Investigating journalists who expose a secret CIA war; auditing the tax returns of political opponents; retaliating against whistleblowers: It sounds like 1972 all over again, no? Perhaps the constitutional lawyer who is president of the United States can come up with a response to each of these
MORE
The Diocese of Brooklyn has stirred the pot a bit with an ad campaign about "The Original Hipster" - Jesus. It doesn't specifically identify Jesus, but one quickly gets the idea from the image of a flowing tunic above a pair of red Converse sneakers.
I first heard about the ad when a
MORE
One of the many things that make the trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell interesting is that if convicted of murdering any of seven newborns allegedly delivered live in his West Philadelphia clinic, he would face the death penalty. Indeed, capital punishment plays an important part in the case since
MORE
There is a lively debate over whether major national news organizations have ignored or downplayed the trial of a Philadelphia abortion doctor who is charged with murder in the deaths of seven babies allegedly born alive and one mother. It's a case that has already contributed to restrictions on
MORE
When it comes to dealing with Congress, it's often necessary to re-state the obvious. Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, does that well in this Washington Post piece explaining why it's pro-life to ban assault weapons:
The church’s pro-life stand
MORE
From the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion comes a new study highlighting why people who are religious tend to be more forgiving than those who are not. Interestingly, the study traces the propensity toward forgiveness to adolecsence:
... the source of these orientations and beliefs
MORE
News accounts of Pope Benedict's final general audience before his retirement have picked up on some of the key quotes, but it's worth reading the full text to get the flavor of it. Here, he gives an elegant reflection on his papal experience in light of the New Testament story of Jesus calming the
MORE
The events surrounding Pope Benedict's resignation and the election of his successor will likely be the subject of inquiry for a very, very long time. Today, the Holy See issued a statement that served to heighten the intrigue further:
The Holy Father received in audience this morning Cardinals
MORE
This much is confirmed: Pope Benedict XVI received a secret report from a commission consisting of three cardinals he had appointed to investigate the leak of confidential Vatican documents. "The commission has done its work," a spokesman for the Vatican said. Did the contents of that
MORE
The destructive sweep of Hurricane Sandy was such that it took some days for outside relief agencies and the news media to arrive in force in southern Brooklyn, where I live. During that time, relief efforts sprang up locally through houses of worship and neighborhood organizations, providing
MORE
Pope Benedict XVI has announced he will resign at the end of the month due to health reasons. According to the AP, the 85-year-old pontiff announced the decision in Latin to cardinals in the Vatican this morning. Here is the statement from the Vatican Web site:
I have convoked you to this
MORE
I don't suppose detectives from the LAPD will put up for the redactions that obscure important passages in the documents the Archdiocese of Los Angeles released concerning its handling of clergy sexual abuse. According to reports from the Los Angeles Times and other news organizations, police are
MORE
The death of former New York City Mayor Edward I. Koch reminded me of the jovial relationship he had with the late Cardinal John O'Connor. Although they differed on such issues as abortion and gay rights, they were able to get along famously and even to co-author a book examining some of their
MORE
Bishop Robert W. Finn has used the occasion of the Feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists, to upbraid Kansas City-based National Catholic Reporter, which is located in his diocese. The critique he published in his diocesan newspaper says not a word about the important service to
MORE
This bishops' battle against President Barack Obama continues in the new administration - or at least it does in the Diocese of Brooklyn, where I live. That is one of the messages to be drawn from Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio's strongly worded column, in which he writes, among other things, that &
MORE
Newly released documents detailing how far church leaders in Los Angeles went to conceal clergy sexual abuse in the late 1980s help fill in the story of the scandal and how it developed at the highest level of the nation's largest diocese. As reported in the Los Angeles Times:
Fifteen years
MORE
Back in the days when I worked part-time or summer jobs such as hot dog vendor, library clerk and shoe salesman, I remember being outraged upon learning that McDonald's Corp. had showered President Richard Nixon with campaign donations to persuade him not to raise the minimum wage. As Bloomberg
MORE
Bishop Richard E. Pates, chairman of the U.S. Catholic bishops' committee on international justice and peace, did not literally draw a red line to illustrate a Catholic position on how the Obama administration should respond to Iran's dangerous nuclear ambitions. But in a figurative sense, he did
MORE
Few people have done more to bring Catholic values into the civic life of their community than the former New York City Schools Chancellor Frank Macchiarola, who died Tuesday at the age of 71. Macchiarola was a problem-solver who took on the toughest issues facing his city, whether it was near-
MORE
When Pope John Paul II visited the Dheisheh refugee camp outside Bethlehem in 2000, he spoke with much compassion to the Palestinians who gathered to meet him. "Above all," he said, "you bear the sad memory of what you were forced to leave behind. Not just material possessions, but
MORE
[caption id="attachment_21931" align="alignleft" width="248"] Click to enlarge. Source: Pew Research Ctr.[/caption]
Thought you might be interested in this Pew survey of the religious composition of the next Congress, which has its first Hindu member, the first
MORE
I was admiring the coverage of Hurricane Sandy this morning as I leafed through The Tablet, the newspaper of the Diocese of Brooklyn, until I was stopped by a paragraph in Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio's weekly column. The bishop wrote that "global warming is not something we can believe in"
MORE
It turns out that more than a run of luck was involved when Atlantic City's waterfront casinos - nine on the Boardwalk, three on the marina - escaped unscathed from Hurricane Sandy. This, from a Bloomberg News story that deserves attention:
As superstorm Sandy flooded Atlantic City, New Jersey,
MORE
During the 2010 congressional campaign, I explored a race in Bucks County, Pennsylvania to see why the Democrats were headed for a big defeat in midterm elections. The Democratic incumbent had the disadvantage of being trailed by a few dozen stirred up Tea Party members who created a ruckus
MORE
[caption id="attachment_21664" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Beach 130th Street in Rockaway, destroyed by fire during Hurricane Sandy.[/caption]
This piece by the Huffington Post captures the Catholic ethos that's quietly at work in many of the New York and New
MORE
Three-quarters of Latino Catholics support President Barack Obama's re-election while just half of Latino evangelical Protestants do, according to a new poll from Pew Research Center. Overall, 61 percent of Latinos who attend religious services at least once a week support Obama.
This level of
MORE
Paolo Gabriele, former butler for Pope Benedict XVI, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing confidential Vatican documents that he leaked to the news media. As I had suspected, it appears the motive behind this caper is high-minded: What the butler saw as one of the few lay people
MORE
Tom Moran, a veteran New Jersey political columnist, wrote today on what he said is Archbishop John Myers' politicking for the Republican presidential ticket. He opened his column in the Newark Star-Ledger by telling of his upbringing in a Catholic family of nine children and how he, like many
MORE
Voice of the Faithful is trying to make sure parishioners have a meaningful say in the choice of the next archbishop of Chicago. To that end, VOTF has set up a Web site to solicit comments on who should succeed Cardinal Francis George (who turned 75 on Jan. 16). It says this effort is based on
MORE
In light of Mitt Romney's verbal attack on the Obama administration's response to the murder of the U.S. ambassador to Libya, I wonder what he would say about the Vatican's statement:
Profound respect for the beliefs, texts, outstanding figures and symbols of the various religions is an essential
MORE
In what is described as his last interview, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini said that the Catholic Church is 200 years behind the times and called for it to recognize its mistakes and embark on a radical journey of change.
Cardinal Martini, who died Friday at the age of 85, had been interviewed Aug.
MORE
It looks as if many reporters on the presidential campaign trail have lost their way. According to an article in The New York Times, they are allowing the campaigns to veto any statements they wish to quote from interviews with campaign operatives. They actually submit the quotes they want to use,
MORE
Having spent about eight years as a reporter covering various court beats, I was surprised when Monsignor William Lynn was jailed immediately after his conviction on a charge of child endangerment. The practice I've witnessed countless times, except for gangsters, drug dealers and other violent
MORE
At the same time the U.S. Catholic bishops are giving daily lessons on how important it is for government to respect individual conscience, the Philadelphia jury that convicted Monsignor William Lynn on Friday of child endangerment has offered a lesson on the role of conscience in the church.
In
MORE
Many will be elated that Monsignor William Lynn has been found guilty of one count of child endangerment. I'm not. It's a sad day for Lynn, and for the church. And yet, it's a necessary one.
The Philadelphia jury, which acquitted Lynn on two other counts, worked extremely hard. I hope we'll see
MORE
The National Labor Relations Board has turned back Duquesne University's attempt to prevent adjunct faculty members from voting on whether to unionize.
The decision follows the latest attempt by a Catholic college to use First Amendment religious freedom to block what Catholic teaching clearly
MORE
Voters in North Dakota have rejected, by a margin approaching to 2 to 1, a state constitutional amendment aimed at protecting religious freedom.
In a backgrounder published earlier this week, The Christian Science Monitor offered a good overview of the ballot initiative:
Called the Religious
MORE
This Wall Street Journal article [or here] finds glimmers of hope for Catholic schools, reporting:
For the first time in decades, Catholic education is showing signs of life. Driven by expanding voucher programs, outreach to Hispanic Catholics and donations by business leaders, Catholic schools
MORE
Jurors often deliver verdicts on Friday afternoons, and that's what I was expecting for the trial of Monsignor William Lynn in Philadelphia. But, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, don't expect a verdict soon:
Jurors at the landmark clergy-sex abuse trial of two Archdiocese of Philadelphia
MORE
Cardinal Timothy Dolan assailed The New York Times this week for its reporting on payments provided to priests who were known sex abusers so that they could be laicized as quickly as possible. The Archdiocese of Milwaukee refers to these payments, made while Dolan was archbishop there, as "
MORE
In his trial on charges of criminally endangering children, Monsignor William Lynn portrayed himself as a man of conscience who quietly tried to help victims despite the indifference of his superiors.
Maryclaire Dale of The Associated Press summarized his defense this way:
A Roman Catholic
MORE
Statements coming out of the Vatican today regarding the controversy over leaks of confidential papal documents would seem to upend close to five decades of interesting, nuanced statements from the church on the role of journalists in society and replace them with some kind of "Syllabus of
MORE
The Vatican issued a statement Saturday calling a new leak of its internal documents "a criminal act" that must be prosecuted. The statement called for prosecution not only of the leaker but also "those who received stolen property" - that is, evidently, Gianluigi Nuzzi, an
MORE
Strong words from a prosecutor in the trial of Monsignor William Lynn foreshadow what promises to be a hard-charging closing argument. That, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer:
In a preview of what could be a closing argument for the commonwealth, Assistant District Attorney Patrick
MORE
In the course of certifying a class action, a federal judge in New York has made some devastating remarks about the NYPD's massive Stop and Frisk program, which has prompted hundreds of thousands of street searches that almost always target blacks and Hispanics. It's an important ruling with
MORE
I couldn't help but think of that often-used tabloid headline when I read the news today of Rebekah Brooks' arrest, along with her husband and four others, in the British newspaper phone-hacking scandal.
For Brooks is now on the receiving end of what she once dished out as editor of the News of
MORE
The trial of Monsignor William Lynn on charges of child endangerment for allegedly permitting predatory priests to continue in ministry took an interesting turn today with the testimony of a sister who said Lynn could've removed an abusive priest if he really wanted to.
The sister, not named in
MORE
A lot of people are talking about this obituary for Facts that appeared in the Chicago Tribune. Thought you might enjoy it. As Rex W. Huppke wrote:
To the shock of most sentient beings, Facts died Wednesday, April 18, after a long battle for relevancy with the 24-hour news cycle, blogs and the
MORE
Back in February, I posted on the apparent demise of Brooklyn's Nazareth Regional High School, my alma mater. The reasons for the board's decision to close the Xaverian Brothers-sponsored school were depressingly familiar: declining enrollment and rising debt.
A few days later, I noted reports
MORE
Saying that it's time for "peace and unity" in his diocese, Cleveland's Bishop Richard Lennon has announced that he will reopen 12 churches he'd closed. Lennon, who closed the churches in 2009 and 2010, was responding to a ruling from the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy. He could
MORE
[caption id="attachment_18347" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Stations of the Cross on Good Friday near the armed forces recruiting station in Times Square."][/caption]
Pax Christi has now held a Good Friday Way of the Cross across 42nd Street
MORE
The trade of Tim Tebow to the New York Jets brought a burst of publicity for the city's iniquities. It seems that pretty much all the media - including the city's tabloid dailies and publications ranging from the National Enquirer to the New York Times - picked up that theme, so it's too late to
MORE
The CBS-New York Times Poll finds that a majority of Americans believe that all employers - not just religiously affiliated ones - should be released from the contraception mandate if they object on moral grounds. The poll, conducted March 7-11, found that 51 percent of those surveyed said
MORE
Back in July, Cleveland's Bishop Richard Lennon welcomed a Vatican inquiry into his decision to close parishes, and interpreted it as a review of his leadership of the diocese. "This visit will be an opportunity to gather extensive information on all aspects of the activities of the Diocese
MORE
I can't say I know much about medical ethics, so I'll just offer the unlearned opinion that this article in the Journal of Medical Ethics - After-birth abortion: Why should the baby live? - is chilling and creepy, all the more because it is published in a respected forum. It concludes:
If
MORE
The laudable goal of increasing recognition for the right to religious freedom takes a strange twist in an editorial in the newspaper of the Diocese of Brooklyn, which links the issue to taxes. The newspaper makes the argument that high taxes prevent people from donating money to religious
MORE
That champion of religious liberty, Rick Santorum, is castigating President Obama for apologizing over what U.S. officials say was the inadvertent burning of books of the Qur'an in Afghanistan. Santorum's reasoning is that since the destruction of the Qur'an was done in error, there was no reason
MORE
The Associated Press has continued to expose the broad sweep of the New York Police Department's spying on Muslims - not only in New York City but, as The AP now reports, elsewhere in the Northeast. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly have said police are just following
MORE
There is much ado lately about the few times in the past three years when President Obama or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used the phrase "freedom of worship" rather than "freedom of religion." The term was good enough for FDR to include in his Four Freedoms in a speech
MORE
The number leading today's New York Times - that most births to American women under 30 occur outside marriage - is a startling one, although it follows on a trend that has been developing for many years. Here are some details:
Once largely limited to poor women and minorities, motherhood
MORE
Continuing saturation coverage, I refer you to a new poll from Pew Research Center with some interesting numbers on how Catholics view the dispute over the federal mandate that health insurance cover contraception for employees of religiously affiliated institutions:
While 55% of Catholics who
MORE
I posted recently on the demise of my alma mater, Nazareth High School in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Remarkably, the Daily News now reports: "More than 2,500 Nazareth High School alumni have flooded the East Flatbush institution with offers of help to keep it from closing — including two from
MORE
In the debate over requiring health insurance coverage of contraceptives, much weight has been placed on a poll showing that most Catholics side with the Obama administration's position. The poll by Public Religion Research Institute did indeed find that 58 percent of Catholics "believe that
MORE
For some nine years, the most difficult decisions I had to make did not concern my personal life or job, but the Catholic high school that I served as a volunteer trustee. This week, the school announced it will close in June. I'm in mourning.
I'm not privy to the decison-making involved; I've
MORE
This commentary from CNN.com is the latest I've seen to ask whether Barack Obama is in the process of losing the Catholic vote. I think there is something to it.
His administration's decision requiring Catholic institutions to pay for contraceptives through employee health insurance plans is
MORE
Stories of successful engagement between Catholics and Muslims are too few not to pass along one I heard about yesterday at a conference called "Catholic-Muslim Partnerships in Social Services."
It concerned a program that brought Catholic and Muslim youths together in Staten Island, N
MORE
An op-ed piece in today's Times asks an interesting question: "What will life be like for the wives of Roman Catholic priests?" The article, by historian Sara Ritchey, considers the fate of women married to Episcopal priests who join the Catholic church.
But Professor Ritchey gives a
MORE
The Obama administration's proposal to revise federal immigration regulations to keep many thousands of families from being separated is consistent with what the Catholic hierarchy, including Pope Benedict XVI, has long called for. The same can't be said for the approach advocated by the leading
MORE
It's interesting to see Rick Santorum moving up in the polls for the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses. It just might be that he has developed some momentum at a crucial point in this volatile race and could turn out to be the choice of anyone-but-Romney Republicans. Hard to say, of course, but momentum is
MORE
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a letter today, through the chairman of its Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, telling members of Congress that they have a "moral obligation" to help unemployed workers. In urging that unemployment insurance be extended,
MORE
[caption id="attachment_16260" align="alignleft" width="300" caption=" "][/caption]
Newt Gingrich co-produced and starred, with his wife, in the documentary Nine Days that Changed the World in praise of Pope John Paul II's 1979 pilgrimage to Poland and the
MORE
The White House today released a new national strategy - the first of its kind, it says - to combat "homegrown" terrorism. It's a very interesting document that responds to the social science research mounting over the past decade into the causes of terrorism. For example:
Violent
MORE
Hackles were raised in October when the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace issued a document that condemned, among other things, “the idolatry of the market,” and said that the financial crisis "has revealed behaviors like selfishness, collective greed and hoarding of
MORE
Citing his own experience in negotiating for the freedom of two hikers held in Iran as suspected spies, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick suggested in a Monday night speech in New York that U.S. diplomats need to do more to develop "religious channels" to other nations.
The cardinal
MORE
The Committee to Protect Journalists normally calls attention to the plight of reporters and editors the world over who are coerced, beaten or murdered for reporting the news. It now finds it necessary to call attention to the way police have arrested and otherwise interfered with journalists
MORE
The U.S. Catholic bishops have an important case to make in their drive for religious liberty as government continues to pass laws and regulations that would force church-affiliated agencies to take actions that violate church teachings. Bishop William Lori takes the right tack in his speech on
MORE
I'm not sure how I wound up on the list, but I received a robo-call first thing this morning from the National Rifle Association. The NRA executive urged that I oppose the Arms Trade Treaty the United Nations is working toward to regulate international trafficking in conventional arms.
I
MORE
[caption id="attachment_15696" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="St. Francis and the sultan of Egypt. Sculpture by Arnaldo Zocchi (1909), in downtown Cairo."][/caption]
At a gathering of religious leaders in Assisi today, Pope Benedict XVI confronted
MORE
The Way, a film starring Martin Sheen as a pilgrim on the Camino de Santiago, has opened. Having twice walked chunks of the 500-mile route across northern Spain, I eagerly chose it from the menu of movies offered on a flight I took last summer.
Sheen plays an American doctor whose wayward son
MORE
During the years Rudy Giuliani was mayor of New York, his administration was on the losing end of a long string of First Amendment lawsuits. It got to the point that a federal appeals court noted the "relentless onslaught" of such cases, resulting in 18 decisions against the city.
I
MORE
The results of the recent congressional race in Anthony Weiner's former district continue to be spun into a tale of how Jewish voters are supposedly abandoning President Obama for not being sufficiently pro-Israel. The facts show otherwise, though. And a case can be made that my new local
MORE
The Vatican has yet to comment on the Palestinian Authority's plan to request full membership in the United Nations for Palestine, but some Catholic organizations are weighing in.
The Caritas blog carried a statement from the organization's general secretary in Jerusalem, Claudette Habesch:
At
MORE
I don't think I've ever received more reminders to do something than to vote in the special election in New York's 9th Congressional District - better known as Anthony Weiner's former district. The calls were constant. So were the calls from pollsters.
It certainly has surprised me that a
MORE
Of the many lessons to be drawn on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack, here is one: that religion matters. It motivates people, for good and sometimes for evil.
It seems an obvious point, and yet, I don't think it has been fully accepted in academia, in journalism and
MORE
Poster in St. Colman's Cathedral, Diocese of Cloyne, Cobh, Ireland.
In a detailed response, the Vatican has rejected charges made against it in an Irish government commission's report on the cover-up of clergy sexual abuse in the Diocese of Cloyne. While "sorry and ashamed" for
MORE
I'm not sure I am ready to dwell on the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack with the intensity that the news coverage marking its 10th anniversary will summon, but this interview AP religion writer Rachel Zoll did with Cardinal Edward Egan was well worth reading. Catholicism is an important but
MORE
Just returned from a vacation in Ireland during which I visited Cobh, the port city in County Cork from which so many of the Irish emigrated. I decided to walk uphill to St. Colman's Cathedral, which, with its 300-foot carillon, towers over the harbor town. I hadn't realized until I arrived
MORE
Jason Berry draws a scathing portrait of Cleveland's Bishop Richard Lennon in his new book, Render Unto Rome: The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church for closing solvent parishes in Cleveland and, earlier, in Boston when he was an auxiliary bishop. He writes:
Lennon approached Cleveland
MORE
Take that, Glenn Beck. A new study finds that reading the Bible may help make American Christians more concerned about social justice. David Briggs reports for the Association of Religion Data Archives:
What daily practice may help American Christians become more concerned about issues of poverty
MORE
Karen J. Terry, who led the John Jay College study into the causes of clergy sex abuse of minors in the Catholic Church, has criticized news coverage that she said reduced her complex findings to a single point summarized in news reports as "blame Woodstock" - the idea that the sexual
MORE
Brooklyn's Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio writes a weekly column called "Put out into the Deep" - a title that expresses the high priority he places on the new evangelization.
But when the bishop uses his column in his diocesan newspaper, the Tablet, to assail specific legislators, it
MORE
Article I, Section 5 of the U.S. Constitution sets out the basis for expelling a member of the House of Representatives: "Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the Concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member."
As one
MORE
After a blizzard last December 26, it became national news that New York City sanitation workers supposedly engaged in a slowdown that stymied the city's snow-removal effort. The claims immediately fueled attacks on "Big Labor." Now, the city's Department of Investigation has completed a
MORE
House Republicans have released an exchange of friendly letters between Rep. Paul Ryan and Archbishop Timothy Dolan, trying to make it appear as if the GOP budget proposal for 2012 is in sync with Catholic social teaching.
