Pontifications

Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston and now a cardinal five years into his difficult tenure there, cracked wise in his installation homily about his “lace-curtain” pretensions given that he’d moved to Florida (Palm Beach, no less) from his posting in Fall River, before being called back to Boston. It was one of the many…

An earlier post on the 40th anniversay of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical on contraception and procreation, “Humanae Vitae,” referred to various doom-and-gloom scenarios that champions of the teaching attributed to our wayward rejection of the encyclical’s reasoning and conclusions. Among those I did not see until later were claims that the widespread rejection of the…

Write your own caption below. (CNS/L’Osservatore Romano photo via Reuters from the USCCB home page.)

The Society of Jesus, popularly known as the Jesuits, today mark the feast of their founder, Ignatius Loyola, a saint (and order) for whom I have especial affection. Besides, my daughter was kind enough to be born on this date! There are lots of links and places to reference, but here are just two. First,…

Coming soon(ish), depending on subsequent approvals, all-new prayers and responses for the Mass, courtesy of that old-fashioned fellow, Pope Benedict XVI. Why this tradition-minded pope is pushing so many retro innovations is another topic. And I’m sure anything to do with the so-called “liturgy wars” is going to provoke fire and brimstone. The middle ground…

Or rather, the Jesus Cheeto, as it’s being called. Yes, we’ve found Mother Teresa in a cinnamon bun (until it was stolen) and of course the Virgin Mary everywhere (check out this gallery). Now we have Jesus in a Cheeto, found by a Texas woman, and via the Dallas Morning News blog. According to the…

When Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Benedict XVI, one of the first–and perhaps more surprising, given its liberal bent–endorsers of the choice was PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA has never been shy about invoking Christianity in its cause (an ad campaign last year portrayed Jesus as a vegetarian at a Last Supper…

The most remarkable thing about last week’s 40th anniversary of the release of Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI’s watershed encyclical upholding the ban on artificial contraception, is how little comment it aroused. That’s because birth control is at once a major issue and a non-issue. It is a major issue for those in the hierarchy,…

Never thought you’d see that connection, eh? Well, think again. I’d forgotten in my earlier Batman post to refer to one of my favorite superhero pastimes, figuring out the religious affiliation of comic book characters. ReligionLink.org has an edition dedicated to parsing this topic for journos, and it prominently features–as any such discussion must–the website…

Any satellite radio subscribers out there? I’m not–yet–but I’ve been on the Catholic Channel on Sirius Radio a couple of times, mainly with Fr. Dave Dwyer and the Busted Halo crew, who are probably more my speed than the channel’s lead personality (well, after Cardinal Egan–“And now, a word from our sponsor…”), the inimitable Lino…

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