Morning Briefing
Pope: Nazi concentration camps a symbol of evil
Married man ordained as Catholic priest in Canada
NCR Today
NCR Today is the group blog of NCR. Each member of our diverse team of bloggers writes on different topics, including the politics of the church and secular society (and the interaction between the two), culture, management of the church and more.
How to Pay for Health Care, Not Whether we Can or Should
The news today that the unemployment rate dropped is unabashedly good. Of course, almost a quarter of a million jobs were lost last month, a piece of data that contains an enormous amount of human suffering. And, the White House says it still expects the unemployment rate to rise to 10 percent by year’s end.
It will be curious to see how the administration’s opponents will respond to the news. Just yesterday, they were arguing that the stimulus bill was not working, although it was always clear that it would take more than a few months for the effects of the stimulus to be felt; You don’t just plunk billions of dollars into the economy, you have to identify projects and get them the funding.
Obama Open to Creation of Health Cooperatives, DeParle Says
Today's Bloomberg article notes that President Obama's administration is open to nonprofit health insurance cooperatives.
Daniel Ellsberg to begin writing a 'nuclear memoir'
After Labor Day, Daniel Ellsberg’s Web site, , and some other sites including Truthdig, will start regular installments of his insider’s memoir of the nuclear era—“The American Doomsday Machine”—an Internet book reflecting his earlier classified work and 40 years of research.
Kudos to Father Larry Snyder
Rev. Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA), has been named as one of the nation's top nonprofit executives of 2009 by The NonProfit Times (NPT). This is the second straight year for Fr. Snyder to be recognized on the list. The newspaper's 12th annual "Power and Influence Top 50" illustrates the importance of community service and the critical role volunteers play in transforming society.
Honduras: the 1980's All Over Again?
I spent many weeks in Central America in the 1980’s when people of faith were trying to stop the Reagan war policies and were deeply concerned about human rights in the region.
The stories I hear from the Quixote Center delegation in Honduras today sound a lot like the reports of repression and human rights violations I heard in the 1980’s.
Briggs has written a provocative and thoughtful essay
Ken Briggs, an occasional blogger on this page, has written a provocative essay on our web site today. It's a challenge to the religious women leaders who will gather in New Orleans next week. It is not a challenge in the sense that he claims to know and then he tells the women what they should do. It is, rather a empathetic reflection that says, "I understand; you are in a very difficult spot."
Carl Kabat, behind bars again
I feel bad that Carl Kabat finds it necessary to protest, as he does, knowing that his actions will lead him to spend more time in prison. But his conscience demands that he acts, and he does. I think he wonders why more consciences don't make similar demands, given that we are living with insanely immoral nuclear weapons and most of us are hardly giving it a second thought.
Broken Windows
Los Angeles is in a bit of a shock these days, so if you visit here – forgive us if we seem distracted. It’s not because some major movie star has just walked by, or because the Dodgers are still own first place in August. The reason is William Bratton: the best chief in this city’s history has just told everyone he’s stepping down.
Celebrating the life of a soldier who hated war
Henry John “Harry” Patch, who at 111 was said to be Britain’s last survivor of World War I, spent the last few years of his life condemning the futility of war and noting, as The New York Times put it in an appreciation today “the common humanity of soldiers who meet as enemies on the battlefield.”
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In This Issue
May 10-23, 2013
- Illinois parish's ESL program welcomes all
- A different Mary assumes the stage
- A question few seem to consider when the US wages war afar
- [Print Edition Only] Special Section: Summer Listings
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