I suppose as the weather gets colder, more of us are indoors hunkered down over our computers for stimulation and entertainment. Maybe that explains the fact that three or four threads have recently pulled in 100+ comments.
Thought it might be interesting to look at how some of these big
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Over on the "Backlash?" thread Robert Reid posed this question when one of the respondents suggested non-Christian young people had imperiled their salvation:
"Do you actually, truly, in your heart of hearts believe that anyone's "salvation" is imperiled simply by not
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J.K. Rowling, in a CNN story Saturday, confirmed that Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore is gay.
This bit of news was buried in another thread over the weekend, so here's your chance to talk about it without derailing other topics. But first I get to
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Blog reader Bob Nunz suggested that we start a new thread on the news yesterday that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case of Catholic Charities in New York, which opposes a state law requiring its health care plan to pay for, among other things, contraceptives.
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Banned Books Week starts Saturday, an occasion many public libraries use to help patrons understand intellectual freedom issues and why their tax dollars purchase books they may find personally offensive.
As a former advocate for our state library association and library trustee, I have tracked
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Story about companies that charge employees more or penalize them for health risks makes an interesting companion to Grant Gallicho's post about the uninsured.
So far, companies that tie wages to health improvements focus on conditions that can be managed to
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A Chicago paper reported over the weekend that VOTF has written a letter to all U.S. bishops asking them to prevent Cardinal Francis George from becoming USCCB president.
Cardinal George is now vice-president of USCCB, and thus poised to assume the presidency.
The Daily Southtown reported that
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Out here in Dairyland everybody feels a bit low and squabbly this time of year, what with the end of county fair season and the kids grousing about going back to school. So it's maybe no wonder that the usually below-the-surface disagreements about hand-holding during the Our Father have
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The San Francisco Chronicle yesterday ran an overview of blogs and op-ed pieces summing up the departure of Karl Rove from the Bush administration. Lots of links there to appeal to a variety of political persuasions.
Love him or hate him, Rove influenced political strategy and introduced
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Margaret Steinfels asked me in another thread, "You are a writing teacher; do you agree (with me) that self-editing and rewriting are among the critical skills writing students need to acquire?"Yes, Margaret. I tell my students that the best way to self-edit is to a) know your weaknesses
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NOTE: I took down my post about "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" last week in deference to readers who were concerned about spoilers in the post's comments. No spoilers in this revised post, but I have no power to Obliviate your memory if spoilers appear in the Comments.
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Reader Bill Mazella suggested someone start a separate thread on the best religion blogs recently reported in the London Times, a list which includes First Things but not Commonweal. [CORRECTION: This list is from the London, not NYT, as originally reported. My apologies!]
So here ya go, Bill.
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As my father reaches the end of his life, we're all trying to do what we can to put his mind at ease and make his time happy. This weekend, out of the blue, he told me to, "Please, get out of the Catholic Church! Your money is going to pay off kids who've been abused by sex criminals, and&
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India plans to implement a pregnancy registry to help reduce gender-based abortions and infanticides, the BBC World Service reported this morning. You can read the story at Reuters India.
Listening to the story on the radio this morning, I have to admit that the notion of government
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As you can see, I learned a lot of Latin (and some of my basic outlook on life) from MAD Magazine. And it pretty much reflects how I feel about the Motu Propio--nice for those who want to hear the Mass in Latin again, but I don't worry that it'll turn the tide from the vernacular Mass by a
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NPR last night aired an even more-horrifying-than-usual story about a child porn chat room operator in the U.K.
The chat room represented a porn ring that extended to 35 countries, but garnered the most traffic from the U.S., U.K. and Canada. Children as young as 2 months old were
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Interesting story about the installation of solar energy cells on the Pope Paul VI Auditorium in the Vatican.
The conversion to solar cells for the auditorium was apparently suggested by Pope Benedict's statements about his concern for the environment.
Efforts are being made
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The elephant in the room everyone seems to be avoiding on the blog this week is the sudden death of the Rev. Jerry Falwell.
Although I emphatically reject many fundamentalist notions of Christianity, I once heard Falwell on a PBS program explain fundamentalist interpretation of Scripture in a
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St. Joan's feast day is May 30, so I'm posting this early in hopes some readers might rent Theodore Dreyer's 1928 silent film, "The Passion of Joan of Arc," from their video/DVD providers this month for a look-see. (I got it on Netflix.)
Commonweal's film critic Richard Alleva wrote a
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CNS reported a short snip about the Church's latest look at what it calls the "theory" of Limbo, the place of perfect natural happiness where unbaptized infants go.
According to the International Theological Commission this week, there is "
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The NYT has a nice retrospective about Kurt Vonnegut, who died yesterday. You have to register to read the piece.
I'd quibble with the Times' comparison to Mark Twain, though. Vonnegut was as keen a critic of the human race as Twain was. But Twain forced you to look at the ugliness, relentlessly
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A Reuters report filed March 31 says Cardinal Tarciscio Bertone, has blasted the media for highlighting the Vatican's views on sex while maintaining a "deafening silence" about charity work done by thousands of Catholic organisations around the world.
"We face an extremely grave
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Nicaragua's Supreme Court heard from a contingent of the Catholic Church last week as the court considers the constitutionality of a total ban on abortion passed last October.
The Catholic News Agency also carried the story Monday and has links to related stories. I last posted
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Novelist Rumer Godden would have been 100 years old this year. She was born in England, lived much of her life in India, and died at age 91, having converted late to Catholicism.Godden wrote numerous novels, but the ones about nuns remain her most famous. "Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy
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Bill Mazzella, over on the "Swallowing the Gnat" post, suggested that we start another thread on Sacramentum Caritatis.