Some news accounts from Washington have fallen for the spin and reported
MORE
Rev. Kevin Gray, a priest in the Archdiocese of Hartford, has been sentenced to three years in prison after pleading no-contest to charges that he stole more than $1 million to fund a lavish secret life. Bills for restaurants, hotels, clothes and male escort services were paid from a parish
MORE
It's unfortunate that President Obama agreed to extend a school voucher program in the District of Columbia only as an 11th-hour concession to avoid a shutdown of the federal government. It gives the impression that the vouchers program was not effective enough to stand for approval in the
MORE
In New York, the resignation of magazine executive Cathie Black after serving 95 days as city schools chancellor is being viewed as further evidence that Mayor Bloomberg's administration has lost its way in the mayor's third term. That may be, but I think we may be seeing evidence of a larger
MORE
Editorializing on the criminal charges of clergy sexual abuse and its alleged cover-up in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, The New York Times observes, "The haunting question is how many other Philadelphias may be out there."
Another dismal question to consider in such
MORE
The Archdiocese of Baltimore has refused to sell or lease vacant school buildings to charter schools because it has found that charter schools are siphoning students away from Catholic schools, according to the Baltimore Sun.
The decision highlights the sharply conflicting approaches that U.S.
MORE
New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley gives a downbeat review today to the New York revival of Jason Miller's 1972 play "That Championship Season," about a Catholic high school basketball team's reunion 20 years after winning the state championship. I haven't seen the production, so
MORE
I hope people in dioceses where many parishes are being closed - including my home Diocese of Brooklyn - will see this AP story affirming that bishops don't have the right to shut churches as they please. The story looks back on recent determinations the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy made
MORE
When I was a cub reporter in Hudson County, N.J. in the late 1970s, uncovering mob influence in local unions was one of my tasks. A fearsome character named Tino Fiumara was said to rule the docks in Hoboken, and the Provenzano family, suspected in the death of Jimmy Hoffa, controlled the New
MORE
The avalanche of words spent on the role of the Internet and social networking media in the revolutions sweeping through the Middle East and North Africa should not obscure that old-fashioned, impartial news reporters for the MSM (and its freelancers) are the ones getting the story out to the
MORE
The New York Post called it "Irish Stew." The Daily News headlined it as "Bloomy's Blarney." However you say it, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's attempted quip about the Irish and the drink has bogged him down again in what is turning out to be a mediocre third term.
As
MORE
A monsignor who formerly headed the Archdiocese of Philadelpia's Office for Clergy was charged with two felonies today for not protecting children from sex-abusing priests he allegedly knew were a danger. In a stunning development, a new grand jury report assailed the current assignments of
MORE
This article on the front page of today's New York Times notes that philanthropists who donate to Catholic schools are taking a more active role in influencing how the schools are run. This is something that philanthropists tend to do, and it sometimes makes their generosity a mixed blessing. The
MORE
"Terrorism Going Unpunished" was the headline on Sean Hannity's Web page back in November when Guantanamo detainee Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was convicted of one count of conspiracy in the 1998 terrorist bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa and acquitted of 284 counts. “Eric Holder
MORE
For most people, the bloodshed in Tuscon was a signal to ratchet down political rhetoric and to reflect on why such violence occurs. But for one bishop, it offered an opportunity to attack President Obama's support for abortion rights.
The Without a Doubt column Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of
MORE
U.S. Catholic carried an article that focuses on an important topic for anyone interested in the survival of Catholic schools: why more Latinos don't attend Catholic schools. It quotes Father Joe Corpora, co-chairman of the University of Notre Dame's Task Force on the Participation of Latinos in
MORE
The Archdiocese of New York has announced that it plans to close 27 schools serving 3,652 students, or 7 percent of its student population. I realize that Catholic school closings have become commonplace, but I don't recall another announcement of this magnitude (Perhaps you do?).
The many
MORE
Pope Benedict called today for an interfaith meeting to be held in Assisi this October to mark the 25th anniversary of the World Day of Prayer for Peace that Pope John Paul II held there on Oct. 26, 1986. Speaking hours after a shattering terrorist attack that killed 21 people in a Coptic
MORE
About five years ago, I began to write occasional articles that questioned the validity of New York City's crime statistics reported through CompStat, a vaunted crime-fighting tool that has been emulated across the country. I noted the discrepancy between publicly reported crimes on the FBI's index
MORE
The shopping I am doing to celebrate Christmas seems to lead inevitably to products manufactured in China, where, the Vatican reminds us in a strongly worded statement issued Friday, there is "intransigent intolerance" for religions lacking state approval.
The statement follows reports
MORE
A front-page story in today's New York Times reports inside details of the Justice Department's investigation of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. This raises the question of whether Assange is now himself the victim of illegal leaks.
The Times story avoids attributing any details to federal
MORE
U.S. embassy cables from Vatican City have been released through Wikileaks, and while The New York Times says they "do not appear to contain any bombshells about the Vatican," anyone interested in what goes on inside the Vatican will want to look at them.
For the moment, there are
MORE
As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to push for the Dream Act against a tide of nativism, the bill is receiving support from many religious voices. Coadjutor Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, who heads the U.S. bishops' Committee on Migration, wrote this week to Congress saying that
MORE
In 2012, just 10 Republicans in the U.S. Senate will likely be running for re-election, compared to 23 Democrats and allied independents. Suppose that the Senate winds up being unable to extend the Bush tax cuts, which expire Dec. 31, because Democrats stick to their position that the richest
MORE
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called today for the Senate to ratify the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, during its lame-duck session. Since the story is being ignored by news organizations (except for Catholic news services such as Zenit and CNS) we'll call your attention
MORE
To adapt from Lloyd Bentsen: We remember Jack Kennedy, and Sarah Palin is no Jack Kennedy. And she doesn't mind. In her new book she takes issue with John F. Kennedy's famed 1960 speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association. JFK said:
I am the Democratic Party's candidate for President
MORE
One thing I learned during seven years as a reporter based in federal court was that for defendants, there is no such thing as a mixed verdict. The penalties and the judges imposing them were usually severe enough that a conviction on just one count was enough to ruin the defendant's life.
I
MORE
From time to time I've posted on the political relationship between Brooklyn's Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio and Vito Lopez, the Brooklyn Democratic boss and a New York state assemblyman who helped the bishop defeat a proposed bill to lift the statute of limitations on sex-abuse lawsuits.
The bishop
MORE
Keith Olbermann will return to MSNBC on Tuesday night following his suspension for ignoring an ethical standard taught in introductory journalism courses. Even so, Olbermann's punishment for violating his news organization's ethics code by making political campaign donations has brought out the
MORE
Nancy Pelosi put out a statement during the night saying that the House of Representatives under her leadership "took courageous action" to save the country from economic catastrophe. I take it to mean she believes it was worth it to support President Obama on the stimulus bill and
MORE
New York's Police Department has gained much renown for its Compstat crime-reporting system, which has been emulated in police departments across the country and overseas. It has helped police to pinpoint criminal activity and to reduce reported crimes dramatically. But, with careers in the NYPD
MORE
"I don't do body counts," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told CBS News in March, 2002, in the early days of the war in Afghanistan. "This country tried that in Vietnam, and it didn't work. And you've not heard me speculate on that at all, and you won't." A few days later,
MORE
The New York Times Web site is carrying a photo of an art exhibit that includes a work with large red letters that say "KNOW YOUR SCUMBAGS." The words are next to an image of the late Cardinal John O'Connor.
It is a bit surprising to see obscene language in The Times, which goes to
MORE
USA Today carried a headline this week that made me want to throw up my hands: "Minn. archbishop: No 'lukewarm' Catholics welcome." It's difficult enough to interest people in the Catholic Church these days without having bishops usher them toward the exit.
