Skip to main content

Links!

Penitens has the text of B16's Inaugural Mass Homily. His discussion of the Pallium and the Fisherman's ring is interesting. What I personally expect to see from B16 in office? This report from Scotland sums it up:
The matters in question fall into four related areas: Church governance, theological speculation and instruction, priestly formation and religious practice. Who knows how long he may have for the task and what resistance he may meet, but Benedict XVI will aim to reform and renew the Church. Part of this involves purification. He feels deeply shamed and personally disgusted by the revelations of sexual abuse and the failure of bishops to deal with it. In some parts of the world national and regional conferences of bishops will be wondering, and worrying, about what may soon come their way from Rome (sackings are not inconceivable). In somewhat similar vein he will continue the challenge to those employed in Catholic institutions to teach in accord with the faith and morals of the Church. This is sometimes depicted as a desire to impose personal views but that is the opposite of the truth: he will demand loyalty to the teachings of the Church from those who would use the cover of its institutions to pursue their own opinions. Again I expect to see action on this front with consequent outrage, particularly in North America.
The Maverick Philosopher shares some wisdom about the use and abuse of words in the political arena. Dennis Mangan gives us an example from Spain. What did I think of Paul Martin's TV stunt last week? The Blue Maple Leaf hits the target. I love this picture. Kate's blog is superb too. Get Religion is also a stellar blog, and also also about media. This post deflates one of the many criticisms of Catholicism that seem to bounce around endlessly, with seemingly little to sustain them other than the fact that people seem desperately to want to believe them. The whole 'Aids in Africa is the Vatican's fault', heard so much since B16's election, is equally dubious.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Wordpress

My move to Mac has been very happy except for two issues - gaming and blogging. For websurfing and multimedia, a Mac is of course a terrific machine. Games on the Mac platform are often ports of games made for the larger PC market and that means a Mac gamer will have to wait for the port. I'm not a heavy gamer by any means but I am very happy that the Mac port of Civilization 4 is finally here. Well, my copy isn't here quite yet - but it has been ordered and ought to be here soon. The blogging issue is more complicated. I'm not fond of writing my posts in a browser window. This goes back to when I was first blogging and I lost one or two large posts into the ether. After that I moved to w.bloggar - a great little app that let me compose on my desktop and then click send when all was said and done. I have not been able to recreate that experience on my Mac, and not for a lack of trying! I looked at Marsedit , but that forces you to compse while staring at a bunch of HMT...

Da Vinci: It bleats, it leads

The trouble with The DaVinci code is certainly this : the fundamentals of the Christian creed can be summarized in a few sentences easily learned by schoolchildren and recited aloud from memory by the whole congregation on Sunday. They are great mysteries to be sure - Trinity, incarnation, redemption, salvation, crucifixion, resurrection - but they are simple enough to explain. Contrast that with the account Mr. Brown offers of a centuries-long fraud, sustained by shadowy groups, imperial politics, ruthless brutality and latterly revealed by a secret code "hidden" in one of the world's most famous paintings. The Christian Gospel offers a coherent, comprehensible account of reality that invites the assent of faith. It requires a choice with consequences. Mr. Brown's dissent from Christianity offers a bewildering and incredible amalgam of falsehoods and implausibilities, painting a picture of a world in which the unenlightened are subject to the manipulations of the fe...