Everything Post

To keep everyone busy while I finish up my exams for the semester, here's a peek inside my inbox:

• Video: No, Mr. President: John Piper's Response to President Obama on Abortion
• E5: An apostolate that promotes men fasting for their wives, and not just them
• Video: Proud dad turns the camera on while his two-year-old prays 
• Gossip: Baby on the way for Mel Gibson and his mistress  (said this was everything...)
• Science: Scientists Unveil Missing Link in Evolution (sorry, doesn't look like Adam to me)
• Internet: Short & Tweet (WaPo story on "the art of twitterature" in 140 characters)
• Abortion: USCCB Media Blog parses the most recent numbers in search of meaning
• Irony: Catholic Gov. to NARAL: "those not yet born will benefit from your leadership" (!)
• Cool: The Archdiocese of Washington has a blog (see, all the cool kids are doing it)
• Action: Congressmen Challenge Obama on Abortion Conscience Clause Promise

There, ten stories. If you prayer a Hail Mary for me after each ... I'll be a whole decade thankful. :-)

Notre Dame is in the news, but does it know it?

Far from "promoting dialogue" in full transparency, the Notre Dame Office of News & Information seems to have a very different take on "ND in the News" than, well, the news.

So, in other words, Notre Dame is very in favor of promoting dialogue, just as long as it's the one-sided kind.

AmP on the road this weekend

I will be travelling over this weekend, so email access and blogging will be sporadic.

This doesn't mean the news has to stop, however: AmP readers are welcome to use the comment box below as a way to update each other on the news, using this format:

• News story title
• News story URL
• (if you want) A short description of the story
• (if you want) A short commentary on the story
• --> Other users may then comment on each story as a REPLY to it

An example:

Vatican: Holocaust denier's apology not enough

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/02/27/holocaust.bishop/index.html

"The Vatican said Friday it is not satisfied by the apology issued by a Catholic bishop who denied the Holocaust, saying the cleric must still clearly "distance himself" from the controversial comments."

Wow, this controversy just won't abet! Does Williamson still not get it?!

Thanks!

Top 3 Catholic News Stories Today

According to GoogleNews, anyway:

German Catholic leader wants Williamson response now:

A leader of Germany's Roman Catholic Church said on Sunday it was "almost ridiculous" that Bishop Richard Williamson has said he needs time to review evidence about whether the Holocaust took place. {This controversy can't end soon enough, if you ask me.}

Pope's choice for bishop declines:

A Roman Catholic priest has asked Pope Benedict to revoke his appointment as a bishop in Austria, after his promotion led to protests within the Church.

Gerhard Maria Wagner said the "fierce criticism" had persuaded him to ask not to be named auxiliary bishop of Linz.

Father Wagner has described Hurricane Katrina as God's punishment for the sins of New Orleans, and the Harry Potter novels as satanic.

... The resignation of Father Wagner came on the eve of an emergency meeting of all diocesan bishops in Austria, at which they had pledged to "give our best to overcome the crisis" according to Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn. {I think I'm mostly dissapointed that his nomination won't go through.}

South Korea's first Roman Catholic cardinal dies:

Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, South Korea's first cardinal and a tireless advocate for democracy who stood up to a string of military dictators, died Monday. He was 86.

Kim was ordained as cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1969. He passed away at Seoul's St. Mary's Hospital, said Lee Hee-yeon, an official with the Archdiocese of Seoul. {R.I.P.}

Tuesday Update: American Bishops Meet in Baltimore

AmP's picks for the best stories being published about the American Bishops' meeting today:

• John Allen: End may be in sight for great gibbet debate (i.e, liturgical translation debate)
• John Allen: We'll both help Obama and challenge him, George says (I hope to go through Cardinal George's statements soon - he's saying amazing, important stuff this week)
• CNA: Obama was elected on the economy, not on values issues, Cardinal George says
• (for background:) Fr. Z takes a look at Fr. Neuhaus on "Obama and the Bishops"
• (for background:) Russell Shaw on the "three types of bishops", via "the double-I."
• Whispers is on site and posting up a storm
• The press conference is being streamed here
• CNS live-blogged the morning public session again today
• Fr. Z asks why bloggers weren't invited to the "web 2.0" session. (I agree!)

