If Vatican Cardinal traditionalist Medina thought it fit to overturn the entire collection of English speaking Bishops’ conferences then we are at an interesting point in history: neither reformers nor traditionalists seem to trust the Bishops. This article from US Catholic will be a very helpful addition to the fixit category of Church. Right now the [...]

History hurts! Clearly, the great enemies of the Church, the great enemies of Christianity in general, are…members of the Church especially its officials….Christians in general…comic situations or criminal reigns of terror depending. For a serious reflection  about all this we could read Cardinal Newman’s struggle with the differences between a sect (high standards) and a [...]

The chaplaincy start up always requires remote preparation. This is now the beginning of my third year. When the student leadership was interviewed before I was hired they were asked if they would accept a lay person. They said they would be their preference was that the Catholic community center on the Eucharist so they would [...]

The Tablet (London) carried an article free to all who want to access the story of the new Roman Missal. The author ‘s  concerns about the destruction of the 1998 Missal aborted by a Vatican office you should know about. There is something tragi-comic here… (the thumbs down  Cardinal cannot speak English but he objects to a translation [...]

John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter has an excellent article on the self-inflicted wounds of the Vatican. January 2009 was one of the lowest points of this papacy and of the recent Church I have ever experienced. That was the month when Pope Benedict lifted the excommunication of illegally ordained schismatic Levebrist bishops. One [...]

Maybe I should tag this with archetypes. George David Weiss has died. He wrote songs… among them  “I can’t help falling in love with you” that Elvis sang in Blue Hawaii. Weiss was 89. I am not as venerable. I use the movie Blue Hawaii as a visual of what Honolulu looked like before the high [...]

Twice this past week I have seen columnists say that the European welfare state cannot save the USA which is in dire need of saving. A major reason is that now the boomers (we boomers as you knwo from other posts)  are getting old we will deplete the resources of such a welfare state…IF we can [...]

Stuff accurate if not sympathetic about  priesthood would make a short list. One of the most accessible items is also popular: the Spiderman movies, especially number 2. His mission makes him a loner  because those he loves would be in danger if they were in on the secret. One solution, love nobody, would dehumanize him. The [...]

This is a  new category. I came across an online Penguin catalogue which disappeared when I got to the H listings. Penguin, is of course, the class act of paperbacks. I look for a shelf of  penguins in the movies and they show up  especially in British and French productions. French movies usually always have [...]

He was my civics teacher in 7th  grade which means he taught the US Constitution. This was standard 7th grade fare way back then. In some ways it was a boring class because the US was then on the side of the angels: religious freedom, free speech, due process, no torture, only at war when [...]