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.

'Get a life!'

Rich Heffern | Jul. 31, 2009

Teenagers, those perennial fonts of wisdom, often express themselves in timely, insightful clichés. One of my favorites is the exhortation, “Get a life!” It’s good advice. Since lifestyles are an outward expression of inner values (or lack thereof), in order to live simply and generously we must pay close attention to our inner spiritual reality. How do we find the way to the divine mystery and then how do we connect with it? Just living a life, with all its challenges, rewards, and ups and downs, is an engaging and productive spiritual path.

Weakland's memoir: fighting for an auxiliary

Tom Roberts | Jul. 31, 2009

I recently finished reading Archbishop Rembert Weakland’s A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church: Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop, and found it most intriguing for the eyewitness account he can provide of how deep the opposition to Vatican II was in the curia from the very start. He also provides the kind of look behind the curtain at the U.S. bishops and their meetings that only an insider can provide.

Gonzo Porn and America's Cultural Apocalypse

Thomas C. Fox | Jul. 31, 2009

Chris Hedges, the Pulitzer Prize winning author, got an early start in journalism with NCR and has contributed to the paper over the years. His books offer a strong moral critique of modern culture. In his latest book, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, he takes on the porn industry.

Morning Briefing

Thomas C. Fox | Jul. 31, 2009

Marking Elizabeth Seton's life

Italy ok's abortion pill despite church opposition

Catholic Diocese Ordains One Of Youngest Bishops In The Country

Indian police probe Catholic priest death

Catholic priest busted in sex sting in St. Louis County

The Catholic community's right to know

Tom Roberts | Jul. 30, 2009

An interesting opinion piece by Mary Raftery appeared in the July 27 issue of The Irish Times regarding publication of Dublin Report, the result of a government inquiry into clergy sex abuse in the Archdiocese.

If you cannot reason, scare the hell out of them

Thomas C. Fox | Jul. 30, 2009

Catholics United today strongly condemned a new television attack ad campaign by the Family Research Council's FRC Action lobbying operation that misinforms the U.S. public about health care reform. The Family Research Council's efforts are part of a broader “Stop the Abortion Mandate” campaign that is using abortion scare tactics to turn pro-life voters against health reform.

Professor George, what were you thinking?

Michael Sean Winters | Jul. 30, 2009

I can’t improve on my colleague Thomas C. Fox’s takedown below of Glen Beck’s outrageous comments calling the President a racist. But, the controversy caused me to watch Beck’s show last night. It is truly shocking that someone is allowed a prime time television slot who brings precisely no analytical capabilities to the task of reporting the news, who rants instead of argues, and who distorts history and the news in equal measure in fits of tortured logic that are pitiful even by the low standards at Fox News. I wondered to myself, “Why would anyone consent to be on such a show?”

Could Leonard Peltier leave prison next month?

Thomas C. Fox | Jul. 30, 2009

Leonard Peltier, convicted and sentenced in 1977 to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for the murder of two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents killed during a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, had his first parole meeting under the Obama Administration this week. There has been considerable debate over Peltier’s guilt and the fairness of his trial.

Freedom of speech -- at a price

Thomas C. Fox | Jul. 30, 2009

Glen Beck, the Fox News pundit, this week, you might have heard, called President Obama "a racist." The controversy began Tuesday morning when Beck, during a guest appearance on “Fox and Friends,” said that Obama – whose mother was white and who was raised by his white grandparents – has a “deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture, I don’t know what it is.” Partially challenged, he went on: “I’m not saying he doesn’t like white people. He has a problem. The guy is, I believe, racist.”