William Donohue, the outspoken head of the right-tilting Catholic League, has a neat thumbnail sketch of the politics of the bishops conference. It is contained in an email message he sent to USNews’ Dan Gilgoff, apropos of Dan’s post arguing that “the silent majority of U.S. Catholic bishops are embarrassed by conservative bishops’ outspokeness on…

The canonization process for the wartime pontiff is an ongoing source of drama–and tension. The latest dust-up concerns remarks by Fr. Peter Gumpel, the Jesuit promoter for Pius’ cause for sainthood, who blamed Jewish pressure for the delay in the controversial pope’s beatification. As the CNS story has it: Speaking at a Vatican bookstore in Rome June…

No doubt you Dads got wonderful gifts and lots of love, but will any of you smell like a Holy Father? You could if the family had thought to buy Fred Hass’ private formula, The Pope’s Cologne, the recreation of what was apparently the preferred scent of Pius IX. Not exactly the most loveable of…

If the new Focus on the Family CEO loved Obama’s family values a few days ago, how much more will he love him now that he’s pushing so strongly for responsible fathers? “When fathers are absent, when they abandon their responsibility to their children, we know the damage that does to our families,” Mr. Obama…

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