Yes, it’s “Jane the Actuary writes a book report” again, though at least this time around the book was fairly recently published, and, even though I wasn’t very impressed with it in the end, it’s a good jumping-off point for the issues it raises. But there are only so many synod-related posts I can write, when I’m, honestly, out of my depth there. Anne-Marie Slaughter, if you didn’t know (and I hadn’t known) was a top-level State Department policy strategist,... Read more
Yesterday I griped that Archbishop Cupich was starting to sound an awful lot like a German Bishop (except for the part about banning non-Church Tax-payers from communion) and quoted a line from an article in the Tribune: “Are sacraments rewards for good behavior or are sacraments, as the pope would say, medicines for mercy?” not a direct quote from Cupich, but from a priest who was portrayed as thinking as Cupich wanted him to think. This is similar to the aphorism... Read more
According to today’s Tribune, Chicago’s Archbishop Cupich (whom I’ve been skeptical of ever since, upon his arrival, he said that immigration, not violence in the city or declining Catholic school enrollment or church attendance, was his top priority) is all in favor of rewriting the rules so that divorced-and-remarried Catholics — as well as gay couples, cohabitating couples, etc. — can participate fully in the sacraments. Per today’s article, “Cupich emerges as strong voice in synod, Cupich told reporters in... Read more
Brief refresher on the Catholic Church’s teaching on marriage: a valid marriage is a sacramental bond that continues until death, even if the wedding rings are removed and a civil divorce is obtained. Hence, an individual who divorces and civilly remarries cannot be validly remarried in the eyes of God, and the new relationship is “living in sin” in the same manner as for a cohabitating couple, because, as you’ll recall, having sex outside of marriage is a serious sin. However, in... Read more
You can’t miss it on the Chicago lakefront skyline, a dramatic building standing out from its neighbors and reflecting the waters of Lake Michigan — the new dormitory and classroom building for Roosevelt University, a non-profit, historically commuter school in Chicago. According to their US News’ profile, they’re labelled “selective,” admitting 75% of applicants, they ranked 112th among “regional universities,” have an enrollment of about 6,000 (3,800 undergraduates), and charge 27,000 in tuition. And they’re in a risky financial situation. Typically when... Read more
What if — the engagement ring, as we know it today, disappeared? Thanks to clever marketing by De Beers, men have been told that they ought to be spending 3 months’ pay on a ring; according to theknot.com, as reported in USA Today, the actual average spend in 2013 was about $6,000, and the average ring size was 1 karat. (How reliable are these numbers? Bear in mind that these are the same folks that overstate the cost of weddings,... Read more
You have perhaps seen the projections: Africa and the Middle East, as well as the poorer central Asian countries, are projected to explode in population over the next decades. Latin America will grow more moderately, and Europe’s population, as well as that of the wealthier Asian countries, is expected to shrink or is already shrinking. The US? The World Bank says it’s projected to grow from 320 to 390 million by 2050. By 2065, Pew projects a population of 441... Read more
Bernie Sanders, as you may know, expressed the desire for the United States to be more like Scandinavia, or specifically the mythical Scandinavia in which health care, parental leave, day care, and university education are all state-funded, or, more specifically, funded by high taxes on the rich, who are not bothered by the taxes and seeming lack of reward for their efforts because they’ve been socialized since toddlerhood to accept it. (Never mind that Social Security benefits have been... Read more
I started watching the debate with good intentions — I didn’t take copious notes but I tweeted a few comments along the way so I’ll reconstruct my impressions by checking twitter. These are purely my impressions; I haven’t done any reading yet on what others have to say, and, to be honest, I was folding laundry, and checking in on the kids, and tucking one in along the way, so I missed a lot. ******* Odd “pre-debate” starting point: a... Read more
Dear Cardinal Marx,* It’s been reported in the (U.S. Catholic) news that, as archbishop of Munich and Freising, you and your fellow German bishops are threatening to change church teaching regarding remarriage, and maybe other areas regarding sexuality and the family as well, such as those having to do with same-sex couples, in the name of “pastoral care.” You seem to believe that this action will revive the fortunes of the Catholic Church in Germany, which is losing adherents year after year. And perhaps you’ll... Read more
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