So what's the significance of Aug 6th and 9th?
As we approach the August 6th and 9th anniversaries of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I wonder how many people even take notice of these dates? ...
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.
Morning Briefing
Hard Times for Catholic Schools
Press Release: Marriage ‘Crusade’ Launched
Pro-Life Website Profiles Obama Catholic Advisor
Arizona activist faces death threat
Isabel Garcia, a Tucson, Ariz., attorney whose work on behalf of immigrants has earned her international acclaim, has received a death threat from an individual claiming to offer a half million dollars to anyone who might assassinate her.
Newman's beatification scheduled
Simon Caldwell of Catholic News Services is reporting that Cardinal John Henry Newman will be beatified in Birmingham, England, May 2. The date and venue have been proposed by the Vatican Congregation for Saints' Causes and are expected to be accepted soon by the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, the source told CNS July 15 on condition of anonymity.
The presidential pitch
One of the "rules" of political campaigns is never have a politician play a public part in a sporting event. They will get booed. This is a particular instance of a greater rule: Know your audience.
Sports fans come to a stadium to watch sports. For some it is merely a fun pastime. For others sports is an escape from the quotidian, a literal "field of dreams" where people can indulge their fantasy of sports' greatness through the power of their imagination. For others, cheering for the home team is part and parcel of local loyalty, as anyone who has been in Red Sox Nation during the playoffs knows. No one, repeat no one, comes to a ball game to see, still less hear from, a politician.
Italy to press UN on compulsory abortions
Yesterday the Italian parliament, currently controlled by center-right parties, approved a resolution introduced by a close friend of the late Pope John Paul II to press the United Nations to condemn the use of compulsory abortions as part of population control programs.
The most commonly cited example of compulsory abortion in the world is usually China, where the country's one-child policy was strictly enforced as recently as the late 1990s, especially in urban areas. More recently, however, declining fertility and rapid aging have induced China to relax the policy somewhat.
From time to time, the prospect of compulsory abortion is floated elsewhere. In 2006, for example, Bulgaria's Minister of Health suggested a policy of mandatory abortions for pregnant girls under 18 who belong to the Roma people, more commonly known as "gypsies." Under pressure from international human rights groups, the idea was abandoned.
Alumni sue to keep school open
The fight over the fate of Towson Catholic High School in Maryland escalated Tuesday when the alumni association filed suit against the school's parish and its pastor over the abrupt closing of the school. The group is seeking an injunction to keep the school open at least another year.
"This closing is a slap in the face to the alumni and to anyone who ever loved this school. We were ready to remedy this through various options, but we could not get the [Baltimore] archdiocese to the table," said alumni association president Paul Mecinski, who announced the lawsuit at a rally last night.
Mark Graber, professor of law and government at the University of Maryland School of Law, has said an injunction might be difficult but is possible, given that many parents had paid their deposits and begun making tuition payments for the new school year.
"If they have put down money, the parents have fulfilled their part of the contract with the school, in the understanding that there is going to be a school," Graber said.
Morning Briefing
Abortion and the Surgeon General
Harry Potter Praised by Vatican Paper
Kissling Questions 'Common Ground'
Charities Try to Meet Food Demand
VOTF's financial shortfall
Religion News Service's story about the funding crisis at Catholic reform group, Voice of the Faithful, (Here's the story Tom Roberts filed for us today) quotes Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, which Religion News describes as a "conservative advocacy group":
Lessons learned in a July garden
I picked the last of my bib lettuce last night. It had begun to bolt in the hot July weather. Eating it at lunch today I couldn't help but notice how it was almost bitter and how different the taste is then when I began harvesting the lettuce in May. The first leaves were fragile and sweet. Today’s leaves are tough. And bitter. But still so much better than what we can buy at the supermarket. I realized, too, that eating only commercially grown lettuce I would have missed the change in tastes.
I was prompted to reflect again about the holiness of working a garden. Dare I say that it is sacramental? I feel gratitude while in the garden. I feel connected to something beyond myself. The mystery that is nature. The blessedness of God's creation. (Fellow NCR staffer Rich Heffern writes much more eloquently on this subject.)
These things were on my mine when I came across this essay by Jack Heppner of Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada:
Pages
NCR Email Alerts
Sign up to get NCR updates by email. Existing users: change your preferences here. Enter your email address in the box below and click “Go.”
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
Not all of our content is online. Subscribe to receive all the news and features you won't find anywhere else.