St. Teresa of Avila is reported to have snapped at God: “If this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few.” This is a point the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops could, with some justification, toss in the teeth of the Obama administration, now that the body has been denied federal money that it seems to have earned fair and square. The money in question amounts to $4.5 million, in the form of a grant... Read more
Hey, gang. Originally, I had scheduled an eye doctor appointment for last Wednesday. I ended up breaking it and re-scheduling for today. Since there’s only so much re-scheduling a man can do in good taste, I’ve decided to keep this appointment. Wish me luck! Will resume blogging on the morrow. Your pal and humble narrator, Max Read more
I thought all Irish-born American priests were dead and gone, surviving solely on celluloid — until last Sunday, that is. Then, for the first time, I heard a real, live brogue trilling from the pulpit. I can’t trace it to any particular city or county, although I’m sure it came from somewhere in the southern two-thirds of the island. It did not, in any case, sound like the speech of the few Lower Manhattan barmen who were willing to serve... Read more
If you’re going to kill a bad man, you might as well put on a show. As I understand it, that’s the thesis Simon Sebeg Motefiore pushes in his recent New York Times essay on the death of Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Qadaffi, whose killers recorded their handiwork for posterity on their cell phones. If nothing else, doing away with a tyrant publicly offers proof of his death — a necessary condition for anyone hoping to formalize the regime change.... Read more
By now, it’s been pretty well established that “Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority,” the document issued Monday by the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace, is not binding on the simple faithful. Anyone who disagrees with its proposal for new regulations on the global economy, remains a Catholic in good standing. But the understandable rush to place the document in its proper perspective has turned into a stampede. Commentators are... Read more
Poor Bill Donahue. The Catholic League president has made it his mission to rebut any prominent evangelical pastor who identifies the pope with the Antichrist — a tough job, even in the best of times. Today’s pronouncement from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace should make him want to clone himself. It’ll take at least two of him to handle all the incoming business. Titled “Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public... Read more
In an essay for Salon’s “Life Stories” section, Kim Brooks asks: “Is my Facebook page a liberal echo chamber?” Her answer: yes. She made this discovery after friending an old high-school chum, a marching band veteran she remembers as pleasant and quiet — never the type to affix cattle horns to the hood of his car. Then the new friend let slip his mask. After President Obama delivered a televised speech, the harmless geek changed his status to read: “Just... Read more
You know that childhood play has become a serious business when there’s a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to studying it. According to an article in the Atlantic, the Journal of Play reports, with all due gravitas, that kids have been playing with decreasing frequency since 1955. The disappearance of playtime is making it more difficult for kids to develop into “confident and competent” adults. Some definitions are in order. By “play,” the researchers mean “free play,” or “play a child undertakes... Read more
Rugby is a gentleman’s sport played by savages; lacrosse is a savage’s sport played by gentlemen. Don’t ask me where I first heard that formula — it works best as a nugget of bona fide sports folk wisdom, an aphorism too perfect even for Yogi Berra to have coined. Brazenly racist, elitist and sexist — women play both sports — it captures the paradox in the history of each. Rugby, for all the beery swagger of its players, is a... Read more
The humor concocted in parish kitchens can aim surprisingly low. One afternoon in December of 2009, I was hanging around, helping someone do something, when the the subject of upcoming changes to the diocesan marriage prep program arose. As is often the case with Church scuttlebutt, nobody had a very clear idea what was coming, but everyone feared the worst. The muse came upon me. I told the group: “The bishop’s going to start pulling people’s credit scores,” elaborating that... Read more
Diary of a Wimpy Catholic
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