Well, this is strange. A person called Teresa, proprietor of a blog called Catholibertarian, is going after me for not approving a comment of hers in a timely manner. Let’s get this out of the way first. I don’t always look at comments, especially if the post is an old one, and the thread has faded. When I saw this one, I approved it. I had not seen her “calling me out” beforehand – I was only alerted to this through back channels by... Read more
Canada did better than most countries when the economy tanked in 2008, most suggest due to our more stringent banking regulations. This morning the news broke that the head of the Bank of Canada, Mark Carney, has been appointed head of the Financial Stability Board, the G20’s agency for regulating markets. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, of the ruling Conservative Party, said, “This appointment of the governor is a credit not only to him but also to the Canadian financial system... Read more
Christians have always prayed for their dead. This practice is one of the foundations of the doctrine of purgatory in the West. The logic goes that there is no need to pray for people in heaven or hell, so there must be a place/state where prayer actually does them some good. There is a problem, however. Purgatory is about inner perfection, not the attribution of perfection where it does not in fact exist. J.P. Arendzen puts it this way: The... Read more
I see you now and then In the soup kitchen Eating ice cream With beatific bliss And adding a prayer during vespers, For restored peace In the park where strife led to knife wounds in the Forgotten. Your grey beard and frazzled hair Is a halo around a face weathered by sun, and rain, and maybe Mother Gin In a past and penanced life. Your love is tender, And particular and attentive; the un-sentimental Love of God For His children. Read more
Sister Mary Ann Walsh, RSM, the Director of Media Relations for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has written an indictment of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for its denial of continued funding to the Bishops’ Conference for its work on behalf of refugees. In short: the Bishops clearly do the best work on behalf of refugees; HHS doesn’t like the bishops’ denial of abortion and contraceptive referrals; HHS denied the funding. Sr. Walsh sees ABC... Read more
Could it be that I am a (gasp!) conservative? John Médaille seems to think so. I suppose anyone whose retirement plan amounts to kids and land (for rabbits – apparently they’re very efficient at converting plant matter into protein!) isn’t going to be able to run from the label forever. Read more
[NOTE: Updated Below] Love is a weapon that cuts without wounding, and ennobles the one who wields it; it is a sword that heals. Dr. Martin Luther King I’ve been watching with interest the Occupy protests (at Wall Street and elsewhere) and I must say I’m extremely gratified at their success. (more…) Read more
It isn’t always easy to tell Christian and pagan holidays apart. The Bible doesn’t tell us when Jesus was born, but we chose to celebrate his birth in late December in part because that is when the surrounding culture celebrated the rebirth of the sun after the winter solstice. In English, the word we use for our most important holiday, Resurrection Day, is Easter, a word of Germanic origin likely related to a pagan goddess of the dawn (hence “east”). ... Read more
Rather than a tightly argued piece with a particular conclusion, I want to just share some ideas (and links and videos) that have come into my head given the recent media flurry about the fact that, as of Oct. 31, 2011, there are going to be more than 7 billion of us. Much hullabaloo has been made about this number, but it seems to me that virtually no one actually knows what on earth they are talking about. Much of... Read more
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVTO0DvuNXE Read more
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