My priest makes a salary. It qualifies him for food stamps, medicaid and government housing. Thanks to a lawsuit brought by our friends at the Freedom From Religion Foundation and a legislating-from-the-bench judge, the courts are now going to have to decide if priests and other clergy should pay income taxes on the privilege of living in the Church rectory. Judge Barbara Crabb issued a ruling that would require clergy of every type and denomination to have their stay in... Read more
Busted Halo created this cute video about Advent. I hope it cheers you a much as it did me. Read more
Here’s an idea worth emulating. More than 10,000 young people have signed a birthday card for Pope Francis. The Holy Father’s birthday is December 17. After reading this, I decided to send the Pope a Happy Birthday greeting by means of Pontifex, which is his Twitter account. You can find Pontifex here. My suggestion: Go thou and do likewise. From Catholic News Agency: Steubenville, Ohio, Dec 6, 2013 / 02:11 am (CNA/EWTN News).- More than 10,000 young people have signed... Read more
I’ve been the voice of a large number of people in government for 18 years. During those years, I have voted many times on economic issues. I have a couple of beliefs about government that inform those votes — as well as the others I cast. 1. I am the voice of the people I represent. I must put their interests ahead of all others. At the same time, I feel that their interests are always best served by a... Read more
Pope Francis’ wonderful exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium is a call to each of us to do our part to evangelize the world. It is also a call to universal conversion and a radical reorientation among both the faithful and the ordained ministers of the Gospel. The Holy Father want us to trim the sails of our spiritual life as individuals so that we can move forward in this mission which Jesus gave us 2,000 years ago. The Church and previous popes... Read more
I thought when I began work on this post that I would have a lot to say. But the more I read, the less I understood. My first thought was that the nudity of some of the women protesters might link the riot in the video above to the activities of Fenem in Europe. That may be true, but I can’t find anything that says one way or the other. Fenem is a small group of young women who began... Read more
Evangelii Gaudium is a convicting document. If you read it with an honest heart, you will be moved by it to ask God’s forgiveness and to deepen your prayer life. That’s exactly the effect it had on me. I dropped into prayer numerous times as I was reading Evangelii Gaudium. It brought me face to face with my own spiritual drift and self-absorption. It is a convicting document, if you let it be a convicting document. It can also be... Read more
The Cheyennes and other plains tribes had a practice called counting coup. Counting coup, Cheyenne style, meant taking a life-threatening risk to dash up to a bear or a rival tribe member and touch them, then dash back to your fellows to get well-earned kudos for your bravery. The essential component to counting coup, Cheyenne style, was that it took actual guts to do it. I never understood this before I began blogging, but evidently counting coup has moved... Read more
I remember the days when pro abortion people were pro choice. I mean, actually pro choice in that they didn’t push to force everyone else on the planet to participate in their “choice.” That has devolved, along with most of the rest of the culture, into a caricature of itself. I also remember the days when the American Civil Liberties Union concerned itself with civil liberties. Sadly, it has, along with so much of the rest of our society, become... Read more
Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the end of the world. Jesus Christ Evangelii Gaudium is a call to you and me and every other Catholic on this planet to step out of our petty personal piety and evangelize the world. There is a... Read more
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