The headline was on an
MORE
The New York Times carried an interesting profile today of Pamela Geller, who has enjoyed great success in whipping up fear and hatred of Islam through her opposition to the Islamic cultural center planned for a site near the World Trade Center. The paper reported:
Operating largely outside
MORE
[caption id="attachment_10284" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Francis, depicted at San Damiano."][/caption]
Cardinal Roger Mahony has launched an environmental sustainability effort, timed to the Feast of St. Francis on Oct. 4, in which he has
MORE
The convergence of Jewish and Muslim holy days with the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attack makes this a solemn time. People will encounter this in many ways. For me, it's been in the funereal bells sounded this morning at St. Columba Church, timed to the moments when aircraft struck the World
MORE
Brooklyn's Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio has continued his campaign of support for the Brooklyn Democratic boss, despite the politician's record in favor of abortion rights.
As I wrote last year, it is a curious thing, since Bishop DiMarzio, chairman of the bishops' committee that had drafted "
MORE
This is what urban Catholic schools need: A business group has donated $4 million to help create endowments for seven Catholic schools in Pennsylvania, including five in Philadelphia. Much of the corporate philanthropy aimed at education these days has gone to charter schools, which undermine inner
MORE
[caption id="attachment_9838" align="alignleft" width="261" caption="St. Mary's Church in downtown New Haven."][/caption]
I'd like to continue the discussion of parallels between 19th century attacks on Catholicism and current Islamophobia by
MORE
[caption id="attachment_9775" align="alignleft" width="639" caption="Headliner: Jackie Mason at Empire State Building protest."][/caption]
About a thousand people attended today's Catholic League demonstration against the owner of the Empire State
MORE
Pope John Paul II's name is being used by many commentators to support their attacks against the Islamic center proposed for a building two blocks from the World Trade Center site. The pope had agreed to withdraw a convent near Auschwitz, as William McGurn pointed out in an Aug. 3 Wall Street
MORE
[caption id="attachment_9239" align="center" width="200" caption="Anne Rice"][/caption]
Or so the novelist, who had returned to the Catholicism of her childhood, said on her Facebook fan page. Her explanation:
"In the name of Christ, I refuse to be
MORE
President Obama touted his education policies today in a speech at the 100th anniversary convention of the National Urban League. His much-hyped "Race to the Top" still sounds to me more like a TV reality program than a program that will advance education. It invests heavily in funding
MORE
A federal judge has issued an injunction that bars some of the most controversial aspects of Arizona's immigration law from taking effect. The ruling preserves parts of the law, however. The law, challenged by the Obama administration, has been described by Cardinal Roger Mahony as "
MORE
[caption id="attachment_9199" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Mathis Landwehr as Lasko."][/caption]
I'm back from a vacation in Assisi, where I spent some time at the various sites that are steeped in the generous spirit of St. Francis. Against that
MORE
The Vatican is stepping up its condemnation of an extraordinary raid by Belgian law enforcement authorities to search for evidence that clergy sexual abuse was covered up. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said that the detention of bishops for questioning smacked of communist governments' practices. The
MORE
It is almost amusing to read that Catholic League prez Bill Donohue doesn't care that the speaker of New York's City Council, Christine Quinn, is a lesbian who vigorously supports same-sex marriage. He announced on the steps of City Hall that she is "a very good Catholic," The Daily News'
MORE
The Missionaries of Charity have created a Web page devoted to the upcoming centenary of Mother Teresa's birth, which will be celebrated on August 26. It's an island of calm that features, among other things, a recording of Mother Teresa reciting the Prayer of St. Francis.
The prayer, though
MORE
On another thread, there is a lively discussion about the Catholic League that concerns, among other things, the salary of its president. His $372,501 salary for 2008 is known because the Catholic League, as a non-profit, must file a Form 990 with the IRS. Such documents are public and available on
MORE
A friar who worked as a chaplain at New York's Ground Zero site has brought a much-needed Franciscan response to those who argue that a mosque and Islamic center should not be permitted two blocks from the place where the World Trade Center once stood.
"Bring the spirit of the Assisi
MORE
In the midst of a corruption scandal in New York City government in the 1980s, one of the reporters at the newspaper where I worked did a profile of a lobbyist who was closely tied to a corrupt politician. It was one of those articles you do when you haven't been able to get the goods on someone,
MORE
Former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato has a letter to the editor in today's New York Times in which he reports that "As a Catholic, I am appalled at the now-daily assaults by the liberal media against the church." An editor's note adds that D'Amato is "a member of the board of the
MORE
I hope that the many church officials who are embracing the idea of turning failing Catholic schools into taxpayer-funded charter schools read this interview Sam Freedman did with education expert Diane Ravitch in The New York Times today:
Her criticism of charter schools ... arises partly from a
MORE
I was wondering when the public editor at The New York Times, Clark Hoyt, would deal with the avalanche of criticism over the paper's stories that examined Pope Benedict XVI's handling of clergy sexual abuse cases. Now, he has. He concludes:
Like it or not, there are circumstances that have
MORE
A smart public-relations strategy could never solve a problem as serious as the cover-up of clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, but it would at least make Catholics and the public at large a little more confident in the management ability and good intentions of the present church
MORE
The New York Times ran a story during the past week noting that "a Brooklyn man" had been sentenced to up to 32 years in prison for sexually abusing a 16-year-old. In the story, The Times noted that the defendant, Baruch Lebovits, "is often referred to as `Rabbi' as a sign of respect
MORE
The Archdiocese of Indianapolis has announced that it will convert two Catholic schools into publicly funded charter schools - but will continue to run them itself through a corporation it controls. The decision to retain control of the schools - absent religious trappings - is a first (The
MORE
Hundreds of people took part today in Pax Christi-Metro New York's 27th annual Good Friday Way of the Cross along 42nd Street through Times Square. The surrounding cacophony always heightens the prayerful intensity of these socially conscious Stations of the Cross. Torture, appropriately (
MORE
George Weigel's column on the First Things blog summarizes the case being made in many quarters that The New York Times has been biased in its recent coverage of Pope Benedict's handling of cases of clergy sexual abuse. He writes:
"... the sexual abuse story in the global media is almost
MORE
I 've been enjoying a Lenten journey on the Camino de Santiago - vicariously, that is, by following some pilgrims' progress through their daily reports on BustedHalo.com. The interviews, photos, video and music really bring the experience of hiking northern Spain's thousand-year-old
MORE
Returning to a subject he wrote about early in his career, Pope Benedict spoke at his weekly audience about how St. Bonaventure firmly responded to heretical ideas he encountered within the Franciscan order when he served as its minister general starting in 1257. The problem Bonaventure faced was
MORE
It is the teaching of the church to "avoid every kind of unjust discrimination" against those who are gay or lesbian. "They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity," according to The Catechism of the Catholic Church.
So I don't see how the Archdiocese of
MORE
The push is on in Washington this week to put more federal money into the charter-school movement. That may be good news for parents whose children are in substandard public schools, but it's bad news for Catholic schools, which are losing enrollment to the publicly funded charter schools.
The
MORE
Education authorities in Georgia took what apparently is a very unusual step: They made some routine checks to see if there was cheating on standardized reading tests. They found that cheating might have occurred at 1 in 5 schools, The New York Times reports.
The same paper also reported
MORE
After 9/11 it became an article of faith in New York City that we must resume normal lives and not let terrorists win by drastically altering our ways. There was a down side to that - for example, the environmental hazards of the attack were not addressed properly. But overall, it worked, and New
MORE
[caption id="attachment_6511" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Francis and the Sultan, by Arnoldo Zocchi, 1909. "][/caption]
Back in September, Commonweal carried an article [registration required] I wrote about the encounter in 1219 between
MORE
Which Biblical verses should be cited on the gunsights of the M4 and M16 rifles that American soldiers are using in Iraq and Afghanistan? That's right. The Michigan company making the gunsights has been putting Biblical citations on them, as in John 8:12 ("I am the light of the world.