That should keep you (and me) busy this afternoon.

Open thread: Top links for election day

I'm plowing through mountains of links today. Here are the best. Most recent links are at the top.

(And don't forget my video interview with Abp. Chaput on Catholic voting in this election!)

• My five observations about the 2008 election
• Gallup Poll Shows Advantage for John McCain Over Barack Obama on Abortion
• The best argument I've read today that McCain is winning and the polls are bunk
• Catholic Archbishop Burke: War Not Same as Abortion, Democrats Pro-Death
• Joe the Embryo: Considering what hangs in the balance today
• The Anchoress has good coverage, for instance: "Remember the Panhandle!"
• US Vatican official: vote pro-life and pray to Our Lady of Guadalupe (Whispers here)
• Church attendance ‘strongest gap’ in presidential candidates’ support
• We ‘will be judged by how we vote,’ says Fargo bishop
• New poll shows 13 point McCain lead among Catholics
• "Election of Obama would be a disaster" by the staff of Catholic Insight - a laundry list
• CNS notes that yesterday "Xavier University in Battleground Ohio Hosts Obama “Countdown to Change” Event" - did they think they could sneak it in without us noticing?
• Fumare contributes: "Pray through the intercession of aborted babies" - an arresting idea
• "Sed Contra Kmiec" (word document) - a rebuttal of Kmiec's most recent pro-Obama try
• [Come Visit, CNN readers.]
• Track the returns at HotAir

Consider this the first open thread of the day as well.

Friday link dump

I know, pleasant sounding blog title, right?

Anyway, links people have been sending me that might be of interst to you:

• http://www.onebabyonevote.com/ (Questions for pro-life, undecided voters)
• Bishop Loverde of Arlington, VA on "change for the right reasons"
• Vatican Encourages Psychological Testing to Prevent Homosexual Priesthood (LSN)
• Breaking news: Planned Parenthood admits infanticide (Jill Stanek) (LifeNews)
• Catholic voters no longer beholden to bishops and abortion (Jill Stanek)
• Render Unto Caesar (The Catholic Thing)
• Barack Obama's Health Care Plan Covers Abortion, Would Require Tax-Funding (LifeNews)
• Bishop Robert Carlson of Saginaw MI's statement for Catholic voters
• Bishop Tobin: "I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I could never vote for a candidate – of any party for any office – who supports laws that promote or allow the death of thousands of children in the hideous crime of abortion. I just don’t want that on my conscience."
• Bishop Zubik says "he will open up all the churches on Monday – some around the clock – so people can come pray about how they should vote on Tuesday"

And that's just a fraction of the stuff that comes across my desk daily. I think this is the good stuff.

update:

• Barack Obama Repeats Pro-Abortion Litmus Test for Supreme Court Judges (LifeNews)
• New Video Ad: Barack Obama Wants to Reverse Ban on Partial-Birth Abortions (LifeNews)
• Archbishop Elden Curtiss of Omaha (PDF file!): "I cannot conceive of a proportionate reason that could outweigh the deaths of nearly 50 million children killed by abortion."

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.

Two Monday morning reads

I'm easing back into the stream of things here after a busy, wonderful weekend (report to follow)....

In the meantime, Amy points out "My First Son - a Pure Memory" and Ross points out "Back in Iraq, Jarred by the Calm". The first is very moving and personal. The second is illuminating and hopeful.

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

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.

Further signs of disintegration in the Anglican Communion

More tremors felt .... Diogenes on the future of the Anglican Communion and ending with a whimper.

update:

"The Church of England's ruling General Synod has voted to consecrate women as bishops and approved a code of practice aimed at reassuring opponents." (BBC News)

update 2:

"There can be no future for Christianity in Europe without Rome," an Anglican bishop told the Sunday Telegraph this weekend, after it was revealed that a group of "senior" bishops from the Church of England has been in secret negotiations with the highest levels of the Vatican to discuss the current crisis in Anglicanism over the acceptance of homosexuality and female bishops. Bishops from both the Church of England's "evangelical" or protestant and "high" or "Catholic" wings are said to have been involved in the talks that some believe may presage a mass return of Anglicans to the Catholic fold. (LifeSiteNews)

A clearinghouse post through June 19

Unfortunately, over the past couple days I've put together several lists of interesting blog topics, only to be taken away from the computer before I was able to actually publish them.

