Important links for AmP & APP

American Papist on Twitter (regular updates particularly today) and Facebook (become a fan!).

American Principles Project on Twitter {fixed!} and Facebook (my association with APP explained here).

A trio of fascinating stories

John Allen has had three winners recently:

• Pope defends World Youth Day
• New Year's resolution: Make 2009 the 'Year of Africa'
• Top 10 neglected Catholic stories of 2008

I learned alot.

Nominations for Catholic New Media and Innovation Awards

AmP is in, and so can you. From LoveToBeCatholic.com founder Thomas Hall:

At long last, I am moving forward with an informal award to recoginize excellence in Catholic New Media and innovation. This is my small effort to bring attention to the good work of many talented people who unselfishly find unique and original ways to evangelize the Catholic faith.

I set up a special email account to accept suggestions: awards@lovetobecatholic.com

There are no specific award categories. I prefer to keep the nomination field broad and defined only as new media and innovation. It will be fun to see what suggestions people send to us.

Here is a link to my blog post about the awards.

Spread the word!

Magister posts his top Catholic news links

*Humph*, I'm not on another list.

Coupon for Christmas Shopping at Aquinas & More

Click here for the coupon:

Do AmP readers know of any other current coupons or promotions for online Catholic vendors?

Fr. Thomas Berg on "Digital Decadence"

As someone who spends a large amount of time in the "digital world", I found this thought-provoking:

This year, our Thanksgiving was interrupted by unsettling blips on our (plasma) screens, Blackberries or smartphones: A young man webcasts his own suicide. One hundred-ninety plus people are massacred in Mumbai by Islamic terrorists. A Walmart employee is trampled to death by a mob of shoppers on Black Friday.

Beyond the disturbing nature of these tragedies in themselves, I find myself disturbed about something else: about what becomes of these incidents in the information age. What cultural perils beset us as we digitalize and informationalize human tragedy?

[Read the full article.]

Wow, is this a useful link

I remember searching for something like this some time ago but I'm happy to find out that it now exists:

{Map of the Roman Catholic Dioceses in the USA}

Bonus feature: clicking on the map sends you to the official diocesan website! How useful - how bookmarked.

What I'm Reading - Today's News of Note

Today is crunch time on many fronts for me, so here's what I would normally blog about, but must instead simply point you towards. If time permits, I might come back and revisit some of these topics.

• Diogenes on NCR's all-but-explicit endorsement of Barack Obama (My take here. I must also add - to their own credit, they published my negative comment and many, many others)
• John Allen predicts 2009 is shaping up as a 'Year of Africa' in Catholicism
• Fordham Honors Justice Breyer with Ethics Award as Faithful Catholics Voice Criticism (Cardinal Egan certainly wasn't pleased)
• SDG finishes his comprehensive argument for why voting third party might not be the most prudential option for Catholics this year
• Two Catholic priests killed in Moscow (strange)
• LifeNews editorial: Pro-Life Voters Must Back McCain to Stop Abortion
• CatholicVote.com's "Barack Obama on the Issues of Importance to Catholics" (CV's Brian Burch also has a good summary of "Scranton Bishop Blasts ‘Catholic’ Groups"

... and don't worry, the time away has been well spent - as you shall see!

Also consider this today's open comment thread.

CatholicVote.com video nears 2 MILLION views

Simply incredible:


CatholicVote.com is the AmP website of the month (but I'm surely not responsible for all two million of those views). I'm also an occasional contributor to their group blog. Give both a visit!

Picture: Medieval Catalan Pantocrator Art

The Blog of the Courtier has an interesting post on the history of the Pantocrator theme in the art of the Catalan Pyrenees in the medieval ages. My favorite:

More here.

Of course, my personal favorite Pantocrator is in Florence, Italy. I took a photo of it when I had the opportunity of seeing it in person a few years ago, and subsequently turned it into a desktop wallpaper. If only the shot hadn't turned out slightly fuzzy. I am rather pleased it somehow is featured on the first page of Google Image search when you look for "Catholic wallpaper." I think it's a good entry.

Has anyone else discovered beautiful Catholic desktop wallpapers? Drop a link in the combox!

Opposing Views on voting for pro-abortion politicians

{update: this debate is now live and the post below has been updated to reflect it...}

I've been invited to contribute to the Opposing Views website by their editorial staff.

OV strives to "encourage intelligent, thoughtful discussion where all viewpoints are respected", and has been featured in the New York Times and republished on FoxNews.com.

I've posed the question: "Can Catholics Vote For Pro-Choice Politicians?"

I take the "No" position, and mention the (rare) exceptions where Catholics might vote for a pro-choice politician in this argument. I've also written:

• What have the Bishops Said Recently?
• My Reason for Answering "No" is *Not* Partisan
• A Brief Comparison of Platforms Through Catholic Eyes

Joining me in the "No" position are authors from The Catholic Thing, and Deal Hudson.

Taking the "Yes" position are Chris Korzen of Catholics United, Jon O'Brien of Catholics for a Free Choice, and Catholic Democrats. Pro-Life Pro-Obama evidently declined the invitation.

I would urge you to consider joining the debate. You can post your own comments, vote in their poll and let other users know which side you agree with. I hope that when third parties see the discussion, they at least come away knowing that many Catholics are faithful to the teaching and witness of the Church on this important question.

AmP earns a mention in Christian News Wire

This is actually a round-about way to mention PickAFig.com again:

The internet can be a wilderness, with thousands of articles written daily. Social bookmarking sites have arisen to help Internet users, but the popular ones, such as Digg, leave faith-based sites and postings out in the cold - or worse, the subject of ridicule.

PickAFig.com is a new site that offers a similar function, but with a focus on Catholic, Pro-Life, and Christian sites, news and resources. Users can submit links to news articles, blog postings, and websites, and vote on stories that others have submitted. The most popular and useful stories can then be easily recognized. Webmasters and bloggers can add small voting buttons that show a particular page's popularity on PickAFig.com, and allow their readers to easily vote or submit their content to the new faith-base social bookmarking site.

PickAFig.com launched in late July 2008, and in the past 2 months has maintained approximately 1,000 unique visitors a month, as well as support from Catholic bloggers and websites including the Curt Jester, American Papist, and BettNet. (Christian News Wire)

I promoted PickAFig (the "Catholic Digg") when it debuted. I think it's a great service and I hope it takes off.

Find information on every Saint and Blessed in one place!

A friend of mine was closely involved with this project. From the press release:

For the first time ever, the Vatican’s official list of saints is available online. eCatholicHub.net has created a searchable database of saints and blesseds based on the Roman Martyrology, the Vatican’s saint list. The database comprises 6,882 entries of men and women recognized for their sanctity by the Catholic Church.

While several saint databases are available online, none have the authoritative scope of the Roman Martyrology like the eCatholicHub database. The eCatholicHub database does not leave out any saint or blessed, making it the most comprehensive source for saint information on the Internet.

Mark Giszczak, a graduate student at Catholic University of America, teamed up with Jim Zapapas, a Denver database programmer, to create the database.

Check it out: http://www.ecatholichub.net/study/saints

They also have an extremely powerful way of searching the database, which is useful.

Here is a sample saint profile.

Keeping up to date on the World Synod of Bishops...

... will be easier with the CNS Bible Blog launch:

As the world Synod of Bishops gets underway at the Vatican, Catholic News Service today introduces on these pages the CNS Bible Blog. Entries in this new blog will be easy to find: Just look for the little photo of the Bible at left or click on “CNS Bible Blog” in the categories section on the right side of this page.

Here’s a link to short biographies of our writers for this special series. You’ll see that they include priests, religious and laypeople with expertise in both the Old and New Testaments.

Check back here often for what we expect will be an intriguing look at the books of the Bible as participants in the Synod of Bishops meet in what Pope Benedict has said will be an important gathering in the life of the church.

Whispers is also doing overtime and John Allen has more.

Participate in the Catholic Thing

I find the quality of essays over at the Catholic Thing to be excellent. After "numerous requests" (which would have included me if I weren't too lazy), you can now comment on the articles much like other blog-format websites. Hopefully the authors will find a chance to be active as well.

Canadian Bishops release 4-page voting guide

Our American version, by comparison, is roughly 42 pages (PDF here).

The Canadian 4-pager is here, again in PDF format. It has four principles:

• Respect for life and dignity of the human person
• Preferential option for the poor
• The war in Afghanistan
• Environment

"Why the Democratic Abortion Strategy is Worse"

For a very even-handed treatment of the question, read Mark Stricherz in America magazine.

Ph/t: Margaret Cabaniss of Inside Catholic.

Photos: 8 Wonderfully Distinctive Historical Churches in Italy:

My favorite - Basilica Santa Maria sopra Minerva:

View the rest here.

