Quick takes from news reports on the Holy Father’s resignation: Pope Benedict XVI will revert to his old title of Cardinal Josef Ratzinger after his resignation. Cardinal Josef Ratzinger will be able to participate in the conclave to elect the new pope, but Vatican sources says he will not do so. The resignation announcement was a surprise, even to Vatican officials: “The pope took us by surprise,” said Father Lombardi, who explained that many cardinals were in Rome on Monday... Read more
The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, announced that he will resign, effective February 28. A conclave to elect a new pope will convene in March. According to the Associated Press, this is the first papal resignation in 600 years. My prayers go with His Holiness as he moves into retirement. My mother is two years older than he is. I have often thought about the Holy Father as I have cared for her. To be honest, I did not see... Read more
I voted against a bill to allow clergy to carry firearms while conducting church services about 9 months ago. My reason? The bill gave me the creeps. I know that sounds like a poor way to make a decision about legislation, and I have to admit it wasn’t one of the most deeply-considered votes I’ve cast, but the bill took me by surprise. I was unaware of it until the Floor Leader introduced the author so he could bring it... Read more
Lent begins this Wednesday. It’s difficult in our over-scheduled world to reflect. On anything. It is doubly difficult to reflect on something as unpleasant as our own sins. However, unless the statistics and the evening news are entirely bogus, we have a lot to repent of this Lent, a lot to change. Most of us, me included, tend to focus on the entirely personal nature of our sins that pertains only to us. We don’t often consider how our personal... Read more
I try to allow people of good will to discuss their different ideas here so long as they do it in a civil fashion. However, I’ve been getting an increasing number of complaints about a few people with atheist beliefs who are posting so often and so redundantly that they are dominating the conversation and hijacking the board. Public Catholic is a Christian, Catholic blog. The purpose of Public Catholic is to help equip Christians to enter into public defense... Read more
Violent persecutors of Christians appear to be cowards as well as bigots. How else to interpret their propensity for preying on Christian clergy, women and children? They especially seem to like abducting little girls. There is a method to this evil. After all, if you destroy the young girls, you in effect doom your opponent to die out and die off. Mothers everywhere are the heart of any home and family. Homes and families are the primary means of transmitting... Read more
I held back on extensive comments on President Obama’s recent “compromise” to the HHS Mandate. My personal feeling when it was announced was that the compromise would, in the words of today’s announcement from Cardinal Dolan, “fall short.” My reasons were political, based primarily on my understanding of how politicians behave when they are forced to give the appearance of doing something that they really don’t want to do. I expected smoke and mirrors, and in at least one very... Read more
A recent discussion in one of this blog’s comboxes veered off into the old nature-or-nurture/chicken-or-egg question about homosexuality. The question: Is same-sex attraction the result of the individual’s genetic make-up, or it is the result of the environment in which they were raised? Based entirely on a crude anthropology, I would guess that there must be a genetic component to homosexuality. Why else would same-sex attraction show up in most, if not all, societies and epochs of recorded history? The... Read more
Yesterday was Rose Day at the Oklahoma State Capitol. This annual event goes back decades — all the way back to the years when I was a pro choice legislator. I remember how shy the pro life people were when they tip-toed into offices back then. They would hand the legislator a rose and then tip-toe back out. No one brought me a rose back in those days. I imagine they were afraid of me, even though I was never... Read more
The Boy Scouts walked to the edge of the cliff and backed off. They delayed a decision about whether or not to allow gay scout leaders and gay scouts until May. This non-decision appears to be in response to concern from the organizations’ rank and file. While opponents of the change say that it would lead to religious parents taking their sons out of the Boy Scouts, proponents claim that allowing gay scout leaders and gay scouts would revitalize the... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In