probably just a coincidence

During his visit to the United Kingdom, Pope Benedict XVI met with several victims of sexual abuse. If you looked carefully you could find a few details about the group: Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the five victims, who he said had not signed confidentiality agreements,...

america magazine to honor canterbury

"You must go to the place from whence you came, there to remain until ye shall be drawn through the open City of London upon hurdles to the place of execution, be hanged and let down alive, and your privy parts cut off, and your entrails taken out and burnt in your sight; then your head to...

archbuggery

Some stories paralyze parody. Milwaukee's cathedral boasts a bronze bas-relief with an image of former Archbishop Rembert Weakland, he of the durchgebohrte boyfriends and the $450,000 indent for hush-money. Objectors have been informed they...

nil nisi verum

Glasgow priest Fr. Gerry Nugent died earlier this week. Nugent became notorious in 2006 when the body of a 23-year-old woman, murdered by a handyman, was discovered in his church. This from yesterday's UK Daily Record: During the trial, [Fr. Nugent] claimed to have had a sexual relationship...

he has filled the hungry with good things

Sister Fran Ferder, FSPA, deplores the fact that the Apostolic Visitation of religious sisters is unlikely to involve a holy exchange of spiritual goods on the model of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth: The visitation that is upon members of women’s religious communities now bears few of...

more eloquently than the blood of abel

If abortion is not something bad, why should we be concerned to make it rare? Pro-abortion warhorses Kate Michelman and Frances Kissling try to slap the Democrats out of their mushy “family friendly” posturing and get back to the no-nonsense business of dismembering fetuses -- with no...

all these ridiculous distinctions

Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., recently addressed a gathering of Dublin priests and shared some husky confidences on how the scandal of the clergy sex abuse crisis affected Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, O.P. Truth to tell, it nearly spoiled his entire weekend: Former Master General of the Dominican...

stirring controversy

The New York Times reports that the Catholic Health Association and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious think the Senate got it right: In an apparent split with Roman Catholic bishops over the abortion-financing provisions of the proposed health care overhaul, the nation’s...

in the bleak midwinter

At this time of year I enjoy re-reading John Henry Newman's sermon on the Nativity, delivered in Oxford at the university church of Saint Mary the Virgin: As Al Gore put it in 1997, “two thousand years ago a homeless woman gave birth to a homeless child.” For pete’s sake, they...

problem solvers

Catholics and Methodists agree: don't litter. As leaders of nations and scientists were gathering in Copenhagen to figure out ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions that have been linked to global warming, representatives from the United Methodist Church (UMC) and the United States...

néw yórk néw yórk

Odd. The locale generally known to the anglophone world as Guantanamo now appears in the New York Times as Guantánamo. Is the added accent, one wonders, intended as a pronunciation aid to readers? Is it meant to disambiguate the site of the U.S. military installation from other Latin...

the man who never was

A CNA story reports that the Legionaries are prepping their number for bad news to come by revealing that at least some of the writings of the late Marcial Maciel were cribbed: In an effort to distance itself from the wrongdoings of its founder, the Legion of Christ has recently circulated an...

uncommon wisdom

Responding to climate change is the moral imperative of our time, and people of spirit and faith can play a vital role in helping us make this crucial transition. God, Goddess, Allah, Jehovah, Buddha, Krishna and the Great Spirit know that the politicians aren't doing it! Watching the...

sharing & caring

Mark Steyn on the 30 trillion pieces of silver: You can't even dignify this squalid racket as bribery: If I try to buy a cop, I have to use my own money. But, when Harry Reid buys a senator, he uses my money, too. Don't forget, Mark: your children will have to kick in as...

on the laff track

Do you ever get the impression that somewhere around the mid-1980s the Church of England quietly repackaged itself as a BBC-TV comedy serial, without letting on to the laity? The increasingly farcical attempts to contrive a basis for “Anglican communion” succeed one another every five...

another obama victory!

