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Here’s an analysis that might be helpful to reporters getting ready for the papal visit: John Thavis of CNS does a very nice job of examining the Pope’s Psalm Sunday homily and drawing from it continuing themes of Benedict’s message: The exclusion of God from personal and social life, the pope has argued, inevitably leads to…

Fr. James Martin poses the question at the America blog A good discussion at Deacon Greg Kandra’s blog My brief (hah) answer: No. Done correctly, with appropriate settings, even with a lot of baptisms, the Vigil really shouldn’t last over three hours. If it does (as was the case w/what Fr. Martin reports) – the…

Here’s the point about press coverage. Perhaps you could call it my manifesto on the subject. American press coverage of the papacy has had a single overriding theme for twenty-five years: the dissonance between what the Pope represents and the way American Catholics actually live their lives. There are numerous variations of this, but that’s…

A few days ago, I blogged on reporter Gary Stern’s piece on Benedict, which had some good points, but was hampered by the thematic focus that Benedict is a “mystery” to “many.” Stern has responded to bloggers’ criticisms, particularly Carl Olson. Carl reports and responds here.  Stern maintains that most people don’t understand Benedict, and…

Thanks to Dan at the Whapsters: (It’s a Catholic riff on this) Trappist: You have two cows. You do not appreciate their mooing, yet require their milk to craft high quality fudge. You assign them to a novice. Jesuit: You have two cows, but everyone from Louis XIV to Pastor John at 1st Community Baptist believe you…

Science fiction writer John C. Wright joined the Church last Saturday night.  Now he has questions, which are being very helpfully answered by all comers over at his LiveJournal. I have heard my whole life how corrupt and superstitious the Catholic Church is, so, now that  I am in, where do I sign up? I’d…

Over at the Papa Ratzinger Forum, the inestimable Teresa Benedetta – who can turn out good, reliable, faithful translations of the Pope’s words literally days before the Vatican gets back  around to it, lets loose on the Vatican’s less-than-effective efforts in communicating what the Pope is saying in a timely manner: And what is keeping Fr.…

I have actually been working on a post pulling together the Pope’s homilies from Holy Week, but I should have known that Sandro Magister would beat me to it – thank heavens! And  – reminder to journalists. Do you want to make some headway in clearing up the Mysteries of Pope Benedict. Start here. (And…

Oh, back to satisfying our ‘satiable curiosity about liturgy around the country and around the globe. I’ve always enjoyed these threads because it’s just interesting to see the diversity – welcome and unwelcome. I think it’s also good for us all to see how important liturgy is – skeptics, even in Catholic circles, sometimes dismiss…

Carl Olson does a nice job with this one: What happens when an American journalist with a typically dualistic “conservative vs. liberal”, politics-are-everything perspective tries to understand Pope Benedict XVI? He becomes a bit befuddled, as does Gerry Stern, in a piece posted by USA Today titled, “Benedict still a mystery after 3 years as…
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