Linkfest: AmP's weekly story picks

Some stories sent to me recently that didn't make it into the standard coverage:

• Gunnar Gundersen: Obama’s Declaration of Dependence, Part One & Part Two
• CNN: Mexico's high court upholds abortion law
• The Australian: Unravelling and travelling: "Another new element in the equation is the burgeoning Catholic blogosphere, which in the past year or so has helped shape the hierarchy's sense of what it was possible to say and what was expected of them."
• UK Telegraph: 'Miracle baby' who grew outside the womb
• UK Telegraph: Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of Hamas leader, becomes a Christian

Tipfest: AmP's weekly website picks

As promised, a collection of recent links and tips I've been sent. In no particular order...

• First off, a new resource for Catholics called Headline Bistro:

"Headline Bistro: Sponsored by the Knights of Columbus, the site seeks to provide visitors -- Catholics especially -- with the Church, national and world news they need to know. We link to outside stories and columns, write a daily "News Wrap" from a Catholic perspective, provide visitors with information on the top public-policy issues by state, and have a list of featured blogs, among other resources."

• Next, an extensive collection of tips to foster vocations - something for everyone!


• A wonderful project: Pro Woman Pro Life - "Canada without Abortion. By Choice." Also see their Facebook page. They are growing rapidly so please consider supporting them.


• Catholic Media House provides content for the new evangelization on the internet:

"We strive to provide you with Catholic Christian resources faithful to the Holy Father and the magisterium of the Church. With these resources bishops, pastors, priests, catechists, youth directors, and teachers/instructors of all varieties are now able use media in a positive way to re-evangelize the baptized, disciple and mobilize them for evangelization and to be a blessing. It is a great joy to assist you in this noble and essential cause."

• Finally, not to be missed - Catholic Exchange has a new website dedicated to bioethics!

Priest to hold "online" nun beauty pageant

Someone completely missed the reason why nuns wear habits:

An Italian priest says he is organising the world's first beauty pageant for nuns to erase a stereotype of them as being old and dour.

Antonio Rungi says The Miss Sister Italy online contest will start on his blog in September.

"Nuns are above all women and beauty is a gift from God," he told Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper.

He is asking nuns to send their photos to him, saying that internet users will then choose the winner.

Father Rungi stressed that nuns were not being invited to parade in bathing suits, saying it will be up to them whether they pose with the traditional veil or with their heads uncovered.

"This contest will be a way to show there isn't just the beauty we see on television but also a more discreet charm," the priest, who lives near the southern city of Naples, told the Corriere della Sera.

"You really think all nuns are old, stunted and sad? This isn't the case anymore," he said, pointing out that many young nuns had arrived to Italy from around the world.
He added that the idea of staging such a contest had been suggested by nuns themselves. (BBC News)

I'm all about addressing false stereotypes of nuns, but a beauty pageant isn't the best way to do it.

Link: Catholics Against Joe Biden

A solid crew of guys have put this blog together in a short time frame, but already have it stocked full of relevant content (remind me again how Joe Biden's selection was supposed to attract Catholics?).

Go visit, bookmark and please consider promoting. See my first post on Joe Biden here.

Catholic newspaper's investigative reporting puts to shame local press

From a tip:

I can't think of many diocesan Catholic papers that do significant investigation and reporting but our own Catholic Key, under new leadership for the past year (Jack Smith, editor) is making some waves. Blasting the Star all the way for its silence, he's turning up all sorts of questions on the "Bodies Revealed" exhibit at Union station in an ongoing blog.

The CNS blog, to it's credit, has picked up on the above-linked reporting.

It's a wonderful but often-neglected truth that Catholic journalism can fill in the gap left by ideologically-driven secular reporting, and this appears to be a good example of that fact. Keep it up.

New English translation of the Mass available online

A quick-snip from Rocco:

But in the meantime (and of much greater import), the recently-recognitioed texts of the revised Order of Mass have been revealed by the USCCB -- the complete "White Book" is available in PDF.

Have at it, and maybe say a quick prayer in gratitude for the invention of the Internet.

Online Game: Life of an Athiest

Here's a find.

A simple online game called "Athiest."

Go ahead, play it once (don't spend too much time trying to memorize the keys, that's not the point).

And if you're in a rush, this is the point.

(as in, there is no point.)

Tip: The Art of Manliness Website

I think this is one of the web's best kept secrets. It's an entire website/forum (and fascinating, informative) blog as a place for men to learn how to be better men.

I haven't tracked this down for sure, but I'm almost positive that Christians run it.

They frequently discuss virtue, prayer, how to treat women properly, and other decidedly non-mainstream talking points.