Faced with the debacle of the Copenhagen Accord, the New York Times strains to find silk-purse material: The accord is nonetheless significant in that it codifies the commitments of individual nations to act on their own to tackle global warming. The more carefully you re-read it, the...

you can let us beat you with a steel pipe

-- OR, you can watch this video to its...

first things first

The Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray has resigned his post in the wake of Ireland's clerical abuse scandal. His sorrowfully lame resignation statement does not admit any failure on his part. He says rather that his continued presence in the job would create too many difficulties for too many...

my body, my choice

A woman in Virginia suffocated her newborn last week. Because the mother and child were still connected by the umbilicus and placenta at the time the former dispatched the latter, the act is considered no different from clipping a toenail. You go, girl! Momma is free as the breeze: “In...

the posture imposture

Now here's a head-shaking story from the Chicago Sun-Times. A number of Chicago-area women report that, in a period from the 1940s until the 1960s while they were in public high schools, they were required to pose for photographs, completely undressed, as part of a study purportedly designed to...

in the big leagues

The Catholic Theological Society of America, which reflects the mainstream professional theological academy in the U.S., has been the arena of dispute in recent weeks over the doctrinal reliability of its outgoing president. The controversy makes discouraging reading, not least because...

lahey in the dock

“Play the man!” Those words of encouragement (addressed to Nicholas Ridley before his burning at the stake) might be repeated with more propriety to Bishop Raymond Lahey before his court hearing tomorrow. Lahey’s manhood, to be blunt, is not much in evidence. Busted at the...

most unfortunate

Hey folks, do your acquaintances include any consequentialist Safe-Sin ethicians of the type who argue that the Church is proved wrong by AIDS infection rates in Africa? Well round them up to take a look at this BBC report on field-testing their moral theology: A major trial of a vaginal...

nussbaum & the wisdom of solomon

You have to hand it to Deborah Solomon, the NYT Magazine's ace slow-pitch southpaw: her cheerful groveling has the invariable (if unintended) effect of letting lions turn themselves into asses. Ass of the Week is professional thinkeress Martha Nussbaum. Some highlights from the interview: DS:...

an easter people

If you can read this NSW Premier Kristina Keneally is in ‘utter agreement’ with the teachings of the Catholic Church but wants female priests, the vow of celibacy relaxed and supports abortion. thank a...

a return to penal times?

The CNS reports that an antidiscrimination statute under consideration in Britain could make it unlawful for the Catholic Church to require that her priests be male and celibate. The Catholic bishops of England and Wales said they could be at risk of prosecution under a proposed law unless they...

and we'll have no back-talk from the likes of you ...

Britain's national weather service -- The Met Office -- is scrambling in damage-control mode in the wake of the Cooked Climatology Capers. The Times of London reports: The Met Office has embarked on an urgent exercise to bolster the reputation of climate-change science after the furore over...

that's so gay

The website bears the aptly unwieldy name Think before you speak. Don't say "That's so gay." A project of the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, the campaign employs posters, print ads and videos with the aim of curbing an element of teen slang that gay ideologues find particularly...

so sioux me

The New York Times uneasily reports on the late-dawning revelation that college students do not choose mascots and nicknames meant to disparage themselves. The Fighting Sioux of the University of North Dakota were in line for the usual ethnic cleansing when someone had the poor manners to...

the shot heard 'round disney world

The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles just elected a lesbian suffragan bishop. The Archbishop of Canterbury, thoughtfully stroking his chin, ponders the ecclesiological implications: The election of Mary Glasspool by the Diocese of Los Angeles as suffragan bishop elect raises very serious...

thanking god for condoms

On the Washington Post's On Faith page, Methodist AIDS maven Donald Messer titles his contribution Thanking God for Condoms. It isn't clear from his essay which deity his gratitude is addressed to. The religion he finds fault with, however, is orthodox Christianity. Messer is a man of his...

rembert the ripper

Newly released depositions reveal that Nantucket's naughtiest nightowl, when he was an eminent pastor of souls, had an effective method for dealing with embarrassing documentation. He shredded it. Former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland routinely shredded copies of weekly reports about...

for I was naked and you clothed me ...

