NC Reporter people are rarin’ to go.

Catholic parishes across the world are closed. Millions of Catholics have been unable to physically take part in the celebration of the Mass for weeks, and may not be able to again for months.

Simply put, the coronavirus pandemic is fundamentally changing how we do and be church.

Vas ist der “fundamentally”?

But Reporter folks have been eager for that for a long time, have they not?

Now consider this:

[T]he present crisis is being triggered by the conclusions of experts, conclusions that have enormous consequences for everyday life.

And this:

[Philosopher Alasdair] MacIntyre singles out managerial, bureaucratic “expertise” as hindering human flourishing in our time. Managerial experts claim to possess technical skills that enable them to achieve (or to advise others how to achieve) whatever outcomes are worth achieving.

“Expertise” is a claim to efficiency in achieving those ends. It is the basis for a manager’s authority to manipulate human beings into compliant patterns of behavior. The authority of expertise legitimates many of the institutions that dominate modern social life—government bureaucracies, psychological counseling, progressive education, and more. The claim of expertise purports to justify all kinds of social control.

more more more here.

Blinded by the fashionable.

Fellow argues well, tells a lot about viruses.

Can’t tell you how bad this is. Can hardly read it all. (I didn’t.)

It’s about how Peter’s Pence moneys go as investment in sordid movies and the like in direct and blatant contradiction of some of Pope Francis’ severest censures of market practices. His Secretary of State, one Cardinal Parolin, is in charge of it. This is long and detailed and sickening.

Really? That marvelous network? Hard to believe, right?

At the end of a detailed account of Francis’ meetings with cardinals and a few other activities, all with a view to Vatican reforms and with a scent of change in the air, this seasoned (Italian) vaticanista offers a sort of worrisome conclusion, with emphases by the writer, not this reader:

Pope Francis’ image is not at stake, though. The governability of the Church is at stake. The transition toward the “new world” will not be painless, as no change is. But in this case, it seems it will be worse since the criticism is also raised by people loyal to Pope Francis. Pope Francis has never been as alone as he is now.

More than a scent, on second thought. Instead, something ominous maybe.

To protect hospital workers.

Pitching in with style.

She smart.

On Friday March 20, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said President Trump was lying when he said the U.S. Navy hospital ships would arrive in Los Angeles and New York City in the near future. