Time for your Friday morning link round-up: Psychological exams for prospective priests have become more complicated in the wake of the sex-abuse scandal. For those who have trouble comprehending the current size of the oil spill, this will help put things in perspective. Top 25 conservative TV shows, and top 50 Catholic-themed movies. Plenty here … Read more
Matt Smith, writing at Catholic Advocate, takes a look at the two Catholic candidates — Pat Herrity and Keith Fimian — vying for the GOP nomination to the 11th Congressional seat. Both Herrity and Fimian are pro-life, pro-family Catholics, while the Democratic incumbant Gerry Connolly — also a Catholic — is not. Smith is critical … Read more
Via Danielle Bean at Faith & Family Live comes this story about the flip side of “reproductive choice.” Greg Bruell says he had an agreement with his girlfriend that, if she were to become pregnant, she would abort the child — an agreement that she reneged on when she ultimately did become pregnant and decided … Read more
Racism, abortion, blasphemy, sex abuse — today’s Friday morning round-up is a more serious affair: Immediately after winning the Republican primary in Kentucky, Rand Paul got in hot water for his appearance on the Rachel Maddow show, where he questioned the constitutionality of one aspect of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Now he’s clearing … Read more
An 18-year-old Emirati woman who was gang-raped by six men is being charged with having sex outside of marriage. The woman and one of her male Emirati friends, HA, went for a drive in his vehicle on May 2, prosecutors said. The charges allege that because she had agreed to be in the car, the … Read more
Are the liberal arts and sexual morality connected? There is strong evidence that they are, for if we graph their development over the last half-century, we will see an almost identical curve of accelerating decline. Although this proves nothing, it certainly suggests something worth exploring more deeply. Spectacular proof of the decline of the liberal … Read more
Normally, when seeing author James Carroll write things like, “Celibacy cuts to the heart of what is wrong in the Catholic Church today,” I would roll my eyes and move on. But over at America Magazine, Father Jim Martin isn’t taking the insult lying down. Father Martin first quotes from Carroll’s article: No, celibacy does … Read more
Today the Vatican released details of its upcoming sex abuse defense. The AP has learned the Vatican will argue that bishops are not its employees and were not required to remain silent by a 1962 document, “Crimen Sollicitationes,” meaning “crimes of solicitation.” The Vatican attorney in the U.S., Jeffrey Lena, will argue not only that … Read more
Today the Vatican released details of its upcoming sex abuse defense. The AP has learned the Vatican will argue that bishops are not its employees and were not required to remain silent by a 1962 document, “Crimen Sollicitationes,” meaning “crimes of solicitation.” The Vatican attorney in the U.S., Jeffrey Lena, will argue not only that … 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
Margaret, over on on NRO’s Corner Maggie Gallagher says that Kagan will be the lynchpin for same-sex marriage in all 50 states: A vote for Elena Kagan is a vote for “marriage equality,” which features in two key cases that will shortly be before the Supreme Court: Perry v. Schwarzenegger, which arises out of California’s … Read more
Award-winning actress and sex symbol Raquel Welch has a message for young women today, and it’s not what you might expect. In a piece on CNN Opinion called, “It’s sex o’clock in America,” Welch comments on the effects the Pill has had: These days, nobody seems able to “keep it in their pants” or honor … Read more
Award-winning actress and sex symbol Raquel Welch has a message for young women today, and it’s not what you might expect. In a piece on CNN Opinion called, “It’s sex o’clock in America,” Welch comments on the effects the Pill has had: These days, nobody seems able to “keep it in their pants” or honor … Read more
During the height of the sex-abuse scandal, how many parents wished they had the ear of their bishops — to express their frustration, to demand reform? One Belleville, IL, man did: David Spotanski was the chancellor to Bishop Wilton Gregory while the bishop was president of the USCCB, and a ten-page memo that he wrote … Read more
Jesus was a Jew. This does not seem like a news flash until we turn away from observing the obvious and begin to talk about Christian discussions of soteriology. If you aren’t familiar with that three-dollar word, it basically has to do with that branch of Christian theology concerned with answering the question, “What … Read more
I came across an article on the wires a few days ago at the peak of the media’s frenzied calls for Pope Benedict to step down or be arrested. It was about bikinis with padded bras for little girls, which have now been recalled. It seemed ironic that the news was saturated with pedophilia scandals as … Read more
In his General Audience today, Pope Benedict addressed the sex-abuse scandal publicly for the first time since his March 20 letter to the Irish bishops: Pope Benedict XVI promised Wednesday that the Catholic Church would take action to confront the clerical sex abuse scandal, making his first public comments on the crisis days after meeting … Read more
The current issue of First Things has an important piece by Timothy Reichert examining the social impact of contraception. He argues that the modern contraceptive culture has led to “a massive redistribution of wealth and power from women and children to men.” The popular use of birth control has split the “market” governing gender relations … Read more
In October 2001, crisis Magazine published an article, titled “The High Price of Priestly Pederasty,” by Dan Michalski. Reporting on publicly known cases of sex abuse by priests, Michalski summarized his findings: So far, more than 3,000 Catholic priests in America have been accused of sexual misconduct with minors, and nearly 2,000 insurance claims have … Read more
To rebuild the trust of U.S. Catholics in the Church and its leaders and to make reparations to the victims left in the wake of this scandal, the bishops need to address several points: 1. The bishops should make clear that this is a crisis and that they are not conducting business as usual. Powerful … Read more
