Pope Francis has now once again (though to judge by the so far sparse coverage, you’d think he’d never said or done anything before) expressed his abhorrence of clerical sex abuse. Previous popes—indeed most senior clergy—are normally too reticent, however, to do what he has now done as well, that is to say, he has … Read more
American journalists are ungracious whiners. That was my original conclusion based on the torrent of gripes about substandard accommodations in Sochi. I understand that Americans are grossed out by yellow water and toilets that don’t flush paper. But for people whose job is to keep us all informed, the reporters seemed surprisingly unaware that these … Read more
Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, has called the Rolling Stone’s recent cover story on Pope Francis superficial, negative, and crude. That’s a good start. “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” the title preens. Well, all change is “progress,” right? As we all know from the history of the past 100 years … Read more
Shortly before the new year, a number of religious organizations were given protection from the HHS abortion and contraception mandate. While social conservatives and defenders of the First Amendment cheered, numerous prominent media organizations manipulated basic scientific facts to deny that the mandate—required by federal law—forces people to fund abortion-inducing drugs. Media Matters did this at least twice, … Read more
Being quoted by the press often leads to an out-of-body experience. This happened to me this weekend when an article posted by the Religion News Service was sent out through the wire and landed at the Washington Post, Huffington Post, National Catholic Reporter, and many other outlets. Every time I would read a new posting … Read more
Of all God’s creatures, those most amiable must include koalas, pandas, dolphins and penguins, only the last two of which are aquatic. If one goes with most evolutionists, penguins used to fly and flying would have made it easier to escape their chief enemy the leopard seal, but their ability to swim made flying too … Read more