To remedy this situation.... I'll just post them here:

• "Vatican bans Dan Brown film Angels & Demons from Rome churches" - UK Times
• "New Dan Brown movie banned from filming in Rome’s Catholic churches" - CNA
• "USCCB: Research on embryos crosses 'moral line,' bishops warn" - John Allen
• "USCCB: Vatican may rule on embryo adoption" - John Allen
• "Step Aside Facebook, xt3 is Here" - Pope2008 (I'll take a closer look at this next week)
• "Pope Benedict to confirm 24 at World Youth Day Mass" - CNA
• "Holy Father appoints president for the Pontifical Academy for Life" - CNA

Tomorrow I leave Michigan and head to Missouri for a visit with my extended relations.

Peggy Noonan on airport security, Pennsylvania, and Bush

My Friday morning treat is to read Peggy Noonan's latest column. Now it can be yours, too!

Pope trip: Thursday bloggables

Busy day today, so just the essential links:

• CNS provides us with the text of the prayer the pope will say at Ground Zero
• This article by Reuters, I am told, actually paints an accurate picture of Catholic youth
• Pope2008 provides "this inspiring video, from Catholics Come Home," explained here
• update: CUA named its papal essay contest winner, which you can read here.

Pope trip: Monday morning bloggables

At the top of the list, word from Rocco is that the Vatican Press Office will be releasing a "brief video message" from Pope Benedict XVI tomorrow morning addressed to us folks here in America. Cool.

So much good stuff happening on Pope2008 & Benedict in America, just click-over and peruse 'em.

Over at IP's Insight Scoop, Pope Benedict tells about his childhood, in his own words. He talks about soap.

Finally, the DC popemobile routes have been approved, and as soon as they are published I'll get them to you!

Pope Trip: Friday Morning Notables

A quick tour around the other papal visit coverage blogs, for some extra Friday diversion:

• USCCB papal visit blog: Past Papal Visits
• USCCB papal visit blog: A First Look at the Papal Missal
• Benedict in America: The Pope's Entourage
• Benedict in America: United Nations will permit the Pope to speak for twenty minutes
• Pope2008: The Itinerary from the Vatican
• John Allen: "Vatican fence-mending campaign with Jews picks up steam"
• Bendictions: "Pope's 'Loving' Fans An Added Security Challenge"

Pope trip: Friday Mar 28 Roundup

Five of the freshest papal visit stories:

• Jeffrey Tucker takes an extended look at the Washington DC papal Mass at TNLM.
• US News & World Report publishes a lengthy treatment: "Pope Reaches Out to American Catholics"
• Christendom College gets a special mention in "Pope to Meet with Catholic Colleges and Universities"
• John Allan has a brief update on papal visit preparations as part of his Weekly Column.
• Reuters has published it's first report on the pope's upcoming speech to Catholic educators:

"Pope Benedict likely will walk a fine line between trampling on academic freedom and laying down the law on orthodoxy when he meets with top U.S. Catholic educators next month, experts and observers say."

Note the choice of violent images: "trampling" and "laying down the law". And while I agree with the author that it takes precision to accurately relate academic freedom to orthodoxy, it is not true that these two realities are as necessarily opposed to one another as this sentence makes out. This sort of mindset, indeed, is why we need the pope to explain how these two concepts actually support and harmonize with one another.

Friday briefly noted news stories

Many stories, but mostly self-explanitory (helpful editorial comments in parenthesis):

• CWNews: Social encyclical coming in March? (he's really pumping 'em out now!)
• CWNews: Islamic law "unavoidable," says Archbishop of Canterbury (as in, "welcomed")
• CNS News Hub: Is McCain pro-life? (a question I'm going to be analyzing extensively soon)
• CNA: Catholic vote goes for McCain, Clinton (not surprising, as I've reported previously)
• CNA: Mother refuses to abort twin girls who knocked loose tumor (yes, you read that right!)
• CNS: Vatican officially announces April 15-20 papal trip to United States (like, duh)
• WaPo: Popemobile Will Appear on Washington Streets (you heard it here first)
• update: Prince Grand Master of the Soverign Military Order of Malta, Fra Andrew Bertie dies

