Recents tests indicate that the Shroud of Turin was created somewhere between 300 BC and 400 AD. This places its origin within the time of Christ. That does not mean that the Shroud is the burial cloth of Christ. But it does mean that it could be. I am not a scientist, so I can’t evaluate the tests which have given us these dates. I can’t read the original documents written by the scientists who performed the tests because they... Read more
Whenever I describe my colleagues here at the Patheos Catholic Portal to friends, I usually end by saying, “I don’t know what I’m doing with them.” Patheos’ Catholic bloggers are — present company excepted — awesomely talented writers with scholarly and literary credentials coming out their ears. They are also people of deep faith with a nuanced knowledge of the Church. My descriptions of this group always include a star-struck recitation of Deacon Greg Kandra’s resume as a journalist. I... Read more
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, Linda Cavanah is the founder and Director of All Things New, a ministry for women coming out of prostitution and trafficking. In what I regard as a singular act of courage, she volunteered to write a guest post for Public Catholic telling the truth of what “sex-work” really is. The result is a first-hand, no-holds-barred witness to the reality of prostitution. Here, in her own words, is her story .… anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new... Read more
Do you love Jesus? You’re not alone. Source: Capital Gazette, AP, Filipe Dana From the Capital Gazette: Pope Francis drew a reported 3 million flag-waving, rosary-toting faithful to Rio’s Copacabana beach on Saturday for the final evening of World Youth Day, hours after he chastised the Brazilian church for failing to stem the “exodus” of Catholics to evangelical congregations. Francis headed into the final hours of his first international trip riding a remarkable wave of popularity: By the time his... Read more
Opponents to France’s new law legalizing gay marriage say they will continue the fight. This unwise action by the French government in forcing the vote to legalize gay marriage on an unwilling population appears to have the potential to push France into a protracted struggle. Roe v Wade certainly did that here in America. This kind of government-created civil disturbance is almost always a bad idea. I haven’t read the new law, but news reports about it say that... Read more
I am one of the lucky ones. My paycheck does not stop because the feds are playing chicken with the future of this country. You see, I am an elected official, which means that I am exempt from all sorts of consequences for the things I do. I could lock up the Oklahoma budget (which I vote against quite frequently, btw) and put tens of thousands of people out of work. Then, I could re-write the laws so they couldn’t... Read more
I’m close to a breaking point vis a vis our President and his deliberate disingenuous obfuscations about the first amendment in general and religious freedom, in particular. I need to take a deep breath. So, this will be brief. President Obama’s statement on the Supreme Court’s decision yesterday contained this paragraph: On an issue as sensitive as this, knowing that Americans hold a wide range of views based on deeply held beliefs, maintaining our nation’s commitment to religious freedom is... Read more
In his files Candidate Barack Obama and President Barach Obama are two entirely different cats. Of course, if you listen to the fine points of the statement in the second video below, you realize that he never really said what civil libertarians thought he said. He didn’t say he was going to stop surveilling the American people. However, he implied it throughout this speech, and that is what people heard. We all have a tendency to fall for... Read more
Yesterday’s news of fresh scandal and rumors of scandal in the Church left me feeling like the little girl in Poltergeist. Her family had suffered a harrowing attack by demonic forces. As fresh attacks started, she turned to the camera and said, “No more.” That’s exactly how I felt when Deacon Greg Kandra posted that another of our Church leaders has been accused of sexual misconduct. This came at the tag end of a day in which the Vatican issued... Read more
Is there any adult Catholic who attends mass regularly who is unaware that many of our priests are homosexual? I have a response for this not-so-startling reality. Big deal. Pope Francis recently gave a brief press conference during which he took a couple of hard-ball questions about gay priests. He answered them with what you would expect: Honesty. I’m going to paraphrase rather than quote because I don’t have what I think are good quotes to use. The various... Read more
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