… I was hungry, and you protected me from trans fat. New York's patricians update the Let Them Eat Cake mentality. From the Metro (via James Taranto): When a small church comes to the Bowery Mission bearing fried chicken with trans fat, unwittingly breaking the law, they’re told...

kiss another one good-bye

In the culture war incursions on the higher ed front, another shakily defended pass is about to be sold. From the Boston Globe: Emerson College students will soon be able to bunk with members of the opposite sex. Starting next fall, the university will pilot a housing program that assigns...

getting it backwards

The current Tablet has an article on the Church and AIDS. "We are seeing HIV heal the Church," said Gary Swart, who runs the Inspired Individuals programme. "The Church is having to face things it does not like to face such as how women are treated, marital infidelity and celibacy...

no hypocrites were harmed in this war against hypocrisy

Outraged by the opposition of the Archdiocese of Washington to the District of Columbia's plans to legalize same-sex marriage, a gay rights organization called ChurchOuting.org was formed with the mission to "out" gay clerics -- and sexually incontinent hetero priests as well -- in order...

with an eye for the greater good

Remember Boston Auxiliary Bishop Robert Banks? In 1990, Banks slime-lined the notorious multiple molester Paul Shanley out to the Diocese of San Bernardino by writing him a letter of recommendation that said, "I can assure you that Father Shanley has no problem that would be a concern to...

decline & fall

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford faces ethics charges he broke state laws more than three dozen times by violating rules on airplane travel and campaign money, according to details of the allegations released Monday. So ledes today's AP story on Mark Sanford, which tells us...

what the pope absolutely needs to hear

The Times of London is as concerned about the future of Christianity as the Abbey of Solemnes is concerned about the future of NASCAR racing (the analogy limps in that Solemnes often takes the trouble to inform itself before tumbling into print). Yet once or twice a year, when one of its liberal...

the cchd collection: possible alternatives

This is the weekend of the special collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. Skepticism about the CCHD's bait-and-switch rhetoric has been expressed on this site often (go here, or here, or here, or here), on the grounds...

help is on the way

So you're a diocese whose bishop was arrested with kiddie-pix on his laptop. What's the pastoral response? Obvious. You help your priests get in touch with their feelings. Priests in the diocese of Antigonish had the opportunity to express their feelings about the child pornography charges...

it'll be ready for you monday

In Rome this week for some Kwanzaa shopping and ecumenism, the Archbishop of Canterbury stopped by the Willebrands Symposium to explain that, if you crack a mirror yourself, you never have to worry about its breaking. Take the amusing example, chuckles Dr. Williams, of the ordination of...

a regrettably unthreatening threat

In the wake of the Washington admonition, the Abuse Tracker informs us of an organization that wants to put misbehaving priests -- gay or straight -- back in the news. From the Village Voice: ChurchOuting.org sets out to expose...

see what you get for $1.8 million?

Researchers at New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice were unable to find a connection between priests who shave their legs and global climate change: Some Catholic leaders have contended that because 80 percent of the abuse victims were male, the crisis must have been caused by gay...

a man of the cloth

He dumped two wives, two children, and the Catholic Faith, announced to the world he was gay, bailed from the governorship of New Jersey, and moved in with his lover-boy. So what's next for Jim McGreevey? Ministry as an Episcopal priest. The former New Jersey love gov has gone from Turnpike...

ecclesia supplet

Former Diocese of Phoenix priest Dale Fushek is the founder of LifeTeen ministries. In 2005 he was charged with ten misdemeanor counts of criminal sexual mischief, which included indecent exposure, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and assault. One of the misdemeanors is alleged to...

the limits of laissez faire

I once asked a friend who was an observant Jew why his fellow orthodox were not more active in pro-life politics. He answered (making it clear he didn't share the view), "Most have the attitude, Hey, we've got our own house in order; let the goyim go ahead and abort their young if they want...

while you were away from your desk

Credentialed British theologian Nicholas Lash is in a froth about the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus ("Having Waited Too Damn Long Already"). The problem, you see, is that the bishops were not consulted ahead of time. The failure of “Rome” to inform the...

well ... we could bake something

Now here's a lousy idea. Ireland's talented Friar Joe wants to exhibit his artwork as "a visual response to the Ryan Report, a document which revealed widespread abuse in industrial and reformatory schools run by religious orders." No question that the Ryan Report deserves a response --...

tell me another

Get this. The Chicago Tribune digs up a doc who says the problem with the Stupak-Pitts amendment is -- can you guess? -- its threat to the health of the mother: Dr. Willie Parker, a board member at Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, said the amendment could have the greatest effect...

why stand in the way of true love?

