Sacrament of Confession featured in yesterday's House MD episode

Regular AmP readers will remember that I like the TV show House, MD.

Yesterday's episode featured the character Dr. Robert Chase, who is a Catholic and, in the show's back story, attended seminary for a year before deciding he wanted to become a doctor.

At a pivotal point in the episode, Dr. Chase goes to confession.

I thought the show treated the Sacrament of Confession and the necessary contrition for absolution in a very good, even theologically-informed, manner. The priest came off as somewhat distant, but also as someone with integrity and a sure moral compass.

Nothing on TV about matters of faith is ever perfect, but Dr. Chase's choice to not seek absolution and remain obstinate, I predict, will result in even greater difficulties for his character in the episodes ahead.

House, MD - like most shows about hospitals, doctors and patients, is ultimately a drama about life's ultimates, about matters of life and death. With the stakes so high, it's good to see the show's writers also discussing such issues as faith, sin, confession and morality.

If you watched the show - what are your thoughts?

Tip: Fr. Euteneuer talks about exorcism on EWTN this Friday

AmP readers were very interested in my tip of last week about Matt Baglio's new book "The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist." This means you might also be interested in this news:

EWTN’s is going to interview Fr. Thomas Euteneuer about his new book on exorcism this Friday, April 3, at 8 p.m. ET. Fr. Euteneuer is president of Human Life International and an exorcist. His new book is called “Exorcism and the Church Militant” [I'm waiting for it to appear on Amazon]. Fr. Euteneueur has been in the news lately saying that Pope Benedict feels there is a greater need for exorcism today and that he desires more priests to be trained as exorcists."

Should be an interesting interview! You can watch EWTN online live, right here.

Shocker: Palin viewership nearly matches Obama!

Have any doubts about Palin mania? Read on!

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's highly anticipated speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night nearly matched the record-setting numbers of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Palin pulled in 37.2 million viewers across broadcast and cable networks, according to Nielsen Media Research.

That's 55% higher than Day 3 of the DNC, when her Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden, and President Clinton took the stage (24 million).

It's also up a sharp 99% from the Republican convention's third day in 2004 (18.7 million). In fact, it came close to upsetting Obama's historic address on Thursday -- the most-watched convention speech in history (38.4 million viewers). (LifeFeed)

Wow - that's really impressive.

Members of the View showcase their ignorance, yet again

Jimmy Akin takes a look at the comical theatrics that occurred when various members of ABC's The View recently tried to discuss Rudy Giuliani and Abp. Burke's threat to deny him communion.

Jimmy says their comments were offensive. I won't even give them that. I don't respect their opinions enough to find them offensive. I'll grant that their stupidity is offensive, but that's a different matter. I sometimes hope that their stupidity is intentional (to get ratings). Useless.