Fr. Jay Toborowsky has a great new blog – I’d point you to the posts on a NYTimes article from today about renovating the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, as well as his thoughts after a funeral for two young people.

Jimmy Akin is speaking at GodBlog06 out in CA at Biola University, and especially sends the word out to Catholics – he’s the only Catholic speaker. Here’s more.

Kathy Shaidle wonders about Andrew Sullivan

The Arkansas Catholic has been digging up some interesting local Catholic history lately (last week or so it was the story of the lost, now restored mural in the Eames-designed church) – Now it’s Elvis at the Catholic Club:

The story goes that Elvis Presley was kicked out of the Catholic Club for signing the thigh of a teenage girl after he performed there in 1955. The sisters of Sacred Heart Academy banned boarding students from attending Presley’s shows, after the rumors of his shocking "hip gyrations" had reached their ears.

Stories about the future King of Rock ‘n Roll in Helena vary as much as the opinions on his unique music style. Though the details of Presley’s legendary expulsion have been muddied by 50 years of creative storytelling, most agree on this basic point: the late Father Gregory Keller, former St. Mary Church pastor, told the ambitious musician to leave and never come back.

It is a very, very entertaining story, with lots of fun nuggets:

"We would all go backstage and talk and visit and get autographs. He was very congenial, very nice," Von Kanel said. "The guys hated him".

<snip>

"He was so conscious of his hair," she said. "He combed his hair more than anybody I ever saw in my life."

And this, proving it really is ancient history:

Presley even drew the attention of America, the national Jesuit magazine, in its June 23, 1956, issue. Titled "Beware Elvis Presley," the author quoted several newspapers around the country that found Presley troublesome. One described a performance in Wisconsin as a "’strip-tease with clothes on,’ (and was) not only suggestive, but downright obscene."

Via CNS’s very good News Hub, pulling good stories from diocesan papers around the country.

I’ve not yet listened to the Hugh Hewitt-Andrew Sullivan discussion, but I will. The Lileks parody of a Sullivan interview is shorter, so I got that one in.