I noticed this the other day, and wondered when she had started blogging. I presume it was just in time for the conventions. Politico notes: Out the gate, Noonan’s actually proven to have a great knack for the medium — mix of opinion and reporting, first-person informal, relatively frequent. Not bad for a 61-year-old veteran of the long form. She does have a knack for it, and is bringing her usual deft touch to writing about the GOP convention in... Read more
From the Associated Press: Washington’s campaign finance watchdog says the state’s Catholic churches can’t collect donations from parishioners for the campaign seeking to overturn the state’s gay marriage law. Last week, Yakima Bishop Joseph Tyson sent a letter to pastors in 41 parishes of the Yakima Diocese asking them to announce a special collection that would go to Preserve Marriage Washington, which is fighting the same-sex marriage law that was passed earlier this year. The diocese’s chief of staff, Monsignor... Read more
From his convention speech Wednesday night: Mitt and I also go to different churches. But in any church, the best kind of preaching is done by example. And I’ve been watching that example. The man who will accept your nomination tomorrow is prayerful and faithful and honorable. Not only a defender of marriage, he offers an example of marriage at its best. Not only a fine businessman, he’s a fine man, worthy of leading this optimistic and good-hearted country. Our... Read more
N.B. The National Catholic Register has evidently pulled the interview excerpted below from its site. It’s no longer available online. The celebrated friar (and psychologist) has some shocking things to say about sex abuse and the Catholic Church in this interview with the National Catholic Register: Part of your work here at Trinity has been working with priests involved in abuse, no? A little bit, yes; but you know, in those cases, they have to leave. And some of them... Read more
From the BBC: A notary in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo has sparked controversy by accepting a civil union between three people. Public Notary Claudia do Nascimento Domingues has said the man and two women should be entitled to family rights. She says there is nothing in law to prevent such an arrangement. But the move has angered some religious groups, while one lawyer described it as “absurd and totally illegal”. The three individuals, who have declined to speak... Read more
A staple of the Catholic school girl’s uniform is beginning to disappear. Check this out, from Canada: Kilts are falling out of fashion with Catholic high schools in Windsor-Essex. The Windsor Essex Catholic District School board said it’s moving away with the kilt because girls are rolling them up too high. In recent years, several schools have switched to the skort, a skirt with shorts underneath. Only Assumption and Brennan high schools, the board’s two oldest schools, still allow... Read more
Details, from CNS: Marking the feast of the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist, Pope Benedict XVI said Christians must not bow to the pressure of the powerful who demand a denial of Christ or of the truth he taught. “The truth is the truth and there is no compromise,” the pope said at his weekly general audience Aug. 29, the day the church remembers St. John the Baptist’s beheading. An estimated 2,500 people gathered in the town square just... Read more
There’s a rare interview in the National Catholic Register with the New York Times’ youngest columnist, Ross Douthat, who also happens to be a devoted Catholic. Among other things, he talks about Paul Ryan and Cardinal Dolan: Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget proposal has generated controversy about his integrity as a Catholic, with bishops and lay people either criticizing and defending his application of Catholic social principles. Ryan manifests the growing comfort of Catholic Republicans [with challenging the traditional application of... Read more
From Rick Santorum at the GOP convention tonight: Four and a half years ago I stood over a hospital isolette staring at the tiny hands of our newborn daughter who we hoped was perfectly healthy. But Bella’s hands were just a little different – and I knew different wasn’t good news. The doctors later told us Bella was incompatible with life and to prepare to let go. They said, even if she did survive, her disabilities would be so severe... Read more
Anyone wondering why Cardinal Dolan would dare to set foot on the stage of a political convention — of either party—should see what Elizabeth Scalia has to say on the subject: Dolan, simply by being present to BOTH parties in this horrifically divided and stressful year, is being a good shepherd, a good physician. Our nation is desperately ill — her very blood is toxic with hatred and it needs the antiseptic of the creed and penance — but no physician can... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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