This Week's Headlines

As another week comes to an end, this is your chance to top off your glass with a final helping of news, current events, and just plain interesting stuff that may not have made into the mainstream media. A chance to linger for a few more moments before we close the door on the week. Below are some links to articles, blogs, and miscellaneous happenings that caught my eye over the past few days. Sample what you like - I'll serve up more next Friday...

45th World Communications Day - Message from Pope Benedict: "The task of witnessing to the Gospel in the digital era calls for everyone to be particularly attentive to the aspects of that message which can challenge some of the ways of thinking typical of the web...I invite young people above all to make good use of their presence in the digital world."

Why the Male Priesthood Always Made Sense to Me - "As an outsider looking in on this religion, I didn’t see how anyone could believe that Christianity is true and simultaneously question the fact that God sees the two genders as having distinctly different roles."

The Failure of Liberal Catholicism - "The conservative claim is more modest than the liberal claim, because conservatives do not offer themselves as spiritual paragons—a conservative Catholic can readily admit to being a bad person in need of redemption.  Liberals, on the other hand, claim to have actually found a better way of being Christian. Given human nature, that is a promise they cannot fulfill."

When Your Only Tool is a Hammer, Everything Looks Like a Nail: Why physical science is not enough and why we need the full range of disciplines and branches of knowledge. - "Indeed the very word “science” has come to mean for many, merely the physical sciences. But, traditionally, theology and philosophy were (and still are, according to many) considered to be sciences."

Obama: 'Kill Babies or I'll Hurt the Poor' - "Big Abortion has instructed the Party of Death to make an example of Indiana to ensure that no other states dare to defund Planned Parenthood."

How About a Washing Machine that Actually Works? - [Interesting piece about the affects of government mandates. Read this and then think about how healthcare might be affected when government starts meddling.]

The Truth About Catholic Social Teaching - "The 2012 election seems likely to be defined by a major national debate on the welfare state, government spending, and social responsibility...So perhaps a review of the basics is in order, to put the forthcoming argument on a more secure footing."

You're not speaking in tongues, you're just mumbling - "The apostles and the other disciples in the early Church were not mumbling random syllables when they 'spoke in tongues,' rather they were speaking true human languages."
The Gifts of the Holy Spirit: What They Are and How to Use Them - "These seven gifts are taken from Isaiah 11:1-3a.  Isaiah's prophesying that the Holy Spirit will come to rest upon Jesus Christ. And this means he has to describe Who the Holy Spirit is."

What New Agers Have Right - "In many ways the New Age movement is a rebellion against modernism. So here are a few things that New Agers have right contra modernism."
 

A New Bridge Across the Tiber - "Archbishop Donald Wuerl is working with interested parties to establish the ordinariate in the United States, and progress is being made in Canada and Australia for ordinariates to be erected there later this year."

54 Anglican Clergy to Defect to Catholic Church in Pentecost Ordination - "The first of a series of ordinations are set to take place, which will see former Anglican clergy defect from the Church of England and become Roman Catholic priests, on Saturday."

The Blessings of Poverty - "In the immortal words of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, 'It’s no great shame to be poor.  But it’s no great honor, either!'"

Mystical Meaning of St. Gabriel's Annunciation Mary in Hebrew - [Brief but fascinating explanation of how the Angel's greeting links Mary to Eve.]