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Off the Record

Displaying 40 most recent blog posts.

• February 02, 2011 6:04 PM blame the (cynical) messenger By Diogenes

  Crocodile tears are flowing freely in the offices of Central Jersey Planned Parenthood, where a trusted employee has been fired for "behaving in a repugnant manner that is inconsistent with our

• January 25, 2011 9:59 AM If a pro-lifer falls in the forest,... By Diogenes

  •  Yesterday tens of thousands of mostly young Americans marched in Washington, DC, calling for an end to abortion. • Also yesterday, hundreds of protesters marched in Tunis, calling

• January 20, 2011 5:07 PM the birds, the bees, and the tubes By Diogenes

  Savor this opening sentence from a Washington Post article on Catholic health-care institutions, mentioned today in our CWN headline coverage: In Texas, a Catholic bishop made two hospitals cease

• January 20, 2011 12:15 PM You are the man. By Diogenes

  An English playwright, capitalizing on BBC's celebration of the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible to promote his own peculiar agenda, has announced his belief that King David was

• January 19, 2011 5:21 PM treasures in earthed vessels By Diogenes

  Forward-thinking Anglicans (is there any other kind?) are asking the General Synod to change the wording of the baptismal ceremony as practiced in the Church of England.   The problem, says

• January 19, 2011 4:57 PM test your cynicism By Diogenes

  Here's a short 2-question quiz to test your degree of cynicism. The facts: A Boston attorney whose firm specializes in sex-abuse lawsuits against the Catholic Church has released the names of over

• January 17, 2011 5:59 PM that devil celibacy made him do it By Diogenes

   A Catholic priest in England, convicted of downloading 740 pieces of child porn, told a court that celibacy was to blame. His legal advocate explained: “He has never had a chance to

• January 05, 2011 3:38 PM pop the cork By Diogenes

  The 112th US Congress has convened on Capitol Hill, and for the first time since 1946, there isn't a single member of the Kennedy family on the roster. Got any champagne left over from New Year's

• January 03, 2011 6:18 PM unblushing brides By Diogenes

  The dean of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was married on January 1, in a ceremony held at St. Paul’s cathedral in Boston and witnessed by Bishop M. Thomas Shaw of

• December 24, 2010 11:24 AM Payback time: a Christmas story By Diogenes

  Some people say I’m a cynic. But no one can remain a cynic on Christmas Eve. As my early Christmas present to faithful readers, I offer an old column, which originally appeared in the July

• December 22, 2010 12:05 PM gone but not forgotten By Diogenes

  Back in July, novelist Anne Rice announced that she was finished with Christianity. Not quite, apparently. Yesterday the National Catholic Register posted a story by Jimmy Akin, on Bishop

• December 21, 2010 2:33 PM dirty words By Diogenes

  In a live broadcast, NIna Totenberg of National Public Radio revealed that she "was at-- forgive the expression-- a Christmas party."  Shocking! There might have been innocent

• December 14, 2010 4:29 PM Why do we need a new translation of the Mass, anyway? By Diogenes

  In English-speaking countries, the First Sunday of Advent was traditionally known as “stir-up Sunday”—not only because housewives were expected to “stir up” the plum

• December 13, 2010 9:23 AM Who's the leader of the band that's made for you and me? By Diogenes

  Bishop John Noonan, who will be installed as Orlando's fifth bishop Dec. 16. And some people say that miters make bishops look

• December 10, 2010 3:25 PM pursuing poverty in style? By Diogenes

   Sister Marie Thornton, the former financial vice-president of Iona College, faces criminal charges for allegedly milking $1.2 million from college funds. According to one report, the embezzled

• December 10, 2010 3:10 PM set your watch ahead By Diogenes

  In an interview with John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter, the editor of L'Osservatore Romano, Giocanni Maria Vian, explains why he doesn't think it was a mistake to publish that famous

• December 02, 2010 1:41 PM when the news isn't news By Diogenes

  Act I, Scene I: The newsroom of a major metropolitan daily Reporter: Hey, boss! We’ve got a story here. Says the Pope might have allowed a priest who was accused of abuse to work in a parish

• November 30, 2010 4:55 PM Maybe he's just shy By Diogenes

   Six weeks after the Vatican accepted the resignation of Bishop Richard Sklba, attorneys are trying to convince a Wisconsin court that the former Milwaukee auxiliary should not be required to

• November 30, 2010 2:15 PM let me count the ways By Diogenes

  Richard Posner, a learned jurist who has written many intelligent things about law and economics, embarrasses himself when he writes on contraception and the Catholic Church: In 1930, responding

• November 23, 2010 3:21 PM a star is born By Diogenes

  Slate magazine has discovered L’Osservatore Romano. The Vatican newspaper has never been daily reading for the staff of the slick online ‘zine. But on November 22, the Slate

