Archive for March, 2009
« Previous EntriesNotre Dame’s Poor Judgment
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009Last Friday, Notre Dame University announced that President Obama accepted their invitation to speak at commencement this May. The University will also be awarding the president an honorary doctor of laws degree.
From The Observer Online:
“The invitation of President Obama to be our Commencement speaker should in no way be taken as condoning or endorsing his […]
Pope Benedict in Africa–Angola
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009In Pope Benedict’s homily at Mass with bishops, priests, religious, ecclesial movements, and catechists, we see some of the very different challenges that Catholics in Africa face:
So many of [your fellow citizens] are living in fear of spirits, of malign and threatening powers. In their bewilderment they end up even condemning street children […]
Pope Benedict in Africa–Cameroon
Monday, March 23rd, 2009The Pope left Africa today, after a 7-day journey to Cameroon and Angola. The Vatican website has a page devoted to the Pope’s journey, with links to his various homilies, speeches, etc. Here are some highlights from his time in Cameroon, with highlights from Angola to follow.
In his address to the bishops of Cameroon, Pope […]
Commentary on the Condom Uproar
Friday, March 20th, 2009It’s been a busy week here at the CUF office, so more on Pope Benedict’s trip to Africa on Monday . . . which, unfortunately, has been rather overshadowed here in the West by his comment (in an interview on the plane trip to Cameroon) that the distribution of condoms won’t stop the spread of […]
More on Conscience Protection
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009The USCCB has added video clips and other information to their web pages on conscience protection.
As we noted previously, the current intensity of activity centers on a Health and Human Services (HHS) regulation that President Barack Obama would like to rescind. The regulation, one of former President George W. Bush’s last actions in office, “increase[s] […]
The Floods Came
Friday, March 13th, 2009I came across the following scriptural meditation by Rev. Herbert Madinger while searching through the Lay Witness archives. It seemed a fitting mid-Lent exhortation–Lent surely being a component of the “rigorous training in advance” of which he speaks–as well as a commentary on our own times.
“Every one then who hears these words of mine and […]
Now THAT’S a Chapel!
Thursday, March 12th, 2009
This past Saturday, Thomas Aquinas College unveiled Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel in a magnificent Dedication Mass. It is truly refreshing to see this chapel come to fruition. The chapel is the result of years of planning and collaboration with University of Notre Dame architect Duncan Stroik.
Here are some links to photographs of the […]
Pope Benedict’s “Williamson Letter”
Thursday, March 12th, 2009In response to the uproar resulting from the combined lifting of the excommunication on the SSPX bishops and immediate publicity that one of those bishops (Bishop Williamson) has made statements that minimize/deny the Holocaust, Pope Benedict has written a letter (a “word of clarification”) to the bishops of the world.
One of the great delights of […]
Another Beacon
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009In his latest column for The Catholic Sun, Bishop Thomas Olmsted asks, “What should science trump?”
His question was prompted by President Obama, who, on Monday, signed an executive order providing federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. In his remarks at the signing, President Obama said, “This Order is an important step in advancing the […]
Protect Conscience Rights for Health Care Providers
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009In the November/December ‘08 issue of Lay Witness, we noted that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a proposed regulation that “would increase awareness of, and compliance with, three separate laws protecting federally funded health care providers’ right of conscience.” That regulation was later enacted.
President Obama would like to rescind that […]