MORE
[caption id="attachment_6343" align="alignleft" width="100" caption=" Village Voice"]article provocatively titled "George W. Obama," he produces a list of overt acts from the past year to support this argument:
"Bush's successor—who
MORE
A study from Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism finds that real "news" - that is, something new, and not just recycled - is reported almost entirely by traditional media, especially newspapers. The study of news reporting in Baltimore for the week of July 19-25
MORE
Earlier this week, there were news reports about a study finding that the threat of "homegrown" Islamist terrorism is often exaggerated. The study was funded by the Justice Department and conducted by researchers at Duke University and the University of North Carolina. Time reported:
MORE
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Source: New York Times"] [/caption]
The New York Times carried a moving story today about two hospitalized children - an Israeli boy severely wounded by a Hamas rocket, and a Palestinian girl
MORE
Twenty-five years ago today, on December 22, 1984, when I was in my second month as a reporter for New York Newsday, I was sent out to check on a report from police that four people had been shot on the subway. There were several detectives in the subway station where the train stopped, and I was
MORE
Federal data released today show a very sharp increase in the number of criminal immigration cases the U.S. Department of Justice is prosecuting - up 16 percent in fiscal year 2009. As a result, federal prosecutions overall are at an all-time high.
An analysis from the Transactional Records
MORE
A great deal of attention was paid when allegations of sexual abuse were made seven years ago against a former vice-chancellor of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, Monsignor Alan Placa, over an incident that allegedly occurred 34 years ago. It should not go unnoticed that the Vatican has found him
MORE
I recently posted on government misuse of the power of eminent domain, and return to that subject now with news of a startling appeals court ruling that would bar use of eminent domain to help Columbia University expand in upper Manhattan. Having written about development issues in New York on and
MORE
To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us --- and He has given us everything ...
So goes this week's reflection from The Merton Institute for Contemplative Living, which seems to find just the right quote from Thomas Merton every week.
Happy
MORE
The debate continues over whether the news media downplayed suggestions that Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood gunman, is an Islamist terrorist. Critics such as columnists David Brooks and Charles Krauthammer had said there was too much focus on whether Hasan was mentally ill, what Brooks
MORE
There are some interesting comments from the ChicagoTribune.com, U.S. Catholic and National Catholic Reporter about what a statement by Cardinal Francis George means for Catholic media and, by the way, what it might mean to Commonweal. Here is what the cardinal said in opening remarks at the recent
MORE
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Suzette Kelo's home was moved because of court ruling. Photo: Christopher Capoziello for NY Times"][/caption]
I don't know if the five U.S. Supreme Court justices who allowed the
MORE
We in New York are at this hour surprised to learn that we've actually had an interesting mayoral race. Our billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, spent what will probably amount to $100 million to assure that there would be absolutely no suspense on election night over his prospects for securing a
MORE
As chairman of the bishops' committee that drafted the statement "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship," Brooklyn's Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio has had an important role in interpreting what it actually means. In the heat of the 2008 presidential campaign, he wrote in a letter to The
MORE
A press release from the University of Florida reports on an interesting new study that contradicts the "God gap" theory in American politics - the widely accepted idea that religious, white Christians are conservatives who favor the Republican Party.
The study found that prior
MORE
The Republican Party posed this question in its weekly video and radio address, no doubt hoping it will resonate much like Ronald Reagan's effective question to voters in the 1980 presidential campaign, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?"
For Catholics, this
MORE
Elsewhere on this site, a debate rages on a newspaper's religion coverage. I would like to report on an interesting addition to the world of religion journalism, one that takes important steps to filling the large gap in coverage of things Catholic. A Web site that started over the summer called
MORE
Last weekend, it was announced in all parishes in the Diocese of Brooklyn that communion would not be given from the cup for the remainder of the swine flu season ... Just wondering how this is being handled elsewhere. Is there a "no touch" policy for the kiss of peace? And are there any
MORE
The New York Times carried a profile today of Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old man suspected of a terrorism conspiracy. I admire the way Michael Wilson wrote the piece because it reflects a humility often missing in news coverage: Although the piece is well-reported, it makes clear that
MORE
The White House has posted the prepared remarks President Obama is to give in his school speech. It's what any rational person would have expected from Obama - a return to his basic theme of personal responsibility. Here is a typical passage:
I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for
MORE
Who says newspapers report only the bad news? The Washington Post has marked the start of Ramadan with an interesting story about how the growing Muslim community in northern Virginia is finding worship space inside synagogues.
Will the Ramadan story become a staple in religion news coverage in
MORE
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious has issued a statement [.PDF] objecting to the fact that church authorities will not disclose who has funded a Vatican investigation of women religious in the United States.
Comments the apostolic visitator, Mother Mary Clare Millea, made to Catholic
MORE
The New York Times' Paul Vitello took a look back this week on the Catholic bishops' lobbying campaign that averted proposed New York state legislation to open the door to many more lawsuits over sexual abuse of children. It turned out that some of the Assembly members who voted for the bill in
MORE
Are opponents of health care reform trying to help scuttle the Obama plan by steering it into the rocky shoals of the abortion debate? Catholic Charities USA, outspoken in calling for Congress to enact health care reform, seemed to say as much in a statement it issued in response to "
MORE
In an interview with Britain's Sunday Telegraph, the archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, expressed concerns over social networking Web sites such as Facebook and My Space:
"I think there's a worry that an excessive use or an almost exclusive use of text and emails means that as a
MORE
The Washington Post has created a beat on its metro desk for a reporter to cover nonpublic schools. Michael Birnbaum, the reporter, told me he doesn't know of anyone else covering such a beat. Neither do I.
It's an admirable decision by The Post, especially in light of the financial pressures on
MORE
A federal appeals court has struck down a lower-court ruling that allowed pharmacies in the state of Washington not to sell the Plan B "morning after" drug for reasons of conscience. Prodded by the governor, Planned Parenthood and the state's Human Rights Commission, state pharmacy
MORE
[caption id="attachment_3401" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="At the controls."][/caption]
I wasn't expecting any theology when I went to see the new version of The Taking of Pelham 123. But in a very deliberate way, the film early on sets up the
MORE
It's odd that the State Department didn't make a public announcement when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appointed a new envoy this week to represent the United States among Muslims. The appointment of Kashmir-born U.S. diplomat Farah Pandith follows up on President Obama's Cairo speech.
As
MORE
In a short interview published in The Washington Post this weekend, scholar Barbara Perry spoke about her research for a book concerning the history of Catholics on the U.S. Supreme Court. She notes that Justice William Brennan said in a 1985 interview with her that his was indeed a "
MORE
The New York Times today set out the unfortunate story of how the U.S. bishops' spokesman on domestic policy ousted a priest who was highly effective as a housing organizer from his job as head of a Brooklyn housing advocacy organization.
The priest, Father Jim O'Shea, a Passionist, had done a
MORE
I've spent the past few years working on a book (due out in September) about Francis of Assisi's encounter with the sultan of Egypt, Malik al-Kamil, during the Fifth Crusade in 1219. So I've followed President Obama's speech in Cairo in that context.
The research took me to Egypt, where I
MORE
Father Alberto Cutié, the media-savvy priest who just recently defended priestly celibacy after being photographed in close quarters with a woman friend, joined the Episcopal Church today so that he can eventually become a married priest, church officials announced.
The fact that it was
MORE
New York is abuzz with the frightening news that an FBI-NYPD task force has arrested four suspects who allegedly planted what they thought were bombs near a synagogue and a Jewish community center. The suspects were initially said to have converted to Islam in prison, a widespread practice.
