1. A great interview with Pope Benedict's secretary. My favorite parts:
Bild: The Holy Father once said that he experienced his election as a ‘guillotine’. How is he doing now in his office?Msgr. Gänswein: The guillotine is a very harsh image. Cardinal Ratzinger, as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had a primarily defensive role; before anything else, he had to defend, deflect, take the coal out of the fire. As pope he has a lot more opportunities to also act offensively. The Holy Father is an excellent teacher, he has to gift of the word, he loves writing. He speaks clearly and intelligently. With his words he fills the heart.Bild: If you had to name three characteristics that you appreciate in the pope, which would they be?Msgr. Gänswein: Unyielding faith, humble strength, disarming mildness. His style is gentle, but he is rock solid in the execution.Bild: You work very closely together. Is there anything that annoys you about the Holy Father?Msgr. Gänswein: A close working relationship does not lead to annoyance. On the contrary, it removes it. Of course there are moments when the Holy Father needs to take a break because of great external pressure. I try to create space so he can catch his breath, to hold the pressure at bay, so that he can collect his strength. I must admit that I have never seen him in a bad mood, not as a cardinal and not as pope. He is always courteous and gentle towards people.
2. Fr. Dwight of Standing On My Head has a great post on visiting the cathedral in Las Angeles. I love that he doesn't take the usual stance of bemoaning everything that is wrong with it, but is realistic and charitable.
There are so many things to say about this remarkably successful papal visit that I can’t fit them into one blog post. But if I had to produce an immediate response it would be delight that Pope Benedict is no longer a stranger to the British people. They know him now; their curiosity has been aroused by his powerful message and their hearts warmed by his perfect manners and grandfatherly little grin. David Cameron has just made this clear in his speech at the airport: we have heard you, he told the Pontiff, adding that “you have challenged the whole country to sit up and think”....Compare the protestors to the Catholics in Hyde Park: old Polish ladies, tweedy gents from the shires, African hospital cleaners, self-consciously cool teenagers, Filipino checkout assistants and, as one of my friends put it, “some rather tarty-looking traveller women who’d obviously had a glass or two”. They don’t call it the Catholic Church for nothing: if not a universal cross-section of humanity, it was a damn sight closer to it than the humanist smugfest.
5. You should download this mix of Coldplay's "Clocks" with Sufjan's "Chicago." (for free) It's amazing how well they fit together. I think they took "Clocks" down a few keys, but it sounds perfect.
7. I am really not into sports, but I find stories like this one very interesting: Ohio Bobcat's attack on Brutus Buckeye has rocked mascot world
8. A great piece from Archbishop Dolan: "No one who prays is ever alone."
Down I went. Yet, as I approached, I saw his lips moving, as if he were in conversation with a friend; his eyes were closed, although he was not asleep, because the rocker was moving; he hardly looked lonely at all, because there was a smile there …Then I saw the rosary in his hand, and the breviary (the book of daily readings and prayers, mostly from the Bible, which we priests promise to pray daily) open on his lap … and I realized he was enjoying the best company of all.
9. Crazy, beautiful story: Secret Jewish heritage converts neo-Nazi
And yet I welcome her.I begrudge her nothing.For, in her company,I have learned to lovethe spring.
People who think that a book—even R.L. Stine's grossest masterpiece—can compete with the powerful stimulation of an electronic screen are kidding themselves. But on the level playing field of a quiet den or bedroom, a good book like "Treasure Island" will hold a boy's attention quite as well as "Zombie Butts from Uranus." Who knows—a boy deprived of electronic stimulation might even become desperate enough to read Jane Austen.
14. Survey: Americans don't know much about religion. Take the quiz at the bottom of that page and see how you do. I think that my circle of friends and readers would probably trend higher than the norm.
This scares me and motivates me to teach at the same time:
Forty-five percent of Roman Catholics who participated in the study didn't know that, according to church teaching, the bread and wine used in Holy Communion is not just a symbol, but becomes the body and blood of Christ.
“The commitment to deliberately espouse our Catholic identity is what has brought about the blessings we’ve had on this campus,” said President Jusseaume. “When we hire new people I talk to them about our identity and tell them that we’re ‘deliberately Catholic.’”
19. My classmate Brian has some good responses in this article. Pray for him as he will be ordained a deacon this weekend.
21. I haven't finished this article on "Why there is no Jewish Narnia," but I wanted to share this great opening paragraph:
Although it might seem unlikely that anyone would wonder whether the author of The Lord of the Rings was Jewish, the Nazis took no chances. When the publishing firm of Ruetten & Loening was negotiating with J. R. R. Tolkien over a German translation of The Hobbit in 1938, they demanded that Tolkien provide written assurance that he was an Aryan. Tolkien chastised the publishers for “impertinent and irrelevant inquiries,” and—ever the professor of philology— lectured them on the proper meaning of the term: “As far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects.” As to being Jewish, Tolkien regretted that “I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people.”
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