If you haven’t been this Lent, today’s the day. Check for your nearest parish, and drop in for confession. What if my last confession was 47 years ago? You should definitely go today. What if I don’t know what to do? If there’s a brochure laying around that tells you what to do, you can do that. Or you can tell the priest, “I haven’t been to confession in 47 [insert your amount here] years, can you help me along?” ... Read more
The Federalist says, thoroughly, what I wish I could have done half so well: The Rise Of The Same-Sex Marriage Dissidents. On marriage: So why is marriage singled out throughout all time and human history as a different type of recognized relationship? Well, what singled it out was that sex was involved. On the Eich affair: There’s much to be thankful for in aftermath of the madness of the Eich termination. For one thing, many people have rightly figured out that what... Read more
Elizabeth Scalia’s post on the value of Catholic kitsch reminded me I had a bleg: What gift should I get #4, and a smattering of other various 1st communicants in the neighborhood, for their 1st communions? What I *should* do is visit my local Catholic gift and book store, browse around, and spend way too much money. That’s my usual method, and it works great. Unfortunately, “going out and browsing around” is right out just now. So I started reading... Read more
This morning I was considering a remark from my combox comparing those who uphold the sacrament of marriage with, for example, supporters of the KKK. The comparison was made in the context of some charitable and thoughtful arguments, however erroneous I found the reasoning to be. What struck me: How have we come to this? How have we gone from recognizing the various forms of unchastity as the sins that they are, to comparing the virtue of chastity to the... Read more
A friend of mine works at a public school in a conservative, overwhelmingly Evangelical Christian community. She told me that she feared for her job if the other staff found out she is in favor of legalized abortion. I was appalled. I think my friend is terribly, terribly wrong on the question of abortion. But still, it seemed wrong to me that a government employee might be fired for favoring the existing laws of that very government. Which I suppose... Read more
Three weird ways to practice your French: 1. Siri! Ideal for pronunciation practice. Change the language setting to French (or whatever you want to practice, I suppose). You get a double-confirmation of your pronunciation, because you can see what Siri thought you said (results may amuse), and you get an attempted answer, because Siri’s so helpful that way. Works great for Siri-genre everyday phrases, like Quel temps fait-il, Siri? or J’ai faim, Siri. Plus she’s so much fun to talk... Read more
If you’re running late on saying your Chaplet of Divine Mercy today*, consider offering it for Bishop Jugis of Charlotte, NC. A friend writes: In case you haven’t seen this yet, there’s some serious controversy over in Charlotte. Links at the bottom of the news article also link to the diocesan newspaperI have spoken on the telephone with Bishop Jugis’s administrative assistant, and the first thing she said to me (she actually returned my earlier phone call) was that it... Read more
Yesterday’s post on religious freedom provoked an interesting combox discussion that comes down to a single question: Does a good end (the elimination of a horrible disease) justify xyz coercive measures? It was an ironic debate in so many ways, including the bit about how I have a novel draft sitting on my laptop which features, among other heroic ventures, a benevolent despot implementing all kinds of coercive measures to stop the spread of an epidemic. I’m a hopeless American... Read more
So there are these people at your parish who fail to meet spec. Too much bacon, not enough Mass-going, and sheesh have you seen they way they ______? At New Evangelizers today, I propose that you who have your act together quit whining and make yourself useful for a change. What do you do with a parish full of out-of-shape Christians? Well, you can throw a temper tantrum, but that’ll just tip your hand — everyone will find out you’re... Read more
Let’s not delude ourselves: The United States has never quite lived up to her ideals in the civil liberties department. Compared to the competition, of course, the US Constitution was and remains quite the breakthrough. If we’re going to have to constantly fight the oppressiveness-reflex, give me a country where we can do it via lawsuits any day. But why is it so, so hard to just live and let live? Let’s do a test. I’ll list a contemporary challenge... Read more
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