This
MORE
One difference between Pope John Paul II's pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2000 and Pope Benedict's visit over the past week is that Benedict's homilies and speeches are translated into Arabic on the Vatican Web site. In retrospect, it seems obvious, since that's the language of the local Christian
MORE
An editorial in America makes a notable contribution to the debate over the University of Notre Dame's decision to invite President Obama to speak on campus and to honor him. It contains this reality check:
The divisive effects of the new American sectarians have not escaped the notice of the
MORE
Nicholas Kristof writes today about a conference just held at Notre Dame, "The Quran in its Historical Context":
“We’re experiencing right now in Koranic studies a rise of interest analogous to the rise of critical Bible studies in the 19th century,” said Gabriel Said Reynolds, a
MORE
I have never been to Times Square for New Year's Eve, but have been there several times on Good Friday. Here are some photos from the Stations of the Cross as they were enacted by Pax Christi and friends along Manhattan's 42nd Street. Above, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, who leads the Vatican
MORE
I thought the Times of London might be pulling an early April Fool's Day prank with its report on Friday, "Medieval Monk Hailed by Obama Was a Heretic, says Vatican." But apparently the paper is serious - ANSA also carried a report on Father Raniero Cantalamessa's claim that Barack
MORE
The Diocese of Brooklyn's Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio is planning to take New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg up on his offer to turn some Catholic schools into publicly funded charter schools. That would make Brooklyn the second diocese to take such a step, after the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C
MORE
News reports note that Pope Benedict XVI will enter the Dome of the Rock when he visits Jerusalem in May. If so, this will be an instance in which Benedict ventures a little further than Pope John Paul II did in relations with Muslims - John Paul stood outside the shrine when he visited Jerusalem
MORE
In its extensive coverage of the appointment of Archbishop Timothy Dolan to head the New York archdiocese, the New York Times takes note of the departing Cardinal Edward Egan's complaint that the news media distorted his public image:
Cardinal Egan blames the media for what he considers major
MORE
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn have announced that they are exploring whether to convert a number of Catholic schools in danger of closing into publicly funded charter schools in which religion could not be taught. During a news conference in City Hall,
MORE
According to news reports, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is enveloped in a federal grand jury investigation involving its handling of priests who sexually abused minors. Other prosecutors have conducted similar investigations and brought no charges. But in this case, the U.S. attorney in Los
MORE
A lot of smart people have tried to figure out the elusive formula for achieving peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. Research by two social scientists, outlined in an op-ed article in today's New York Times, finds that financial compensation or even massive economic development aid alone
MORE
Barack Obama gave a "purpose-driven" speech at his inaugural today, one aimed at rallying Americans to set aside self-interest in favor of the common good. There was some fine oratory and it hit the right note. But to me, the most inspiring passage of the ceremony belonged to poet
MORE
For an on-the-ground feel for what the war in Gaza has wrought, I recommend the blog of Caritas Internationalis, the international Catholic relief organization. The site helps to fill gaps in the news coverage left by Israel's refusal to allow foreign correspondents in to Gaza. Among the posts:
MORE
I am struck by the contrasting portrayal of Catholic priests in the last two movies I've seen - Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" and John Patrick Shanley's "Doubt" - and wondered what thoughts others might have on this.
Each film starts with the priest delivering a
MORE
Sarah Palin, the first candidate for national office with a journalism degree, continues to stoke the easily heated embers of resentment against the news media. In an interview on YouTube, she was asked to compare the way the news media covered her with the treatment Caroline Kennedy has gotten in
MORE
The Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenuda III, that is. "Phoning it in" is, of course, slang for doing something halfway. According to an AFP news-service dispatch, the pope decided the faithful shouldn't be phoning it in when it comes to penance. His objection was based on privacy grounds:
MORE
Photo: Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times
Among newspaper and television news reporters, the task of doing a story about how a religious holiday is celebrated ranks only a little above doing a stakeout outside the house of a murder victim's mother. The editors' main purpose sometimes
MORE
A survey from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has some interesting numbers on how Catholics view other religions. A substantial majority (62 percent) of white Catholics answered "yes" to the question of whether Islam can lead to eternal life, a figure well above the
MORE
The Bush administration's proposal to expand health workers' right to avoid participating in performing abortions advanced this week, according to ProPublica.org (a non-profit investigative reporting site that deserves to be checked regularly).
While the article has some of the buzzwords we
MORE
Two New York Times reporters, Eric Lipton and Raymond Hernandez, do a masterful job in today's paper of showing how the influential Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) helped fund Democrats' drive to win control of the Senate by encouraging policies that contributed to the collapse of the economy.
MORE
The Christian Science Monitor has a thoughtful article on whether the proposed Freedom of Choice Act would negate conscience clauses that protect hospitals and doctors from having to do abortions. Ben Arnoldy writes:
Some say FOCA is so broad it would also imperil "conscience clauses"
MORE
Pope Benedict XVI is planning a trip to Israel and the West Bank - possibly for the second week in May, according to Haaretz. It's still under negotiation, but just the possibility of it is a reminder of how much the world has changed since John Paul II made his pilgrimage there in March, 2000,
MORE
Big 3 automakers have certainly made a terrible mess of things, but the debate over saving them reflects a double standard that often works to the detriment of blue-collar industries and, more importantly, their blue-collar employees. There is a bias among economic-development policymakers and
MORE
The day shouldn't pass without the headline above appearing somewhere - I suspect it will be a dotCommonweal exclusive. Joe Biden was the forgotten "first" in a campaign that featured candidates who all were potential "firsts," be it for race, gender, age or, in the
MORE
Although all eyes here are on the presidential election, it is worth noting that an important three-day Catholic-Muslim forum is set to start in Vatican City next Tuesday. The Muslim-born journalist Pope Benedict XVI baptized last Easter has done his best to keep it from succeeding by urging the
MORE
New York City's voters approved referenda by substantial margins in 1993 and 1996 that limited their elected officials to two terms in office. Today, members of the City Council voted to undo the voters' will, giving Mayor Michael Bloomberg and, for that matter, themselves, the right to seek a
MORE
The gates of heaven won't be barred to Pius XII if the Vatican decides to put his cause for sainthood on hold. But Pope Benedict XVI and others in the Vatican keep putting it forward even though it divides Catholics and Jews. Most recently, the postulator for Pius' cause was quoted in Italian media
MORE
The leader of the Knights of Columbus, Carl Anderson, seems to be facing some dissent within the ranks over his politicking in the presidential race. A group calling itself "Knights for Obama" has set up a Web page "responding to those who have tarnished the great reputation of the
MORE
I don't know if it makes the Republicans' point, but Deal Hudson notes that ACORN got more than $1 million in aid from the U.S. Catholic bishops' Campaign for Human Development last year. Hudson's attack on ACORN comes as the Republican Party is tarring the community activist organization as part
MORE
Diocesan newspapers are fond of accusing the mainstream news media of bias, and at times they are right. But what about the diocesan papers?
I'd like to ask if your diocesan newspaper is reporting fairly on the presidential campaign. Or has it strongly suggested through its choice of stories,
MORE
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is poised to announce that he will run for a third term - which means that he will first have to sign a law that dismantles a term limits statute New York City's voters approved twice. He'll do it after a vote by City Council members who are similarly eager to keep
MORE
Wire fraud. Obstruction of justice. False statements.
