Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo…The Mothers of the Disappeared

Last updated on: August 3, 2007 at 5:27 am By Policraticus

The “Dirty War” of Argentina, which lasted from 1976-1983, was nearly a decade of violence carried out against Argentine citizens by presidents Jorge Rafael Videla, Roberto Eduardo Violaand, Leopoldo Galtieri and their successive military government. The government sought to obliterate all “leftist” resistance and influence within Argentine society. It is widely believed that up to 30,000 Argentine citizens and refugees from Chile and Uruguay disappeared during the Dirty War. They were arrested, tortured and killed, most of them being trade... Read more

Media and the Common Good

Last updated on: August 3, 2007 at 4:27 am By Morning's Minion

How does the media serve the common good? Not an easy question to answer. But surely, at least in a society that guarantees free speech, it has something to do with being a public watchdog, with keeping those charged with furthering the common good honest. Ideally, the media is a crucial part of a system of checks and balances. By this yardstick, the US media is a dismal failure. It was not always so. There was a time when the... Read more

“One-Minute Pro-Life Apologist”

Last updated on: August 2, 2007 at 5:49 pm By alexham

Pretty solid, if you ask me. (LvEO) Read more

On Senator Sam Brownback, Governor Mike Huckabee, and “recovering Catholic” pastors

Last updated on: August 2, 2007 at 5:37 pm By alexham

You know, there are times when one’s surname explains all you need to know about that person. Read more

Vox Nova at the Movies: Bobby

Last updated on: August 2, 2007 at 3:37 pm By Morning's Minion

Bobby is an average movie about the (mostly fictional) lives of a diverse group of people at the Ambassador hotel in Los Angeles on that June day in 1968 when Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. But when the movie portrays the assassination, something amazing happens. As we see Kennedy dying, with all the chaos and heartbreak surrounding the scene, we hear a voice-over of some of Kennedy’s most inspiring rhetoric. He speaks of the futility of violence, the fact that violence... Read more

Dreading the start of football season?

Last updated on: August 2, 2007 at 1:31 pm By voxnovablog

Some of us are… exhbition games already start this weekend! Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been a sports fan all my life, especially of baseball and soccer. Although the recent steroids and illegal dog-fighting scandals have turned me off from most sports and I know I can’t be the only one. The main problem I have with the football season is that games are on Sunday (the Lord’s day!) and some of us poor people can’t afford the $300+ NFL... Read more

Kenyan Court Rules Fr. John Kaiser’s Death as Murder

Last updated on: August 2, 2007 at 9:22 am By Henry Karlson

I am not sure what one should make of this story. Father John Kaiser, an American priest working in Kenya, and critical of its government, was found dead next to a busy highway on August 24, 2000. He was found shot in the back of his head by a shotgun found near his body. Three FBI agents indicated it was suicide. Now, seven years later, a Kenyan court has come to the conclusion that it was murder. Was it murder?... Read more

Working Towards a Catholic Ecclesiology

Last updated on: August 2, 2007 at 2:25 am By M.Z.

Do you attend a parish or a church? Or, do some of you attend one of those “Catholic Communities” that keep cropping up? 🙂 I ask this question, because most people think a parish and a church are the same thing. Canon Law defines a Church building as “a sacred building designated for divine worship to which the faithful have the right of entry for the exercise, especially the public exercise, of divine worship.” (Can. 1214) A parish is defined... Read more

Pray for Zimbabwe

Last updated on: August 1, 2007 at 9:52 pm By jonathanjonesuiwdpt

Robert Mugabe is well into the process of destroying Zimbabwe. A country that was once the breadbasket for much of Africa is rapidly descending into another deeply depressing story from this troubled continent. Let us remember one of the good guys of Zimbabwe, Pius Ncube, the Archbishop of Bulawayo. He and all the people there face not just personal danger from government authorities, but mass starvation as a result of decades of severe economic and political mismanagement. It breaks the... Read more

‘Fight Them Over There, Not Over Here”

Last updated on: August 1, 2007 at 8:05 pm By Morning's Minion

Faced with the collapse of pretty much all of the original reasons for the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the ever-dwindling number of Iraq war supporters seems to have latched onto one final mantra: if the United States did not fight [name your enemy] in Iraq, they would be be forced to fight them in the United States. When I watched Max Blumenthal interview the college Republicans, this line was repeated in almost zombie-like tones. Let’s think about this for... Read more