Blog Bits - Jan 15th

A few stories that I haven't been able to fit in anywhere else:

• Mirror of Justice: "Wombs for Rent"
• CNA: President Bush proclaims “Religious Freedom Day” from Saudi Arabia
• CNA: Georgetown AIDS prevention study called inaccurate, biased against Catholic ethics
• CNA: Jesuits to elect new superior on Saturday
• CNS: Bishop [Olmsted] warns Catholics to avoid services started by Life Teen founder

Video: Pope Benedict visits Roman hospital

Pope Benedict XVI visited the Roman Hospital of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta "San Giovanni Battista". Raw video here. (Not very nice of them to disable video embedding. Humph!)

Quick update on the Golden Compass controversy

Details emerge, and the comedy of errors continues:

Donna Freitas, a visiting assistant professor of religion at Boston University, calls the Pullman books a "theological masterpiece" in an Associated Press interview. The article, as a whole, however, isn't so bad and hits most the important and widely-known points.

Regarding New Line Cinema's attempts to advertise The Golden Compass in Catholic publications, that deal is being brokered by Advertising Media Plus, which arranges group advertisement buys for Catholic publishing institutions. It is a division of the Cathedral Foundation.

Finally, Ryan of Catholic Audio submits his satirical version of New Line's already-famous advert: Finally, some truth in advertising.

Still no public word from the USCCB in response to New Line Cinema's flagrant misuse of an already-problematic review of The Golden Compass. For all my previous posts on this story, click here.

Friday news update

The top current stories:

• Meet the women who won't have babies - because they're not eco friendly
• Pope to purge the Vatican of modern music
• Catholics for Ron Paul links to Lew Rockwell's open letter to Catholics.
• Pope considers receiving Episcopalians and Anglicans into Church

The new encylical on Hope ("Spe Salvi") will be released Nov. 30:

• IgnatiusInsight
• Amy Welborn
• CNA
• CNA on the Angelicum's involvement

The Consistory of Cardinals is occurring now in Rome:

• CNS
• Amy Welborn First & Second
• CNA
• Whispers in the Loggia

Okay, back to leftovers!

Breaking: National Right to Life Committee to endorse Fred Thompson

Fred Thompson will be endorsed for president by the National Right to Life Committee, Republicans say.

The decision was disclosed Monday by two Republicans who spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the announcement that was expected Tuesday.

[- Associated Press]

Reaction? Diogenes is scratching his head. I am, too.

Papist Ponderables

Stories undeserving of their own posts, or a blogger too busy to give them all their due:

• CNA: Korean Catholic university opens new bioethics institute
• CNA: Brownback to give his seal of approval to McCain
• CWNews: Arabic outlets report Pope's call for religious freedom
• CWNews: Lay Catholics weigh in on Communion for politicians
• CurtJester: What do I do if a friend tells me she's pregnant?
• InsightScoop: A modern illustrated edition of St. Augustine's "Confessions"
• Boston Globe: Views mixed on Bush pick for envoy to Vatican
• CBS News: Pat Robertson Endorses Rudy Giuliani
• Michael Dubriel: Pope: Fads Come and Go–Only Gospel Eternal
• Reuters: German steeple challenges leaning tower of Pisa

... and then there were none.

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

Quick links:

• AMDG updates us on the latest strange episode in the Bp. Pelotte situation
• AMDG also provides us with the Hillary campaign's "Record on Issues of Faith"
• Link: UN official blames Catholic Church's ban on condoms for AIDS in Latin America
• Prayers: 500,000 people told to evacuate their homes in Southern California today

A few random stories of note

Via AMDG, "Cardinal Martini Speaks Out Against Latin Mass".

Via Powerblog, "Flight 93 memorial: 'Giant mosque'".

Via WiredCatholic (and the NZ Herald), Catholic priest's unholy YouTube outburst.

Via CSL, a disturbing thought: What would WYD be without condoms?

Via the AP, Philly Archdiocese Takes Out Movie Ads.

Pope Benedict says "thanks!"

CNA:

The Vatican has included a link on its website with a short message of thanks written by Archbishop Leonardo Sandi, Substitute of the Secretariat of State, on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI to all those who sent greetings for his birthday, anniversary, and Easter.