For instance, instead of the usual pictures of scantily clad females, AoM offers posts like "How to Give Flowers Like a Victorian Gentleman" & "4 Ways to Date Your Wife All Over Again."

Isn't that great stuff?

Bookmark it, then show your sons/friends.

New internet search engine unveiled, clearly needs work

There's a new internet search engine in town called Cuil (pronounced "cool"). The AP talks about it:

Anna Patterson's last Internet search engine was so impressive that industry leader Google Inc. bought the technology in 2004 to upgrade its own system.

She believes her latest invention is even more valuable—only this time it's not for sale.

Patterson instead intends to upstage Google, which she quit in 2006 to develop a more comprehensive and efficient way to scour the Internet.

The end result is Cuil, pronounced "cool." Backed by $33 million in venture capital, the search engine plans to begin processing requests for the first time Monday.

Cuil had kept a low profile while Patterson, her husband, Tom Costello, and two other former Google engineers—Russell Power and Louis Monier—searched for better ways to search.

Now, it's boasting time.

For starters, Cuil's search index spans 120 billion Web pages.

Patterson believes that's at least three times the size of Google's index, although there is no way to know for certain.

Personally, it already failed my litmus test:

Oh well, I hope they work out the kinks. Google did.

"World's oldest Bible goes online"

Very cool:

The oldest known surviving copy of the New Testament gets the modern touch Thursday when parts of it go online for the first time.

The British Library plans to begin publishing the Codex Sinaiticus, a 4th century text handwritten in Greek, on its Web site. The Gospel of Mark and the Book of Psalms go online Thursday. The full manuscript is to be online in a year.

Translations of the Codex Sinaiticus have long been widely available, but publishing images of the manuscript online will let anyone see pages that, until now, have been viewed in detail mainly by academia.

As the Web site becomes operational, it will show photographs of each page of the text, with links to translations in English and German. There will also be a search function.

"It contains the earliest complete copy of the New Testament," said Scot McKendrick, the head of Western Manuscripts at the British Library. (CNN London)

The Gospel of Mark's grammar is on the simpler side, so it's more accessible to entry-level Greek scholars.

News of Note - July 14th Edition

It's a busy on-the-run sort of day for me, so I'll just serve up the essentials. My Top 10 for today:

• An Open Letter to Prof. Doug Kmiec from Deal Hudson - A must read for those watching
• We Shall Not Weary, We Shall Not Rest - Pro-Life rallying speech, most inspiring
• WYD: Transcript of Benedict XVI press conference - Direct from the source, via J.A.
• CNA to unveil extensive, in-depth coverage of WYD - I'm excited, and watching
• Holy Father appoints new bishop to Diocese of New Ulm, Minnesota - The basic facts
• Fr. Lombardi: 'The Pope is happy and without problems since arriving in Australia' - Good!
• Pope speaks on sex abuse, environment, Anglicans - CWNews breakdown of the transcript
• New Ulm, New Bishop - Rocco Palmo's coverage and details
• Flying Into Winter, "Spring in His Step" - Rocco's coverage of the pope's landing
• New Bishop of New Ulm, MN - Bp. Elect John Levoir - Fr. Z's friend got the nod

Honestly, there's just so much going on.

Photopost: Mass & Burial of aborted infants in Detroit

Diane reports on the strong showing of local support and witness:

It is an act of mercy to bury the dead. These babies got a funeral and burial with the highest level of dignity. I can't say how many people were there, but believe there were no less than 600. All I know is that the Sanctuary was full of clerics and altar boys, the pews were filled to capacity, the wooden risers periodically used by the choir in the back were full, and people were still standing in the aisles, in the vestibule, and even out on the front steps.

She has published an extensive and exemplary photopost of the event.

Encyclical reporting and the "ginger factor"

Tom via Jeff:

The Ginger Factor, named for a well-known "Far Side" cartoon, is a measure of the ratio of words said to words understood. A dog named Ginger, for example, only understands the word "Ginger" in the sentence, "Okay, Ginger, if you get into the garbage one more time, you'll be spending the night outside."

I think most people, not just benighted reporters, experience a high Ginger Factor with most papal encyclicals; my post below includes a paragraph from an apostolic letter that has a high G.F. for me. Naturally, a reporter doesn't report on the parts of a papal statement that sound like, "Blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah. blah" And naturally, a reporter does recognize (and report on) the part that sounds like, "This means Senator Rawkins is being naughty."