Bill noted: "Despite some good points, [Sacramentum Caritatis] appears like a backward attempt to nullify some valid points of renewal. For example, there is
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"Muscular Christianity" has been part of the American Protestant scene at least since Sinclair Lewis satirized it in "Elmer Gantry."
Now comedian Brad Stine resurrects it with GodMen, a group of Christian men who want to give the one-two punch to the feminization of
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I was raised a Unitarian, among the "gentle Darwinians" Peter Quinn discusses in his excellent essay (available from the home page to subscribers).
Darwin, as well as Emerson and Schweitzer, were our triumvirate (I almost called them our Trinity, too ironic). Emerson was our prophet,
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I showed my students "Super Size Me" (the McDonald's documentary) Thursday to spark a discussion about, among other things, advertising to children. In one scene, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock shows a series of pictures to five children and asks them to identify them. The only image they
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Here's a helpful new site for those of us who will be "left behind."
Be sure to check the links, which include Jack Chick's tract page. Or, better yet, just go here and see how the End Times will look and don't plan any trips to Megiddo.
Our local laundromat is a distribution site for
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The new Texas law requiring girls to be immunized against viruses that cause cervical cancer reminded me of parents' orientation day at my son's Catholic school, when a large number of moms asked for forms allowing them to waive their children's vaccinations "for pro-life reasons."
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If anyone else was as intrigued as I was with Eve Tushnet's piece on the "Glitter and Doom" exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum--and as unlikely to get to NYC anytime this decade--go here for more images
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Michigan's Court of Appeals this week overturned a lower court decision that allowed same-sex partners of public employees to receive the equivalent of spousal benefits (PDF warning).
The crux of the biscuit, according to the court, is that the partnership agreements
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PBS is running a documentary about nuns who participated in the civil rights march in Selma, Ala., for Black History Month.
Consult local listings; it's showing at several "off" times on my station on and around Feb. 6.
Check it out and report back here
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Chris Hedges, a Christian with a divinity degree from Harvard and son of a Presbyterian minister, said on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" Thursday that we've been too tolerant of some evangelical and fundamentalist leaders and their brand of Christianity.
Hedges sees a clear difference
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The New York Times reported yesterday that Hollywood is still trying to fix the MPAA rating system in the wake of "This Film Is Not Yet Rated," a documentary by Kirby Dick which, among other apparent scandals reveals that "lay representatives from the Roman Catholic Church and the
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The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists announced Jan. 2 that all pregnant women should be offered testing for certain genetic and fetal abnormalities--a statement that reminded me of a memorable Commonweal piece about "grassroots eugenics" back in 2004 (you must be
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DVD "special features" are a mixed bag, but the interview with "Groundhog Day" director Harold Ramis and writer Danny Rubin confirms that I'm not the only person out there who sees this movie in religious terms.
What appeals to my former Unitarian self is that Ramis says
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This week, seven Episcopal parishes in Virginia voted to leave the Episcopal Church(ECUSA/TEC).
Ironically and sadly, the more Anglican leaders try to keep the church to its famous Middle Way, the more the road seems to break off in different directions.
Some background: In June, Archbishop of
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I recently posted some observations about Nicaragua's new abortion measure here and here. Some readers felt those observations were premature since I did not have the exact wording of the law. That is now available at Nicaragua's National Assembly site. It's pretty straightforward:
Article 165
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A plug for Naomi Kritzer's article, "Giving to the Poor" in the current issue, especially in this pre-Christmas season when many of us are planning our charitable giving.
I was reminded of the time about five Christmases ago when I was in a fast-food joint with my son, then 6. We were
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You may have read in your diocesan newspaper that the International Crusade for Holy Relics has asked Catholics to boycott e-Bay, which has allowed the sale of holy relics, including body parts.
The Washington Post has more.
I did not find any bones, hair or teeth of saints for sale when I
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Naomi Schaefer Riley of the Wall Street Journal took Fr. Andrew Greeley to task Dec. 1 for making "patronizing" comments about Catholicism in emerging nations.
Greeley, interviewed at a religious conference, was asked about how declining numbers of Catholics in Europe
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Jazmina Bojorge, a 19-year-old pregnant mother and wife, died in a Managua hospital earlier this month. She was five months pregnant, and sought emergency care when she began having early contractions.
Doctors, fearful of intervening because of a new Nicaraguan law that bans all abortions, even
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More young women are entering convents, and that's good news for older nuns, whose average age is 69, says a Time Magazine article, Nov. 13.
Anglican monasticism also seems to be on the rise. The Order of St. Julian was established in Wisconsin in 1985. It's a Benedictine double monastery, much
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Today my Pentecostal neighbor across the street is installing his inflatable Christmas characters, heralding what I like to think of as the Advent of Advent.
I'm sure you've seen these inflatables at discount outlets--eight-foot Grinches, Santy Clauses, Rudolphs, Frostys, angels (with and
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Nicaragua's law restricting abortions in all cases, including those that threaten the life of the mother, was signed Friday by outgoing President Enrique Bolanos, making it official.
The AP reported that incoming president Daniel Ortega supports the measure.
AP also said that before
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One state ballot issue that has received little attention nationwide is Arkansas' vote to overturn a ban on charitable gambling, which includes Bingo.
Arkansas Catholic churches had been running Bingo games, possibly in ignorance of the state ban, but the Diocese imposed a moratorium when an
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I keep getting cards in the mail enticing me to subscribe to a magazine called Real Simple, which, for just $23.95 per year, says it's going to help me simplify my life.
I'm all for simplification, so I browsed the magazine online. Here's a simple time-saving tip for busy moms: Make an Excel
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