Mark Silk at RNS has a brilliant takedown of George Weigel's prebuttal to the encyclical on the environment.
A "Third Way" at the Synod? Not really. Sandro Magister reports on a proposal by Dominican theologian Fr. Thomas Michelet. The problem with the proposal highlights the key change that the Synod - and the whole Church - should be considering, namely, our mistaken belief that we can claim to be "in a state of grace" and, therefore, in some sense "worthy" of receiving Communion. I am all for penitential practice - but not only for the divorced and remarried.
At the Crossroads celebration of the life of Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete a few weeks back, the evening began with pianist Christopher Vath and violinist David Han Marks playing a work I had never heard before, Arvo Part's "Fratres." It is stunning, haunting. Here is a video I found online: