A few items I've been meaning to plug...

  • Cardinal George spoke to local Chicago news about the sentencing of admitted molester Fr. Daniel McCormack. He admitted his own mistakes in the case--which, along with the errors of several others, were very serious--but refused to say exactly what happened to archdiocesan employees who failed to take the appropriate steps. But wouldn't it be a good idea to set an example for other archdiocesan employees? For other Catholics? You fail to be vigilant, you fail to follow archdiocesan policy or state law, and there will be consequences. Still, at least he didn't repeat his spokeswoman's tone-deaf downplaying of the abuse McCormack committed.
  • TNR's Leon Wieseltier has a few choice words for the New York Times series on the uber-rich. (subscription/registration req'd)
  • A prominent conservative Episcopal priest stands accused of stealing or diverting $610,000 from his parish. Who's accusing him? His diocese in Colorado Springs. Or, rather, the one from which he defected in order to affiliate--along with many members of his congregation--with the Diocese of Nigeria. The priest, Don Armstrong, has been quite vocal in his opposition to blessing same-sex unions and to consecrating gay bishops. He denies the charges, of course--but he also says he's no longer Episcopalian, which is why he felt comfortable skipping out on the ecclesiastical hearing convened by his (former?) diocese. The diocese understandably wants its parish back, which, it says, Armstrong and his flock are illegally occupying. This one's going to civil court. Ought to be interesting...
  • Former Commonweal associate editor Tim Reidy was foolish enough to invite me to be on the America podcast. Listening to recordings of my own voice causes damage to my eardrums--especially when my blood sugar is as low as it was when we taped the interview--so consider yourself warned.
  • EPA to enjoyers of Lake Michigan: Enjoy your sludge. Oil company BP (which used to stand for British Petroleum, but now, I believe, is short for Beyond Petroleum) has received a permit from Indiana to dump even more pollutants into Lake Michigan. That's awfully strange for a company whose ads repeatedly tout its environmental sensitivity. Not everyone is sold on Al Gore's arguments, but what's not debatable is this: pollution is bad--for people and for the environment. What sort of Environmental Protection Agency allows increased damage to be done to both?

Grant Gallicho joined Commonweal as an intern and was an associate editor for the magazine until 2015. 

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