As Jeff explains, in the case of Spe Salvi, all the reporters can really comprehend gets boiled down to the sentence "Pope blasts atheism", and he has quite a few example headlines to demonstrate that.

Hmm, I wonder notable cases of militant atheism we've been talking about could take note.

Thursday afternoon news tidbits

Three to nibble:

• Offbeat: "A farm vehicle in the Vatican City?" (I'd love to find a picture!)
• CNA: Pope to meet with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia next week (a first ever)
• CNA: Draft of English translation of Missal completed (eta? end of 2008)
  

Tuesday morning tidbits

A few notables:

• AMDG publishes an Open Letter to Archbishop Niederauer
• LSN informs us that the Miller apology doesn't cut it
• CNS News Hub tells us that Archbishop Wilton Gregory is to undergo prostate cancer surgery

We should keep the Archbishop in our prayers.

Monday morning link-fest

Plenty happened over the weekend, and here are the highlights:

• Diogenes destroyed the nonsensical attempts of the MSM to claim the Catholic Church is responsible for spreading AIDS in Latin America (as I did earlier last week here). The director of the Population Research Institute in Latin America doesn't buy it either. A Ugandan AIDS activist makes the case to LifeSiteNews that the opposite is actually true.
• Carl Olson posted about the Da Vinci Code sequel, and what we can not look forward to.
• Rod Dreher told us why he isn't letting his kids see the Golden Compass (I provide more reasons first here then here) and points to some possibly-negative things about Huckabee.
• Jeffrey Weiss of the Dallas Morning News asks J.K. Rowling to kindly shut it. Meanwhile, Rowling acts "surprised."
• Philip Blosser comments upon an article by Peter A. Kwasniewski on problems in the new lectionary. I post this mostly because I like keeping up on my old professors' doings.
• AMDG points out that 1] Miller Brewing has apologized for its endorsement of the deeply-offensive Folsom Street Fair (AmP covered the story here - I'll see about removing them from "the list"), 2] Catholics Against Rudy has a new petition, 3] Zenit has an interview claiming that the tide is turning against the culture of death among youth. Also, 4] some feisty papist kids protested that Holy Cross conference featuring NARAL & PP booths. AmP covered that story here and followed-up here.
• Next, CNA published stories about the Fishers of Men vocations DVD winning a hollywood award [more from AmP here], about Browback possible endorsing (?!) Guiliani, about a construction company that really want to build abortion clinics, about the new U.S. ambassador to the Vatican being a pro-life feminist lawyer, and about growing Catholic Radio.
• Oh yeah - almost forgot - Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone thinks that the pro-homosexual ad campaign started recently is "a bit strange". I thought so, too.
• LifeSiteNews alerts us to huge new abortion centers opening up to prepare for a Hillary presidency, to an attempt in Congress to ban further Planned-Parenthood government aid, to American Life League providing a U.S. map of all PP abortion centers, and finally, to Judie Brown saying that Cardinal McCarrick’s comments on Communion for Pro-Abort Catholics are a "poke in the eye to believers".
• The MichiganCatholic has a fine article about Detroit seminarian (and former-classmate of mine) Craig Giera, who is not only an excellent seminarian, but a phenomenal artist.

Meanwhile, in properly-papist news:

• Damian Thompson writes: "As I predicted in July, meltdown in the Anglican Communion has persuaded thousands of traditionalist Anglicans that it’s time to come over to Rome. And Pope Benedict is very keen to welcome them."
• Sandro Magister reveals: Cardinal Giacomo Biffi commits his memoirs to a book. And here's a preview: the speech he gave in the closed-door meeting with the cardinals. And also, his critical views on John XXIII, on the Council, and on the "mea culpas" of John Paul II "
• And Pope Benedict Beatifies ... with a vengeance! Nearly 500 Spanish martyrs!

... and people ask if blogging is like a second job. ;-)

Sunday Morning Link-Fest

Reading material. Coverage & commentary will resume Monday:

• CNS: Ten years later, Oregon's is only U.S. law allowing assisted suicide
• CNA: College's Catholic status threatened for hosting pro-abortion groups at conference
• CWNews: Rosary ban for Beijing Olympics?
• LSN: Like Ann Coulter, All Faithful Christians Believe "Jews Need to be Perfected"
• LSN: Nobel 'Peace' Prize Awarded to De-Population, Abortion Advocate Al Gore
• CNA: Political expert examines the Catholic Vote for 2008 (It's Hillary.)
• AFP: One in five pregnancies ends in abortion: study
• Catholic Times: Extreme makeover: Vatican newspaper’s survival depends on its revival
• Hollywood Reporter: Vatican getting more active in Italian film business

