From Emer O’Kelly’s “Women may shun mass but church won’t listenâ€:

But it doesn’t seem to occur to the campaigners for both ordination of women and an end to priestly celibacy that the Catholic Church is deeply and powerfully misogynistic: it fears women. It fears our sexuality. Indeed,

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Before a child’s First Communion comes First Reconciliation (the Sacrament of Penance). According to Church doctrine, prior to partaking in the Eucharist, one must confess, do penance, and be absolved of sins committed since Baptism. 

I was both confused and nervous in the weeks… Read full post »

More on transubstantiation, courtesy of “The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist“ (from the Catholic Enyclopedia), which claims to “prove” that Jesus indeed is inside those crackers. Here’s just a tiny bit of a very, very long and crazy article:

The total conv

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When I was in second grade, a few months before we had our First Communion, my class took a field trip to the bakery where our parish’s Communion wafers were made. This field trip was just one part of the First Communion preparation process, and I suppose that our teachers hoped… Read full post »

From a 2007 pastoral letter (PDF) on “the dangers of pornography” by Robert W. Finn, Bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City. What strikes me here are the not-so-implicit assertions that an individual cannot be trusted to make his or her own decisions and that an adult should rem… Read full post »

From The Guardian: “London buses to carry female ordination advert during pope’s visit”:

In a move designed to coincide with the pope’s visit to Britain in September, London buses are to carry posters calling for the ordination of women.

The initiative, from the UK group Cat

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I posted every day for six weeks or so, and then, suddenly, I didn’t want to post at all anymore. It began to feel like a job, and I wasn’t enjoying it very much. I want to enjoy blogging, and I want to be able to write about/post about things that… Read full post »

Song of the week: The Who’s first single, 1965′s “I Can’t Explain”. The song’s promo video (shot in 1965) is so adorable and Mod-y and fun:

I heart The Who, especially the early stuff. And especially Keith. ♥

 

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In Catholic doctrine, delicta graviora refers to a serious and grave violation of canon law, either “committed in the celebration of the sacraments [or] committed against morals”. These violations are handled by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office that Pope… Read full post »

I’m pretty sure that I’ve discovered the love child of Andrew Brown and Mark Vernon (he of The Holy Rabbit fame). His name is Ed Halliwell and his piece in today’s CiF, “Buddhism in education: Buddhist meditation is justified in schools by its practical benefits. But thereR… Read full post »

Remember Francis Phillips of the Catholic Herald, who recently wrote a nasty and sanctimonious article about Christopher Hitchens? That article was entitled “Perhaps throat cancer will move Christopher Hitchens to a change of heartâ€. I wrote about it here. Anyway, I just noticed that the Catholic… Read full post »

I recently re-watched Kenneth Branagh’s splendid adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry V. The entire film (and play) is wonderful, but I’m especially fond of the interaction between Henry and Catherine in Act 5, Scene 2, in which he, with charmingly clumsy sweetness, tries to convince h… Read full post »

Yesterday, Hawaii’s governor Linda Lingle vetoed a bill (full text here) that would have legalized civil unions for same-sex couples because she wants the issue to be decided by public vote:

I am vetoing this bill because I have become convinced that this issue is of such significant societal

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Oh holy crap. Someone may have out Cristina Odone-d Cristina Odone. That someone is Francis Phillips, a writer for the Catholic Herald, who yesterday posted a piece entitled “Perhaps throat cancer will move Christopher Hitchens to a change of heart”, subtitled “The ‘Scourge of God… Read full post »

David Cameron has appointed a “special representative” to coordinate the Pope’s September visit to the U.K. This representative, Chris Patten, is extremely concerned. Not concerned about the sexual abuse of children and its institutionally-sanctioned cover-up or about the obscene am… Read full post »

Check out Ben “Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place- science leads you to killing people” Stein’s 4th of July commentary (which aired on CBS’s Sunday Morning), in which he informs us that American democracy is now completely free of racism,… Read full post »

Song of the week: Belle and Sebastian‘s lovely and delightfully catchy “Wrapped Up In Books,” from their 2003 album Dear Catastrophe Waitress:

 

I will say a prayer, just while you are sitting there
I will wrap my hands around you
I know it will be fine
We’ve… Read full post »

“Dear Annie” is a syndicated advice/ “Agony Aunt” column written by two editors who worked for the late “Ann Landers” (a well-known advice columnist). These women, to put it as nicely as possible, are often extremely insensitive and rude.

Here’s an example o… Read full post »

Although I’m not a sports fan (to say the least), I really enjoy the World Cup. At first, the vuvuzelas of DOOOOOM annoyed the hell out of me, but I’ve since become so accustomed to them that I can almost tune them out.

And now I know their secret!:


(Via Fake… Read full post »

My new theory: “Cristina Odone” is Bill Donohue‘s sockpuppet. Exhibit A, from her latest column:

I talked last night to one of the Catholic Great and Good. He’d been involved, he admitted rather sheepishly, with organising the forthcoming papal visit to Britain. And h

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You know what, Christina Odone? Christopher Hitchens’s illness is not about you. I realize that this may be difficult for you to wrap your self-obsessed and hateful little brain around, but try. Try to understand how despicable it is to use someone’s personal health crisis as an excuse to… Read full post »

Well hello there, creepy non sequitur!:



Oh, of course! Consuming legal adult pornography turns men into pedophiles who run down the street chasing after small children! What an irrefutably logical claim.

*sigh*

(I took this photo a few years ago in a small town on the Oregon coast.… Read full post »

From The Paris Review‘s 1975 interview with P.G. Wodehouse:

INTERVIEWER
How did you create Jeeves, then?

WODEHOUSE
I only intended to use him once. His first entrance was: “Mrs. Gregson to see you, sir,†in a story called “Extricating Young Gussie.†He only had one other line, “Very

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Andrew Brown, the Guardian’s Fool in Residence, has written another painfully ridiculous excuse for a column: “Richard Dawkins’s backwards logic over atheist schooling,” subtitled “Richard Dawkins’s belief that any properly brought up child will naturally be an ath… Read full post »

I still can’t quite wrap my head around the fact that Chuck Norris has somehow become a “cultural commentator”. Seriously? Chuck frakking Norris? This dude?

He’s morphed from an ass-kickin’ action “star” (and “Action Jeans” spokesman!) in…

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