’s been a lot of talk in the last week about Elena Kagan’s role in influencing partial-birth abortion legislation during the Clinton administration by rewriting a crucial passage of a statement by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) on the necessity of such a procedure. (Shannen Coffin has an excellent summary of the … Read more
The Netherlands managed to hold back Uruguay yesterday to earn a spot in the World Cup finals this weekend, and CNA notes that one of its star players — Wesley Sneijder, who scored against the Brazilian favorites in last week’s quarterfinals — recently converted to Catholicism: At the end of May he converted to Catholicism … Read more
Why does it seem that there are no Catholic games for the Nintendo Wii video game system? I mean, there aren’t even any Christian ones. Sure, there are ones that are inoffensive, and Nintendo does try to severely limit the quantity of “M” games they carry, but that doesn’t mean there are actually any Christian … Read more
John Allen reports that the Vatican will be streamlining the process by which sex-abuse cases are handled: The church’s current law in sex abuse cases was laid out in a 2001 document, known as a motu proprio, meaning under the pope’s personal authority, from Pope John Paul II, titled Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela. Sources say the new revisions … Read more
This most recent press release from Relativity Media, as noted by /film’s Peter Sciretta, is a bit of a bombshell: Netflix, Inc. and Relativity Media, LLC today announced a long term agreement through which major theatrically released films owned by Relativity will be licensed directly and exclusively to Netflix for streaming to its subscribers during … Read more
While we’re talking about admonishing the sinner, can someone admonish this guy already? Wired’s Dylan Tweney recounts his live-tweeting of Wagner’s Die Walküre at the San Francisco Opera. I cannot fathom how he escaped the opera house alive. Look, fussing with your phone constantly—even on “minimum brightness”—is kind of a d— move at any performance, but it’s borderline sacrilegious … Read more
On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 aboard and 11 on the ground. The plane was brought down by a bomb planted by Libyan terrorist Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was later arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment… …That is, until al-Megrahi contracted prostate cancer, and was released … Read more
In his New York Times column this morning, Ross Douthat says that, in spite of the dark economic news on the horizon, we should beware the “pessimism bubble.” Just as there is such a thing as being irrationally optimistic about the future (the housing boom, anyone?), we can take the tendency to doom and gloom … Read more
Happy Day after Independence Day! Things might be a little slow around here today, as we all emerge from our hot dog hangovers; meanwhile, here’s a little thought experiment that should make us glad there were no blogs in 1776. James Joyner imagines how the Declaration of Independence would have been received… by bloggers: He … Read more