Editorial: Archbishop Niederauer's unacceptable apology (Phil Lawler of Catholic World News)

Saturday Night Link-fest

Three quick ones:

• Video: Cardinal O'Malley at Theology on Tap
• Rocco Palmo updates us on Consistory of Cardinals Rumors
• Gerald Augustinus gives us "Our Lady of Area 51" pics (link fixed)
• GA also has pictures of the new Fatima church
• AP: Vatican Bars Gay Cleric After TV Program
• Mark Shea: The Gospel of Ann Coulter

Papist Links, Thursday September 13th

Stories of note, but time precludes analysis:

• Benedict XVI's Q-and-A Session With Youth in Loreto (Zenit)
• Hey Briney, it was never about your singing! (Catherine Harmon at InsightScoop)
• So Much for 10% Gay: New Statistics Show Homosexual Couples Represent only 0.6% of All Couples in Canada (LSN)
• Lutheran leader raps Vatican stand on Reformation communities (CWNews)
• Catholic Beer Review (Phillip Blosser)
• New personal secretary for Pope Benedict XVI (CNA)
• Seminarian Video: The Attack of the Bowl Washer!

The Vatican City-State goes on-line

Update:

• CNS: Vaticanstate.va: Navigating the world's smallest country
• CNA: Vatican City State enters the digital world

CWNews:

Vatican, Jul. 18, 2007 (CWNews.com) - The Vatican city-state now has its own web site, to compliment the busy site maintained by the Holy See.

The new web site-- (http://www.vaticanstate.va/) [or http://212.77.4.63/EN/homepage.jsp] -- provides general information about the history, structure, and government of Vatican City, and links to some of the departments of greatest interest to visitors, including the Vatican library, publishing house, and stamp office. The site also provides links to the Vatican Museums and the media sites operated by the Holy See.

The new site makes an impressive collection of photos available online, allowing web visitors to take a virtual tour of the Vatican gardens, the Vatican Museums, and even the collection of automobiles donated to the Popes. There are several webcams, updated constantly, giving viewers different views of St. Peter's Square, the palace of the Vatican City governorate, the Vatican basilica, and the tomb of Pope John Paul II (bio - news).

The web site is the result of collaboration between the governatorate of Vatican City State and Telecom Italia.

I think they're still working some of the kinks out (and probably getting bombed with visitors).

Nevertheless, much coolness!

Monday roundup of interesting links

Sadly, I am elsewhere occupied until the evening.

In the meantime, however, here's the topics I would blog about at length simply linked:

• CNS: Pope OKs stricter norms for mandatory feast days in church calendar
• Against the Grain has excerpts from John Allen's Brazil coverage
• Dom has a thorough analysis of Pope Benedict's address to Brazilian bishops
• Most the texts from the Pope's trip are now up at the Vatican website
• CWNews: Tough papal challenge for Brazilian bishops // Family Day rally in Rome dwarfs expectations //Faith, not politics, will save Latin America: Pope
• Rocco takes a look at Bertone and visions, as well as Bertone visions.

And finally, what day would be complete without some Motu mania?

• the UK Times makes reference to the Alice von Hildebrand rumor
• WDTPRS notes the oddities in the article and provides some short commentary

Links for the weekend

A varied assortment of interesting links:

• AP: Iran's Khatami: Pope Comments Still Hurt
• Reuters: Rising Protestant tide sweeps Catholic Brazil
• CNS: Unlike pesky paparazzi, pope's photographers snap coolly, with class
• C-L-S: The Chesterton Talk
• Bettnet: Texas bishop on futile care
• LifeSiteNews: President Bush Tells Pelosi: "I will veto any" pro-abortion legislation
• The Hillary clinton fundraiser: Dom & Diogenes comment.

And finally - I'm *insanely* jealous. :-) Gerard met with Cardinal Schonborn, and will post material from his interview with him upon his return to the states. I can't wait!

Update:

• Bishops Conferences Admit to Approving Abortifacient Drugs for Rape at Catholic Hospitals
• China Boasts One Child Policy has Reduced Green House Gas Emissions

An exercise in bad poetry, and worse ideology...

... skillfully shredded by Gabe @ Social Foundations. Seriously, it is profoundly embarrassing (and indeed, offensive) that VT invited this lady to mourn over the dead with this awful, narcissistic, woefully-inadequate text.