Part of his Machivellian scheme, said a friend, parodying certain Catholics who are convinced no matter what he says or does that Francis is a liberal dedicated to remaking the Church. “The family is being hit, the family is being struck and the family is being bastardized,” he told an audience of several thousand members of the Schoenstatt movement on Friday. CNA reported: “The family is being hit, the family is being struck and the family is being bastardized,” the... Read more
“Don’t let anyone tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs,” Hilary Clinton told a political rally in Massachusetts, reported by Mediaite (the post includes the video). “You know that old theory [pause] trickle down economics. That has been tried. It has failed. It has failed rather [pause] spectacularly.” The second part is supposed to follow the first as evidence, but what the possible failure of “trickle down economics” has to do with the question of who creates jobs is unclear. One would... Read more
“Thomas Docherty was banned from the University of Warwick in January,” reports the Daily Telegraph, “for allegedly giving off ‘negative vibes’ and undermining the authority of the former head of his department.” This is all the information on the case I could find on the web, the Times Higher Education supplement giving the same story, but I would not be surprised if the university’s case really were that silly. Academia is the home to the thinnest of skins. The story continues:... Read more
Though this one probably should be titled “Why People Make Fun of Christians.” From Mediaite: David Van Vleet filed a request to obtain information about the strippers working at DreamGirls at Fox’s. He explained, “I would pray for those dancers by name. I’m a Christian . . . . We have a right to pray for people.” And something about trying to “do something for the public good.” Oh, and his assertion that he’s a citizen and he’s entitled to this information... Read more
Reading an email friend’s message about a pilgrimage he’s on reminded me of this passage from early in Hilaire Belloc’s The Path to Rome: While I was occupied sketching the slabs of limestone, I heard wheels coming up behind me, and a boy in a waggon stopped and hailed me. What the boy wanted to know was whether I would take a lift, and this he said in such curious French that I shuddered to think how far I had pierced... Read more
From the Ronald Knox Society, a perhaps useful quote from his A Retreat for Lay People, now in print again from Ignatius Press: Loving the truth isn’t the same thing as arguing about it; when we argue, we are so bent on getting the other person to see our point of view that we hardly mind whether it is true or not; we become advocates. Loving the truth isn’t the same thing as preaching it or writing about it; when... Read more
“It is the rule of Christ’s providence, that what His Vicar does in severity or in mercy upon earth, He Himself confirms in heaven,” noted John Henry Newman in The Pope and the Revolution, the last sermon in his Sermons Preached on Various Occasions. Newman’s attitude to the Holy Father contrasts starkly with Pat Buchanan’s and all the people he represents. Preaching at the Birmingham Oratory in 1866 on “our obligations to the Holy See,” he said: [W]hat need I say more... Read more
This is surprising, and very cheering: Michael Voris apologizes for unintentionally seeming to attack the pope. For several years he has run a show called The Vortex on his ChurchMilitant.TV, which, as the name suggests, offered All Bad News, Indignantly Reported, All The Time. The Church needs people to expose and criticize problems, but the way this was done in The Vortex didn’t seem to me always edifying or helpful. But this new report says much good about Voris. He begins explaining... Read more
A short (6 1/2 minute) movie on the Jewish refugees for Muslim countries. Silent Exodus: the Jewish Nakbah tells the story of the Jews driven out of their homes, and sometimes imprisoned and tortured, in the years just after the creation of Israel, coming after centuries of persecution. The scholar who has done most to describe the Muslim treatment of Christians and Jews in Muslim countries, Bat Ye’or, appears in the film. My thanks to Francesa Aran Murphy for the link. Read more
A young friend who applies for jobs from his phone — this is apparently normal behavior for people his age — writes: “Autocorrect just changed part of my cover letter from ‘years of experience working with children’ to ‘years of experience worrying children.’ Caught it just in time.” Read more
David Mills
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