And sometimes they don’t, as we hear about a lot these days  . . .

WASHINGTON—The intense partisanship engulfing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has diverted attention from a raft of recent bipartisanship in the Senate during the past few weeks, drowning out issues that could appeal to voters in the midterms.

The chamber on Wednesday passed legislation to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration for five years by a 93-6 vote. . . .

Also on Wednesday, the Senate advanced an opioid bill to President Trump’s desk by a vote of 98-1. . . . .

And last week, Mr. Trump signed into law a spending bill that increases military spending for the next fiscal year and keeps the government open through Dec. 7, averting a government shutdown days before funding was set to expire on Oct. 1. The Senate had voted 93-7 to approve that measure.

Sound and fury there is, but also, eek, bipartisanship!

via ‘We Don’t All Hate Each Other’: Senate’s Bipartisanship Obscured by Kavanaugh Fight – WSJ

What’s not to like here? Dems take note. Or cut off your noses to spite your faces. Your choice.

Ditto never-Trumpers. Get wise.

And ye Repubs not sure as regards coming mid-terms, get sure — and turn out.

via CNBC

In his homily on the synod’s opening day, Pope Francis spoke of Christ as “eternally young.”

Chaput called this image “not only beautiful but powerful” because Christ is “alive and vigorous, and constantly offering his disciples an abundant new life,” adding, “Thank you, Holy Father, for reminding us of that.”

And then, as understood in the image:

Of course, the Jesus who came into the world as an infant did not end his mission as a youth. He matured into an adult man of courage, self-mastery, and mercy guided by justice and truth.

He was a teacher both tender and forceful; understanding and patient – but also very clear about the kind of human choices and actions that would lead to God, and the kind that would not.

Chaput applied that insight to our day:

The wealthy societies of today’s world that style themselves as “developed” – including most notably my own – are in fact underdeveloped in their humanity. They’re frozen in a kind of moral adolescence; an adolescence which they’ve chosen for themselves and now seek to impose upon others. [boldface added]

As for the “instrumentum,” or outline statement of what the synod seeks to accomplish (approved by Francis, of course), it

does a good job of exploring the roots of that underdevelopment and the challenges to young people that flow from it.

But it needs to be much stronger and more confident in presenting God’s Word and the person of Jesus Christ as the only path to a full and joyful humanity. And it needs to do this much earlier in the text. [boldface added]

Quibble? I think not.

via Archbishop Chaput to youth synod: Developed nations stuck in a ‘moral adolescence’

Former Commonweal editor Peggy Steinfels reviews Oxford U. Press book about Chicago interracialism efforts in 1st half of 20th century and then some.

She finds names of people she knows from college days, as do I, from Jesuit days some years later.

Glory days of “Catholic action,” when a happy few fought a good fight, lovingly, giving witness to the truth — with minimal results, as I recall.

But witness mattered and matters still, I say.

via Minorities within Minorities | Commonweal Magazine

He’s the non-red-hatted Philly archbishop, the first of its kind since 1918, with a flair for focus.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia told members of the Synod of Bishops their task was to help young people understand Catholic teaching on sexuality and to avoid using terms like “LGBTQ” that make it seem as if the church categorizes people that way.

Indeed. Why should the holy Roman Catholic Church buy into slanted, disputatious terms of those who flout its age-old teachings?

More from the non-cardinal archbishop:

The archbishop, a member of the synod’s permanent committee, told the synod that “what the church holds to be true about human sexuality is not a stumbling block. It is the only real path to joy and wholeness.”

And, he said, for the church “there is no such thing as an ‘LGBTQ Catholic’ or a ‘transgender Catholic’ or a ‘heterosexual Catholic,’ as if our sexual appetites defined who we are.”

Because there are not “discrete communities of differing but equal integrity” within the church, he said, “it follows that ‘LGBTQ’ and similar language should not be used in church documents, because using it suggests that these are real, autonomous groups, and the church simply doesn’t categorize people that way.”

Sic.

via Archbishop urges synod to use care with language on sexuality – Catholic Philly