I suppose it's only a matter of time before the Thought Police finally catch up with Amherst Professor Hadley Arkes and drag him off to his dungeon. Before that hour arrives, however, he always has something worthwhile to teach us. This from today's offering at The Catholic Thing: Fathers and...

the unthinkable

Its story is headlined Abortion Was at Heart of Wrangling.  The New York Times comes close to tears in its sympathy for Nancy Pelosi's thwarted efforts to insure those darling wee homicides out of the public purse: Her attempts at winning them over had failed, and Ms. Pelosi, the first...

gather me out

Affective maturity meets spiritual paternity in Pennsylvania: A priest in the Diocese of Scranton has been removed as administrator of three Throop parishes after he inadvertently displayed four photos of what a diocese spokesman called "minimally attired adult males" before the 8 a.m....

fried

Dr. Kirk Smith, the Episcopal Bishop of Arizona, is one seriously ailing hombre. It seems the announcement of a Personal Ordinariate for convert Anglicans splashed some seltzer onto his motherboard. The sparks are pretty before the circuits go (via Chris Johnson): What I think is missing is any...

andrew sullivan's own-goal

Andrew Sullivan formidably strengthens the case against gay priests. How? By coming to the defense of gay priests. His petulant door-slamming and rhetorical flouncing in response to an imperturbable Church exemplifies that juvenile recklessness she insists is incompatible with the priesthood....

pledge to heal, promise to protect

Canadian collector of kiddie-porn and retired Bishop of Antigonish Raymond Lahey has another court date today. This is Chapter Four of … twenty? … twenty-five? in Lahey's serialized tumbling act of painful legal slapstick. Before the jester takes the stage the media bring the...

the party of healing

Amherst Professor of Jurisprudence Hadley Arkes remarks on the unexpected stubbornness of that almost-extinct species, the pro-life Democratic congressman, and the unexpected consequence that "health care" may find itself directed at health: What the media have not understood is that...

dawkins showing the strain

Professional atheist Richard Dawkins is told about the Personal Ordinariate for Anglican converts and blows a gasket: What major institution most deserves the title of greatest force for evil in the world? In a field of stiff competition, the Roman Catholic Church is surely up there among the...

what's the matter with kids today?

While you slept, your children consumed enough oxygen to fuel three dozen gerbils for six weeks at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Aren't you ashamed? What follows from the U.K. Guardian is not, regrettably, a parody: The worst thing that you or I can do for the planet is to have...

wet hankies in tomorrowland

The Pope's Apostolic Constitution erecting the Personal Ordinariate for Anglican converts has not been released, yet there's no question but that it's got the right people pouting. Across the board, among Catholics, Anglicans, and neutral spectators, hostility varies inversely with...

death wish

LifeSite News reports that Dominican Sister Donna Quinn serves as a Chicago-area abortion clinic "escort," that is, she guides women seeking abortions into the clinic doors while providing a bit of reassurance to silence any last-minute hesitations induced by pro-life activists in the...

I shall send you the Paraclete, who will lead you into constructive disagreements

In gauging the reactions to the Holy See's announcement of a Personal Ordinariate for Anglican converts, it's clear that, as is almost invariable in contemporary controversies, the rift in opinion reflects not church affiliation but one's alignment in the culture wars. The response of U.S....

down syndrome children, and us

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput has written an essay on children with Down syndrome -- and on our responsibilities towards them -- with some real wallop. An excerpt (from the First Things site): Every child with Down syndrome, every adult with special needs -- in fact, every unwanted unborn...

anglicans incoming!

The Holy See took the ecumenical imperative out of the hands of ecumenists, with the result that the reunion of Christians -- at least in one limited area of schism -- ensued. From the Vatican website: With the preparation of an Apostolic Constitution, the Catholic Church is responding to the...

can you spare a paradigm?

Indian Theologian Calls for New Women Religious Paradigm! squealed the NCR headline. We're all thrilled beyond measure by original paradigms, it goes without saying, and impatient Uncle Di almost crippled his left mouse button clicking on the link. Here's the lede: Samphran, Thailand. Speaking...

antigonish agonistes

Canadian bishop Raymond Lahey is currently awaiting trial, charged with possessing and importing child pornography. The disgrace of Lahey's misdeeds has been amplified by the embarrassingly infantile moral cowardice he has displayed at every stage of the business: he even lies...

sweet home chicago

Today's Chicago Sun-Times features an investigative exposé detailing the contents of a digital "hiring database" belonging to former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, currently under federal indictment for racketeering, extortion, and fraud. "The Blagojevich hiring...

widen that chasm for you?

