Many “tea party” activists staunchly oppose big government, except when it is warring, wiretapping, or waterboarding. – James Bovard With the exception of the Ron Paul sort of Tea Partier, I see mostly chaotic incoherence from this Movement. They’re not about small government. They are about small government when it comes to domestic issues. They are about gigantic government when it comes to vast End to Evil Projects abroad built on Dubya’s fantasies about Salvation through Democratic Capitalism imposed by... Read more

and things that go bump in the night, Dear Lord, deliver us. This ancient and entirely respectable prayer comes to mind as I read Fr. Dwight Longenecker’s reflections on his time doing front line work in the realm of spiritual warfare, exorcism and so forth. I’ve always accepted the biblical and ecclesial teaching on the reality of the demonic. Indeed, I’ve always found it difficult to understand why anybody would find it difficult. I don’t see how anybody could look... Read more

The Noah’s Ark thing looks like a scam. Downside: A “wouldn’t it be cool?” pipe dream bites the dust. Upside: Paleobabble looks like a cool blog. Read more

I was wondering if you’d be interested in putting a little plug for my blog on your blog? It’s called Justin’s Corner, and I’ve had it for almost a year. I just want people–especially Catholics–to know it’s out there as a peaceful place where they can turn for reflection, encouragement and inspiration. Peace be with you! And done! Read more

for people whose lives have been touched by cancer and other serious illness is on now. If you want to join in…. O great and glorious wonder-worker, St. Peregrine, you have obtained numerous miracles from God for those suffering from serious illness. For so many years you suffered with cancer, and were favored by the vision of Jesus coming down from His Cross to cure your affliction. We ask you to intercede on our behalf for the healing of those... Read more

A very charming account. Read more

ordination blessings and indulgences. Read more

Regis College in Toronto, Canada, has launched a prayer website ForThisWePray.com. The website has been developed to encourage people to pray online, an avenue for shared prayer across the world . People can submit their prayer requests online, prayers are kept confidential and the Regis College community and the Regis Jesuits include all petitions received in their weekly Wednesday community mass at the college on campus. Would you be able to help bring attention to the prayer site, getting more... Read more

Here is somebody with a healthy attitude to bad liturgy: My two oldest kids and I went down to Mexico over Easter Week with a church group to perform some corporal acts of mercy. A sad side-effect of this is that we spend the Easter Vigil on the road away from the rest of the family. So, Holy Saturday evening finds us at Loyola-Marymount in L.A. Having worked on the Liturgy with Jesuits at a Jesuit university in the past,... Read more

Who said, “we are paying for and even submitting to the dictates of an ever increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all”, complained of charity as a “symptom of a malignant social disease” and wrote of it that, “Instead of decreasing and aiming to eliminate the stocks [of people] that are most detrimental to the future of the race and the world, it tends to render them to a menacing degree dominant.”... Read more