Pope Benedict gave animpromptu talk at the special synod on the Middle East. A synod is basically a meeting of regional bishops and other experts, typically to discuss particular issues and their local effects. Benedict started with a very deep theological treatment of the nature of Jesus as the second person of the trinity and went on to describe Mary’s role as the mother of God. And then he applied it to several of the major issues affecting our world:... Read more
Started the day with the Catholic Professionals of Seattle Mass, breakfast, and talk. George Weigel spoke about his new book, The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II — The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy, a follow up to his first JP2 book, Witness to Hope. He told a great story. At a meeting in Rome with the priest heading the beatification process for JP2, the priest showed him a room full of letters, all addressed... Read more
Today the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. The feast day takes the same day as the famousBattle of Lepanto(Oct. 7, 1571) in which Don Juan of Austria defeated the Moors. (I’ll leave it to the history experts to battle out the details.) But the victory was largely attributed to the intercession of Our Lady. This was back in the day when people fighting religious battles thought that maybe they ought to make sure that... Read more
Rome. A few days ago, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications sponsored a conference for Catholic journalists and communications directors. Looks like some gooddiscussions were had. From my point of view, I was most intrigued by John AllenThavis’s comments. John is a superb journalist who knows the Vatican extremely well. These could form the basis for a conference in and of themselves: “What worries me is that Catholic communicators, with all their perspective, context and fairness on the sex abuse... Read more
Yesterday, it was announced that Robert G. Edwards, the grandfather of IVF, will receive a Nobel Prize for his work. I’m glad to see that the Vatican and others stepped up with goodresponses. Msgr. Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, head of the Pontifical Academy for Life (and one of my former professors), made the excellent point that Roberts’ work opened “the wrong door” for infertility treatments. IVF has been a difficult topic to address, not least of all because there’s been... Read more
Saw the new Wall Street movie this weekend, Oliver Stone’s follow up to his 1987 film of the same name. Prepared by watching the first movie on Netflix (Watch Instantly) earlier in the week. I’m not sure that I would have understood the new film as much without having seen the first. Several characters from the first film make fun cameos. It’s entertaining, but I wouldn’t call it a great film. The character of Gordon Gekko doesn’t entirely hang together... Read more
Or why we need a new evangelization. A recent Pew Forum study revealed/confirmed that Catholics know less about religion, including their own, than other religious demographics in the US. I’ve heard some people argue that the methodology is skewed. But I have to say that the study confirms my experience. The solution? Better catechesis on all levels, including individual responsibility for learning our faith. After all, the study also indicated that Catholics read less about faith/religion than any other group... Read more
Dr. Janet Smith has just had published a response to Dawn Eden’s critique of Christopher West. I think it’s worth the time to read it as she clarifies some very important points and raises some fair questions. No doubt this debate will continue. But I really do wonder about all the energy that has been spent critiquing West. Fine, he’s not to everyone’s liking. De gustibus non est dispuntandum. In matters of taste/preference, there is no dispute. We have different... Read more
A new Pew Forum study surveys people of different religious beliefs to find out what they know about different various beliefs. Turns out Catholics don’t even know much about their own faith. Dismaying, but not surprising, I guess. This NYT article contains a link to the study. Kudos to the atheists and agnostics who at least know what it is that they don’t believe. Can’t fault them for a lack of intellectual honesty. Read more
I don’t normally weigh in on military matters, but in response to a recent PBS Newshour segment, I decided to do so since I have a vested interest. Basically, if our audiences are too fragile to hear an f-bomb, then they certainly lack the ability to stomach the real wounding and maiming of our troops. And while we’re at it, such reports are heavily biased, short on context, and deeply hurtful to our troops and their families. My brother was... Read more
Pia de Solenni
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