Chicago's ABC News affiliate ran a story on last Saturday's makeover of a local woman into a Catholic "priest." The reporters don't quite get the facts right, but they do convey the idea that the Vatican -- i.e., Catholic officialdom in some sense -- does not regard the ceremony as a...

a word from our betters

James Taranto cites a 2007 address made in Berkeley by Clinton's Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. Reich gave the speech which he believed a Democratic presidential candidate should make, were he free to speak his mind on the matter of health care: "Thank you so much for coming this...

free ride

Notre Dame's student newspaper The Observer reports that the university helped some students travel to Washington to demonstrate in favor of gay rights. A surprise move from the Student Activities Office allowed five students to attend a national gay rights demonstration in Washington D.C....

feel the love

Do conservatives have a monopoly on hate? Progressivist Catholics often write as if we did. In part, the accusation of hatred is a labor-saving device (impugning your opponent's motives at the outset saves you the trouble of analyzing and answering his arguments). In part, the accusation of...

soft options

Chris Johnson brings our attention to some eco-gushing at the Anglican Communion web site: Our faith and our ancestors have always taught us that the earth is our mother and deserves respect; we know that this respect has not been given. We know that like a mother the earth will continue to give...

suitable to the occasion

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons applies the following restrictions to persons visiting inmates incarcerated in federal detention facilities: Inappropriate/unauthorized attire is considered to be: transparent clothing; strapless garments; any garment which exposes the stomach or any intimate area of...

Lahey the indomitable

When Bishop Raymond Lahey was arrested for possession of kiddie-porn after attracting the suspicion of Canadian Border Patrol agents, Terry Mattingly asked the apposite question, What was the trigger that led to the secondary search of the laptop hard drive of a Catholic bishop? Well, now we...

an artist is a lovesome thing, god wot

The Polanski child-rape story provides a dislocating sense of déjà vu in the peculiarly haughty indignation with which the princes of the entertainment world have come to the defense of the perp. The dismissive reasons tendered for giving Polanski a pass will have a special...

lahey the unmentionable

Canadian Bishop Raymond Lahey was arrested last week for possession of kiddie-porn, an event widely reported in the media. The public reaction was one of understandable disgust and exasperation. Halifax Archbishop Anthony Mancini has written an open letter to the Roman Catholic faithful of Nova...

time for personal renewal

Back in 2004, you may remember, the Springfield (MA) Diocese announced that Bishop Thomas Dupre, "citing health reasons," was opting for early retirement under the provisions of canon 401-dash-2. The word "health," it turned out, had a special ecclesiastical meaning. The...

de mortuis

NARAL bids farewell to a friend FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 26, 2009   Pro-Choice Leaders Pay Tribute to Sen. Kennedy's Legacy of Support for Women's Equality and Privacy Washington, D.C. -- Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, and Andrea Miller, executive director of...

the reformed Society of Jesus: not what you think

The autocephalous Reformed Catholic Church does a make-over on the Society of Jesus in order to bring it into line with its Spring Fashion collection. Do you believe that all people should be welcomed into the church? Do you feel that everyone -- single and married, gay and straight alike --...

ad majorem deae gloriam

In a February press conference held in California, Jesuit Father General Adolfo Nicolás signaled openness. "God works freely. He doesn't consult with me. Did I say he? Maybe it is...

womenpriests: the video

And remember, these are the...

Benedict the Assassin

PELL RIDES PAPAL BANDWAGON OF DEATH claims the Sydney Morning Herald's David Marr, registering his displeasure with the Cardinal's endorsement of Catholic teaching. "That's one hell of an Easter message," he adds, in a sniff. It would appear that Marr's paschal theology owes more to...

the church of the shape to come

On the occasion of its centenary, the Jesuit magazine America has reprinted the Editorial Announcement that accompanied its maiden issue of April 17, 1909. An excerpt: The object, therefore, of this Review is to meet the needs here described and to supply in one central publication a record of...

marriage for all

In every nation, in every epoch, homosexuals have been free to marry. In every nation, in every epoch, homosexuals been free to marry other homosexuals. Homosexuals have been prohibited, exactly as heterosexuals have been prohibited, from marrying persons of the same sex. There was no question...