News accounts of the damaging report [in .pdf] that Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine issued Monday on the firing of nine U.S. attorneys should definitely include those words - the criminal laws the IG said may have been
MORE
The political foolhardiness of the the theologizing that Joseph Biden and Nancy Pelosi did concerning abortion comes through loud and clear in a New York Times piece today, `Abortion Issue Again Dividing Catholic Votes.' The writer, David Kirkpatrick, sets the scene nicely with interviews at Holy
MORE
I stopped short on this headline on a Religion New Service story: Poll shows support for torture among Southern evangelicals. The story was about a poll released in Atlanta at a conference Evangelicals for Human Rights co-sponsored. It said that 57 percent of the white evangelicals interviewed
MORE
When Rudolph Giuliani was mayor of New York, he went to war with community gardeners, of all people. So the mocking comments he made at the Republican convention about Barack Obama’s experience as a community organizer are in character. Sarah Palin is picking up where Giuliani left off (as she
MORE
There was a good read in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday on the Vatican's plan to erect a statue of Galileo. As the Journal put it, his 1633 trial and conviction "may be the Vatican's biggest public-relations debacle." Now, it adds, the Catholic Church will build "a monument
MORE
The damage control has already begun for John McCain's possible choice of a pro-choice Catholic as his vice-presidential nominee. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, a possible nominee, had this exchange with Chris Wallace on Fox News on Sunday:
WALLACE: Governor, have you talked with McCain
MORE
Today is the Feast of St. James, the apostle who was son of Zebedee and brother of John. I got back recently from a journey on the Camino de Santiago, the network of medieval pilgrimage trails leading to James' supposed tomb in northwestern Spain, and filed this report at BustedHalo.com.
The
MORE
Jim Romenesko's media news Web site has long since turned into a cascade of bad news about the newspaper business - contributing to low morale in many a newsroom. So it's almost newsworthy that the site has linked to an article that says newspaper circulation is up.
Globally, that is. Sacramento
MORE
That's the latest word from The Associated Press in Rome, where the City Council has ordered a 50-euro fine for the offense of snacking near the Eternal City's monuments. So forget about wandering over to the Trevi Fountain with that drippy cup of gelato. That pleasure is now outside the law.
MORE
Pope Benedict XVI would like every Catholic parish in the world to offer the Tridentine Mass. Parishes would offer catechism classes to train Catholics to worship at the Tridentine Mass every Sunday, and help them to understand the theology behind this ritual. But the pope is not looking to return
MORE
By the way, the NBC-Wall Street Journal Poll showed Barack Obama well ahead of John McCain among Catholic voters. Mark Silk notes on the blog Spiritual Politics that it's because Obama is so far ahead with Hispanics (while McCain is apparently ahead , by a smaller margin, among non-Hispanic
MORE
Rather than waffle on his stated intent to talk with Hamas and other enemies, Barack Obama would do well to focus more on explaining why such talks are necessary. Mohamad Bazzi, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former Middle East bureau chief of Newsday (where we worked together),
MORE
The New York Times' public editor, Clark Hoyt, has done an admirable job of dissecting military historian Edward Luttwak's reckless May 12 column suggesting that Muslims may view Barack Obama as an apostate. By seeking opinions from five experts on Islamic law, Hoyt has answered many of the
MORE
More than 100 nations have agreed at an international conference in Dublin to ban cluster bombs, with Great Britain joining in despite U.S. opposition. While the Pentagon contended anew that cluster bombs are needed to protect American soldiers, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called the
MORE
Pope Benedict XVI has come up with some excellent advice for journalism professors: to teach their students to be skeptical, but not cynical. Catholic News Service reports that he told a group of journalism profs that "a certain methodological skepticism" can be especially helpful in
MORE
Who says the TV networks don't pay attention to what religious leaders say? They've been scrutinizing the statements of two of Sen. John McCain's supporters, much as they did for that other minister associated with Barack Obama.
McCain now has rejected endorsements from the Rev. John Hagee and
MORE
The United States is a no-show at an international conference in Dublin this week that aims to ban cluster bombs. But Pope Benedict XVI has endorsed the gathering, which was called together out of frustration with the pace of the slow-moving diplomatic talks the U.S. advocates. He said he hopes
MORE
The Vatican's view on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict gets too little attention from Catholics in the United States. With that in mind, here are some comments Pope Benedict XVI made on Monday as he welcomed the new Israeli ambassador to the Holy See with a request that more be done to help
MORE
Picking up on an issue that seems to move to the foreground in presidential election years, the archbishop of Kansas City, Kans., has told Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Catholic, not to receive communion. He was reacting to her recent veto of anti-abortion legislation. The Kansas City Star
MORE
Mark Sticherz notes on the GetReligion blog, that daily exposé of how the news media doesn't "get religion," that news organizations did not give much attention to the Catholic vote in the Indiana and North Carolina primaries. For the record, exit polls showed Catholics went for Clinton
MORE
So asks Time magazine - quoting Commonweal to help make its point
MORE
The Times' Andrea Elliott has a strong piece on the controversy surrounding an Arab-themed public school in New York City, describing the anti-Muslim media campaign that drove out the woman who was supposed to be its first principal, Debbie Almontaser. (As noted in a post last month, Almontaser, a
MORE
In an interesting dispatch from Nairobi, the Zenit news agency describes a speech in which Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran outlined Pope Benedict XVI's new direction in interreligious dialogue. He said that previous popes have built "bridges of understanding" to other religions, and that
MORE
Like some of my fellow journalists who contribute to dotCommonweal, I've been blogging on the papal visit (for Newsday, at www.pope-newsday.blogspot.com). I was struck by Pope Benedict's use of the windows in St. Patrick's Cathedral as a visual aid in his homily there to make his point about what
MORE
The fact that the “Compassion Forum” interviews with Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama occurred and were aired Sunday night on national television is more interesting than what the two Democratic presidential aspirants actually said. But there is still a lot to consider.
I haven’t
MORE
A speech that Taylor Branch gave recently on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s final Sunday sermon, delivered 40 years ago, was adapted into an op-ed piece in The New York Times. The column harks back to the days when newspapers dutifully reported on Sunday sermons. I suppose if the sermons were
MORE
Mikhail Gorbachev recently spent a half hour on his knees in Assisi before the tomb of St. Francis, according to news reports. Whether the former Communist leader was praying or just being an exceptionally thorough tourist is not clear.
The Telegraph, under the headline "Mikhail Gorbachev
MORE
“Hillary’s back; she’s walking the fine line between seeming too tough, not tough enough” - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette headline on Ellen Goodman column, Jan. 11, 2008.
“Obama's toughness could be a question mark for voters” - Associated Press headline, Feb. 4, 2008.
''I have to
MORE
Note to pastors: Pray that no one in your congregation runs for president. Zachary Roth writes in Columbia Journalism Review that while it's good that reporters have scrutinized the controversial statements of Barack Obama's pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, it's too bad they haven't given similar
MORE
New York state's Catholic bishops had a long-awaited appointment with Gov. Eliot Spitzer at the state Capitol in Albany on Monday at 3 p.m. to protest his pending abortion rights legislation. For some reason, it kept getting put off, and Cardinal Edward Egan and fellow bishops were left to
MORE
For all of her complaints about news coverage of the presidential campaign, I think Hillary Clinton has done fairly well with it. Her loss of 12 straight states could well have been enough of a public relations disaster to force her from the race. Anticipating that, her campaign came out of Super
MORE
Martin Sheen is getting plenty of recognition for his human rights work: He will receive Pax Christi Metro New York's 2008 Peacemaker award on Palm Sunday, March 16. So will Debbie Almontaser. And therein lies the story.
Almontaser, a Muslim who migrated to New York from Yemen at the age of 3,
MORE
