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.
It continues to amaze me: the repression in Honduras is every bit as bad, maybe worse, than that in Iran… yet media coverage is virtually non-existent. Might this difference have something to do with the fact that the U.S. government flatly opposes the government in Iran, but is at best ambivalent about the coup in Honduras? Is the mainstream media acting on those signals? I can’t help but wonder…
The role of end-of-life care has burst into the debate about health care reform. Among other thoughtful voices, Randall Terry on his radio program, has raised the specter of pressure being brought to bear on elderly people to end their lives to save the inheritance for the children. Of course, Mr. Terry insinuated himself in the most public, least dignified end-of-life situation in modern memory, the Terry Schiavo case which remains the most obvious example of how not to address these issues. But, hey, if you can exploit a bit of fear to kill health care reform, why not?
This morning I posted an article on the NCR web site having to do with the second phase of the Vatican-sponsored investigation of U.S. women religious. The article reports that for the first time since the news of the investigation broke last January, the Vatican is saying that it will involve a look at “the soundness of doctrine held and taught" by U.S. women religious.
Juárez is nicknamed “the capital of murdered women.” The border city of 1.5 million inhabitants draws tens of thousands of young women from small, poor towns with $55-a-week jobs in maquiladoras operated by such wealthy major corporations as General Electric, Alcoa, and DuPont.
Pope Benedict this week met with participants in the world swimming championships being held in Rome. Interesting that they were invited to the pope's summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. Wonder if the pope was watching the meet?
What happens to old Catholic churches that were boarded up because there aren’t enough priests to go around? In Worcester, Mass., as in a number of other cities, Pentecostals step in where Catholics used to tread.
Sometimes I actually find something written on the various health care proposals that sheds light, explaining with clarity an aspect of some possible legislation. Part of the confusion stems form the fact that health care opponents intentially try to obfuscate.
This column offers such an example and sheds a little light as well.
President Obama has said that ridding the world of nuclear weapons is the greatest task of the 21st century.
Now a Japanese family with the name of Shinzeki could conceivably be the means by which Obama could visit Hiroshima, the site of the first U.S. atomic bomb blast on Aug. 6, 1945. No U.S. president has ever visited Hiroshima.
Here is how the invitation could play out from local Japanese citizen into the Obama administration.
The Greenwich Times reports on the Peyton Place-like atmosphere at a Darien, CT parish. The case goes to trial in September.
Whistleblower Priest Testifies
Facebook Faceoff: No Friending Here
In First, Catholic Charities Tapped for Emergencies
Nurse Says She Was Forced to Assist in Abortion
Newspaper Apology: Canadian Prime Minister Did Not Pocket Communion
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