Blog-blog-watch-a-me bambino,

Bo-bo-boca piccolino…

Find the non-Catholic blog! (That’s just what happened today, folks. More non-mackerel-snapping links another day.)

The Cranky Professor: Good post on things to think about w/r/t married priests.

Disputations: A huge amount of good stuff, esp. these reflections on forgiveness. I am not a forgiving person by nature, and really had a hard time even getting my mind around the concept–I’ve been known to ask people, “What do you do when you forgive somebody? I mean, what does that even mean?” Leaving aside the question of God’s forgiveness, I think a basic way to forgive those who trespass against us is to return good for evil–to actually go out of our way to be charitable to those who have harmed us in some way. (Charity doesn’t mean “giving people what they want,” by the way. If you find that your willingness to help some jerk is actually supporting him in his jerkiness, or keeping him comfortable with that jerkiness, or blinding him to his jerkiness, etc.–then stop “helping.”) But basically, forgiveness, like all acts of love, is not comfortable. It means going beyond neutrality. It’s not at all about erasing the wrongdoing; it’s about our attitude toward the wrongdoers. It’s prison visitation, not “get out of jail free.” I certainly don’t want to lay this down as the only aspect of forgiveness or the only way to forgive, but it did help cut through a lot of my own confusion about how to forgive people.

How Appealing!: A fun-looking blog all about… wait for it… appellate law. Whoa. (Link via Those Crazy Volokhs.)

Onealism: Farewell. Drat! We’ll miss you, Father. Y’all come back now, y’hear?

Sursum Corda: A good, thoughtful post on “thinking like a Catholic” and formation of conscience (spurred by earlier posts wondering why the Church bars us gals from the priesthood). I’ll just say three things: First, that there’s a difference between not understanding why the Church teaches something and thinking that Her teaching is wrong. (I know Nixon gets this, I just wanted to emphasize it because that difference is so easy to talk about but very difficult to live. It’s the difference between seeking to form one’s conscience and committing the sin of pride–making oneself the standard of all value. It’s incredibly easy to think that if I don’t understand why the Church teaches something, I should “follow my conscience” and disobey.) Second: How elastic is Nixon’s understanding of Catholicism here? Say someone came to him and said, “I’m a faithful Catholic, but, after thoroughly examining the issue and trying to form my conscience as the Church instructs, I think that the Church is just plain wrong about [X].” For which X’s would Nixon conclude that this person was just not self-aware or accurate in his belief that he had properly formed his conscience? Can you be a faithful Catholic and think that it’s OK to commit adultery; skip Mass on Sunday; receive Communion while in a state of mortal sin; shtup someone of your own sex; etc.? (I’m not comparing women’s ordination to any of these acts–I’m trying to figure out what Nixon thinks are the boundaries of the Catholic community, and how he goes about discerning those boundaries.) Third: If the Pope says that the teaching on the all-male priesthood is infallible, and you think it sucks, what should you do? (My background: I have really never cared that I can never be a priest; if I were going to pick a fight with Church doctrine, it wouldn’t be that one, as should be apparent here.) But anyway, I think Nixon writes with admirable humility.

Amy Welborn: The usual brimming bag of Papist news, all worth your time–especially this verrrrrry interesting book review with some troubling info on Philip Jenkins, the guy who’s been in the news a lot lately talking about how Catholic priests aren’t any more likely to be pedophiles than the next guy. The Garry Wills byline means you get a bit of ax-grinding, but the Jenkins stuff looks solid. Argh. Grrr.

The Widening Gyre: Winners of the Aquinas Slogan Contest.

Today’s new Catholic blogs (what, does Humanae Vitae apply to blog-breedin’ as well??): Tim Drake; Lethargic IITian, comin’ at us from India; and Ad Orientem, which is mostly about liturgy and architecture (I get lost in the Tridentine liturgy–and not in a good way–but I’m generally sympathetic to this guy).

…That’s-a nice…