As Policraticus noted on Thursday, it looks as if Pope Benedict’s new encyclical, to be released sometime in the next couple of months, will deal with the issue of development. There have been a number of good books on this topic in recent years… none of which I’ve read. Here, however, are a few audio interviews that may give those interested an idea of the basic issues and problems involved in current development economics and development programs: Here is Paul Collier discussing... Read more
Now is the time to buy your Fair Trade Chocolate for Easter AND support Catholic Relief Service at the same time! If you have never tried Divine Chocolate, now is the time to do it. It is absolutely delicious. Or buy Fair Trade coffee and serve it to your guests for early morning Easter brunch. Is it spendy? Yes. But if you can afford it, or are willing to make a Lenten sacrifice for a good cause it is well... Read more
In his obituary of William F. Buckley, Slate’s Timothy Noah wrote the following: “Christian piety and anti-communism were Buckley’s twin pillars, the former to such an extent that Buckley ruled out David Brooks, his onetime protege, as a possible editor of National Review on the grounds that Brooks was Jewish. Buckley wasn’t willing to sacrifice National Review‘s identity as a publication whose mission was at least partly theological.” Think about this for a second. When I attacked the National Review for... Read more
The most dangerous constants of our human condition – selfishness, status-seeking, the thoughtless imposition of will – have no solution absent death and full union with Christ. The state does not give meaning or dignity; every person possesses these inherently wholly apart from that place where individuality and family identity are formed. Unity organized by the state is false in any moment when concepts of “justice,” “rationalism,” and “rights” are taken to the uniformity of existence. Pope Pius XI writes... Read more
The first gateway to my internet world has closed. The browser that brought Al Gore’s great invention to the masses (or the other way around), Netscape Navigator, has been killed, buried and eulogized. What sort of world do we live in? How did this happen? Oh, I just got a message from my browser that another Firefox version is ready for download. Read more
Did you hear? St Mary Catholic Church is to open in Qatar on March 15. Anglican, Greek Orthodox, and Coptic Orthodox Churches are to follow. This is big news; it’s been over a millennium since Christians have had their own place of worship in that nation. Read more here, here and here. Hopefully we will see more examples of this in Arab lands as Muslim-Christian interfaith dialogues continue throughout the world. For it is important for both sides to be open to the... Read more
John McGreevy at dotCommonweal points us to a piece regarding bookshelf etiquette: What percentage of the books on your shelf have you actually read? Does this percentage matter? Is one’s bookshelf meant to display, for the most part, books that you have read, or books that signify the type of person one wants to be? Definitely something this theology graduate student has thought about. McGreevey also asks, List one book on your bookshelf that you bought and thought you would... Read more
Today is February 29th, the rarest day of the year. As proud Catholics, no doubt everyone here knows that the inclusion of February 29th in the calender every four years (aside from years divisible by 400, where there is no February 29th unless the year is also divisible by 2000 in which case there is) is due to the reforms of Pope Gregory XIII, and is designed to correct for the fact that it takes approximately 365 and 1/4 days... Read more
Gunmen have kidnapped the archbishop of the Chaldean Catholic Church in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and killed three of his aides, his church says. Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was seized as he left a church in the eastern al-Nour district, it added. (More from the BBC….) (HT: Mark Shea.) Read more
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