• November 17, 2010 3:04 PM pastors need not apply By Diogenes

  Over on the U.S. Catholic site, Bryan Cones doesn't merely tell us that the upset victory of Archbishop Dolan is a "really big deal." He demonstrates, with his own overwrought analysis,

• November 17, 2010 9:54 AM not too moderate By Diogenes

  The Washington Post explains the surprising result of the USCCB presidential election: Victims' advocates spoke out against Kicanas, but the more significant opposition came from conservatives,

• November 15, 2010 2:52 PM the spiritual combat By Diogenes

  From today's CWN story: Father Richard Vega, a priest of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and president of the National Federation of Priests Councils, has told The New York Times that when he

• November 15, 2010 1:23 PM campaign endorsement By Diogenes

  If you're still wondering which candidate you should support for the presidency of the US bishops' conference, this endorsement might help you to

• November 12, 2010 2:30 PM I'm thinking of a word that begins with H By Diogenes

  Three years after he was quoted as saying that it would have been “grossly unfair” to bar the ordination of Daniel McCormack—who would go on to notoriety as a convicted serial

• November 10, 2010 4:39 PM the unpaid informer By Diogenes

  Back in 2006, Mehmet Ali Agca offered to tell the world who gave him the order to shoot Pope John Paul II. But there was a catch: he wanted to be paid $6 million for that information. That

• November 09, 2010 4:06 PM Hey, we're networking! By Diogenes

  The Guardian reports the consternation of the Archbishop of Canterbury over the resignation of five Anglican bishops who are entering the Catholic Church. The subhead on the Guardian story is

• November 08, 2010 2:24 PM toll collection By Diogenes

  Gene Robinson, the first openly homosexual bishop of the Episcopal Church, has announced his retirement at the age of 63. "The fact is, the last seven years have taken their toll on me, my

• November 08, 2010 2:12 PM an issue that hasn't been faced By Diogenes

  Bishop Willie Walsh has trouble with orthodoxy. Not just with preaching it; even with recognizing it.  Still, give him credit: Bishop Willie has trouble with secular orthodoxy as well. He

• November 08, 2010 2:01 PM the Church as debating society? By Diogenes

   Bishop Willie Walsh, the (thank God) retired Bishop of Killaloe, Ireland, responds thoughtfully to a question about ordination of women:  “I really don’t want to cause

• November 05, 2010 5:16 PM making something out of nothing By Diogenes

  The annual CCHD wars have begun, and the Catholic News Service-- which like the CCHD operates under the aegis of the US bishops' conference-- dutifully reports on the latest statement from CCHD

• November 03, 2010 4:31 PM be a man By Diogenes

  The World Series is over, and American sports fans turn their attention to other topics. Such as this new development reported by ESPN: A female-to-male transgender member of the George

• November 01, 2010 3:00 PM what 'preventive medicine' prevents By Diogenes

  Thanks to ObamaCare, all American taxpayers will soon be paying for contraceptives, whether they use them or not. Contraception, you see, is a method of avoiding a serious illness. That’s not

• October 27, 2010 6:35 PM I know it when I see it By Diogenes

  If you haven’t traveled to Australia for a while, be prepared for a change. In the past, the card that visitors submitted to customs officials asked whether they were carrying pornography. Now

• October 22, 2010 5:40 PM all things to all men By Diogenes

  Imagine that someone was a youthful revolutionary. After his fling with radical activism he pledges to refrain from any further violent efforts to overthrow the government (and since we are all

• October 20, 2010 5:13 PM knowing your place By Diogenes

  Enterprising undergraduates at Boston College, having learned from their elders that compassion is measured in latex, are distributing condoms to their fellow students. One of the leaders in this

• October 18, 2010 6:02 PM roll over, King Solomon By Diogenes

  New York court has given permission for a widow to harvest sperm from the body of her deceased husband. She said she doesn’t want his death to stand in the way of their desire to start a

• October 18, 2010 3:13 PM not with a bang but a whimper By Diogenes

  Bishop Richard Sklba was ordained as an auxiliary in Milwaukee by his Archbishop Rembert Weakland despite severe (and justifiable) misgivings in Rome. Sklba evidently repaid his patron’s

• October 15, 2010 6:10 PM vandalism without bias By Diogenes

  In northern New Jersey, a group of 5 college-age men face criminal charges for ransacking the offices of a gay-rights organization, tearing up shrubs and sign, ripping out lights. Bad news for the

• October 15, 2010 1:20 PM feeling no pain By Diogenes

  Senator Mike Johanns of Nebraska is pushing for federal legislation requiring that women seeking late-term abortions be informed that the procedure causes pain for the unborn child. Approving the