story time

The administration at my boy's school is just appalling. Yesterday he came home with a notice that he'd been suspended for three days. I said, "Bryan, what did you do to get suspended?" He said, "Nothing." I said, "Well what reason did the principal give you?" He...

delighted -- or, please pass the forceps

You know you've made it when the folks you want to impress are delighted with your promotion. The Rev. Katherine Ragsdale, newly appointed president and dean of the Episcopal Divinity School (Cambridge, MA), earns the gushing congratulation of the National Abortion Rights Action...

can't get no respect

Let me hear you say it: Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. The darling bit of cheerleading above comes from a sermon delivered by the Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, newly...

bishop lynch rallies to defense of unborn

April fool! The man who put the palm in Bay Palms opines of President Obama's "battle for an expansion of abortion rights" that "early 'markers' are not encouraging in this regard but hope needs to spring eternal." Ms. Terri Schiavo was unavailable for...

right from the beginning

The NCR makes available some correspondence of Fr. Gerald Fitzgerald, founder of the Servants of the Paraclete, who was able to call a spade a spade even without the benefit of post-graduate research in the human sciences. As early as the mid-1950s, decades before the clergy sexual-abuse crisis...

the notre dame commencement: who's smiling?

If you were a committed pro-abort who wanted to extend and perpetuate abortion-on-demand, would you be dismayed by the honorary degree offered Obama by Notre Dame? Would you be alarmed at the prospect of the "dialogue" which Notre Dame (not Obama) assures us will...

unum baptisma

Here's a new twist: atheists resurrecting an Anabaptist sacramental theology in order to apostasize. More than 100,000 Britons have recently downloaded "certificates of de-baptism" from the Internet to renounce their Christian faith.   The initiative launched by a group called...

simon says, the pope distorts science

The Lancet blows a gasket, and the BBC's on the case: One of the world's most prestigious medical journals, the Lancet, has accused Pope Benedict XVI of distorting science in his remarks on condom use. It said the Pope's recent comments that condoms exacerbated the problem of HIV/Aids were wildly...

blacklisted

Now here's a good sign. The newly-named Bishop of Oakland is Salvatore Cordileone, presently auxiliary of San Diego. An OTR reader points out that Cordileone also enjoys the distinction of having made the Anti-Gay Blacklist as well. Because he took a baseball bat to an unarmed flight...

madison hatter

Two weeks ago Madison Bishop Robert Morlino made the news for firing a parish pastoral associate. Predictably, the media storyline was Institutional Goliath Squashes Plucky Feminist David. Ruth Kolpack, the associate in question, claimed to be blindsided by the firing and suggested it was...

hypocrisy?

In the current NCR, two officials of the Women's Ordination Conference condemn Pope Benedict's recent remarks urging respect for the dignity of every woman as "egregious hypocrisy." Why hypocrisy? Because women are not ordained priests. Conventional secular wisdom, today, calls for...

african wife-beaters urged to practice "safe-sox"

The Association of Compassionate Christian Caregivers today severely criticized traditional Catholic teaching on marital "love" and called upon the churches to encourage wife-beating Africans to take the "prudent, practical steps" to reduce the risk of HIV infection when...

no defense intended

OK, so why did Madison's Bishop Robert Morlino pick a PR fight he will certainly lose, and which he must have known at the outset he would certainly lose? Well folks, you won't find out from the NCR article. Headlined, "Wisconsin parish worker fired for feminist views: Allowed no...

unclear on the concept

Ecumenists, like liturgists, should never be left unsupervised with sharp tools in reach. Bad things will happen. Case in point: some Aussie ecumenists thought it'd be a great idea to throw a joint Anglican-Catholic Confirmation service this May. It seems not to have occurred to the organizers...

the sorcerer's apprentice

In the course of a somewhat rambling blog-entry on the Washington Post religion site, a Catholic priest reveals some of the sordid origins of Catholic doctrine: The Pauline analogy of husbands mirroring Christ and wives mirroring the church has within it the seeds of much in theology and church...

me & my shadow

In the course of a hosted dinner-discussion on privacy issues and their implications, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin makes an interesting admission (at about 12:45 minutes into this video). He's responding to the question -- obviously put to him in jest -- "You told us that you had two...

