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Pontifications

First it was Focus on the Family’s new CEO saying he wanted to “see more families like Obama’s,” and now it is Ralph Reed invoking the President as a role model of sorts. Reed, the wunderkind behind the Christian Coalition during its glory days, has since traded on his values work for more lucrative lobbying…

French president Nicholas Sarkozy wants to ban burqas–the head-to-toe covering worn by some very conservative Muslim women. The burqa, he says, is a symbol of “enslavement,” adding: “I want to say solemnly that it will not be welcome on our territory.” Sarkozy has never been one to doubt his own infallibility on all matters, or to…

William Donohue, the outspoken head of the right-tilting Catholic League, has a neat thumbnail sketch of the politics of the bishops conference. It is contained in an email message he sent to USNews’ Dan Gilgoff, apropos of Dan’s post arguing that “the silent majority of U.S. Catholic bishops are embarrassed by conservative bishops’ outspokeness on…

The canonization process for the wartime pontiff is an ongoing source of drama–and tension. The latest dust-up concerns remarks by Fr. Peter Gumpel, the Jesuit promoter for Pius’ cause for sainthood, who blamed Jewish pressure for the delay in the controversial pope’s beatification. As the CNS story has it: Speaking at a Vatican bookstore in Rome June…

No doubt you Dads got wonderful gifts and lots of love, but will any of you smell like a Holy Father? You could if the family had thought to buy Fred Hass’ private formula, The Pope’s Cologne, the recreation of what was apparently the preferred scent of Pius IX. Not exactly the most loveable of…

If the new Focus on the Family CEO loved Obama’s family values a few days ago, how much more will he love him now that he’s pushing so strongly for responsible fathers? “When fathers are absent, when they abandon their responsibility to their children, we know the damage that does to our families,” Mr. Obama…

From the WaPo, via dotCommonweal: Kenneth W. Starr – investigator of President Bill Clinton and longtime pillar of the conservative legal establishment – has endorsed President Obama’s choice for the Supreme Court. During a question-and-answer session after a speech Thursday in Los Angeles, Starr said he “supported the nomination” of Sonia Sotomayor to the high…

That’s how this Plain-Dealer profile describes the Rev. Bob Begin, Cleveland’s “rebel priest,” who has grown savvier as he has grown older, but still with the same zeal on behalf of his flock. The story focuses on Begin’s campaign to fight Bishop Richard Lennon’s order to close Begin’s parish, the 129-year-old St. Colman’s Church, one of 50 parishes Lennon…

Who said it? Not Focus on the Family’s old lion of the religious right, but his successor as CEO, Jim Daly. (Pictured at right in a Denver Post photo.) As the Denver Post reports (via Dan Gilgoff at US News), Daly’s remarks appear to signal an important–and smart–shift: A few months ago, when the 72-year-old Dobson resigned…

Benedict XVI, in his letter today proclaiming a “Year for Priests,” puts forth Saint Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney–the Cure’ d’Ars–as the model, since this year is also the 150th anniversary of the death of that remarkable French pastor. On the other hand, centering the Year for Priests on Vianney gives the celebration–and the pope’s letter–a decidedly nineteenth-century caste, which may…
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