bonding

It's Religious Ed Congress time again in LA, at which Cardinal Mahony hosts his customary Internet chat-room to let the faithful put their questions to him. As often, His Eminence deals with uncertainties by means of answers that would not occur to Ratzinger. Or Charles Borromeo. Troubled: Our...

how to spot a hidden religious agendum

In the New Scientist, book review editor Amanda Gefter seeks to warn her readers about putatively scientific works that contain covert religious propaganda -- which, by her reckoning, is intrinsically unscientific. Her effort is hard to understand, since on her own terms the scientists she's...

trained as a shaman

Thomas Peters and Jeff Miller direct us to Tom Pedicone's blog, whose son Anthony attended Mass last Sunday at the Rochester Institute of Technology's Newman Center.  Celebrating was Fr. Richard Hunt, S.J., who, according to Pedicone: processed...

let's pretend

Reading Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's dissent from the recent "Honest Practices" decision, I was momentarily distracted by the following passage: It is practically gospel in the lower courts that the statute “does not encompass every instance of official...

going, gone

Mark Steyn explains why Western élites who think it's necessary "to throw out the babies to save the bathwater" have it wrong: It's striking that, no matter how many British women think globally and sterilize locally, the population of the United Kingdom keeps rising: those...

preparing for lent

What day is today? Right!  It's Day Two of "Transgender Awareness Week" -- at Seattle's Jesuit university, at any rate, where the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Trans & Allies Club are teaming up to deliver on the classic boast of Jesuit education: give us a boy,...

rather trying to keep his head down

The current Atlantic has a lengthy article by Paul Elie called The Velvet Reformation: partly a profile of Dr. Rowan Williams, partly a stock-taking of the state of gay lib in the Anglican Communion. The piece is characteristic of Elie in the extensiveness of the background reading and in...

the bishops and the economy

"Where it is not necessary for a bishop to speak, it is necessary for a bishop not to speak." I think the axiom overstates the case, but it is not without wisdom.  A bishop's appointed task is to sanctify, to instruct, to govern.  In brief: his job is to keep us from going...

ad majorem

 Insufficient attention to Chapter 20 of Leviticus and Chapter 1 of Romans has led to confrontation with Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.  The Seattle Times and the Seattle Post Intelligencer report: Confronted by scores of lawsuits alleging sex abuse by priests, the Jesuits of...

The Legion of Christ & its founder

 What do we know about the misbehavior of Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, deceased founder of the Legion of Christ? In strict terms: nothing. In part this is the fault of the Holy See, whose 2006 communiqué did not specify the wrongs in response to which it "invited"...

Marcial Maciel Degollado

An OTR reader sends us a  message concerning the founder of the Legion of Christ: The last few days a little editing war has been going on on Maciel's wikipedia page.  A paragraph was added early on the morning of the Jan. 28, by an IP address from Hartford, CT.  It was removed by...

semper fi, sometimes

"Cornerback Pollard Decommits from Irish" announces an article about a Notre Dame football prospect who decided to play for UCLA.  I confess the verb "decommit" was new to me. Linguists tell us that languages spontaneously produce the words required to deal with new...

martin on moral evil

In the course of a television interview, Dublin's Archbishop Diarmuid Martin is given a splendid chance to witness to the integrity and truth of Catholic teaching. So here's the Successor of the Apostles in action:  Interviewer: You can say yes or no to my question: do you think that...

on this special day, age-old values

Ashley Anne Stegman, age 9, from Girl Scout Troup 363 in Warren, Michigan, offered the following invocation at the opening of the 111th Congress:  Dear friends, let us remind ourselves in this special place, on this special day, that we are in the presence of God. Lord, we praise You at...

roger and out

The weirdness continues. Modalist heresy fans will remember that, back in 2004, the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith made known the results of its examination of Jesuit Father Roger Haight's book Jesus Symbol of God.  In the course of its examination the CDF dealt not with Haight...

lest we forget

Today, comrades, is a bittersweet anniversary. 'Twas ten years ago that the House of Representatives impeached President William Jefferson Clinton of perjury before a grand jury (by a 228-206 vote) and obstruction of justice (by a 221-212 vote).   Readers who followed the Clinton...

all the rage

 INAUGURAL PICK SPARKS GAY FURY claims a Fox News headline.  The "gay fury" commonplace prompted me to wonder: when was the last time gays were "mildly vexed" by some turn of affairs, and expressed "measured...

if it ain't broke, let's bust it

  "I divide my officers into four classes. The man who is clever and industrious is suited to high staff appointments. Use can be made of the man who is stupid and lazy. The man who is clever and lazy is suited to the highest command -- he has the nerve to deal with all situations....

rorschach exegesis: the bible as gay manifesto

The current Newsweek has an article by Lisa Miller pretending to take seriously the idea that the Bible looks favorably upon homosexual love and is properly used in support rather than rejection of same-sex marriage.  Here's the final paragraph.  My friend the priest James Martin...

top of the season

Re-heated for Thanksgiving, some pro patria perspective from the "misfit unassimilated foreigner" Mark Steyn:  Americans aren't novelty junkies on the important things. "The New World" is one of the oldest settled constitutional democracies on earth, to a degree "the...

hush, hush

Milwaukee's former archbishop Rembert Weakland raised eyebrows in 2002 when it was revealed the archdiocese paid off his lover Paul Marcoux in order to buy his silence.  A deposition taken last June, and now released, shows that Weakland was convinced Marcoux was blackmailing him if he...

you can't be any poorer than dead

Catholic shills for the Democratic Party enjoyed some success this year in publicizing the claim that abortions declined in the Clinton years because increased disbursements to social services allowed pregnant women to keep their babies instead of aborting them, whence we were to believe that the...

unprofessional

So here's the next move in the culture wars, an editorial cloud no bigger than a man's suspiciously well-groomed hand.  The Los Angeles Times has an editorial deploring the Holy See's newly-issued Guidelines for the Use of Psychology in the Admission and Formation of Candidates for the...

"very selective"

 Let's not be judgmental. They were young and needed the money. It's not as if they were Benedictines, after all. Boston College has cut a licensing deal with Victoria's Secret to market its logo on various delicate hand-washables. From the Boston Herald: Boston...

out with a whimper

  The retired Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, has recently issued a book in which he is interviewed by a German journalist on matters of topical and religious concern.  Sandro Magister, in reviewing the work, rehearses Martini's cagey dissent from Church teaching on...

how we've grown

 Former Notre Dame president Fr. Theodore Hesburgh, that venerable fraud, gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal recently in which he expressed himself on questions of topical import. Addressing the "leadership" issue, Hesburgh said  I have no problem with females...

the vicar is quicker and thicker and slicker ...

Ever feel despondent at our Catholic Church's problems with shonky theologians, quisling politicians, and triathlete-grappling bishops? Sure you do. If you think we've got it bad, however, there's always consolation around the corner. In times of distress, the C of What's Left of E...

unabashed

last man standing

While Nancy Pelosi is waiting to dialogue with Archbishop Niederauer about whether or not he can still call himself a Catholic, Senator Joe Biden is discharging his duty to NARAL by singing the quadrennial "I can't impose my Catholicism on others" refrain. Back in 2004 it was John Kerry...

true to himself -- or, liposuction on anorexics

The Sydney Morning Herald carries a lighter-than-air puff piece about Erica, né Eric, a deeply disturbed expat Pom who decided to lengthen his name and abbreviate his manhood. Naturally, Erica is thrilled with the change. Let me reposition the adverb. By the terms of...

values voters

I happened to be looking over an application form for an absentee ballot this morning. Question 3 asks the applicant to "check the appropriate category by which you are requesting an absentee ballot." Most of the options were predictable: "I am a student attending college...

goods common & uncommon

Clear, timely, forceful teaching from Chicago's Cardinal Francis George. Here are the key paragraphs:  In the midst of a lengthy political campaign, matters of public policy that are also moral issues sometimes are misrepresented or are presented in a partial or manipulative fashion....

citizen kane

In discussing the origins of the clergy sex abuse crisis in the United States, OTR has concurred with the judgment that places the chief blame on the bishops and religious superiors. At the same time, we have repeatedly attempted to draw attention to the important (and overlooked)...

so what's the big deal?

A recent issue of the Georgetown Magazine contains an article titled "Out on the Hilltop," which treats of gay students at Georgetown over the years, and advances the University's efforts to make its connection to Catholic teaching totally opaque. We're given a number of brief...

exposed at last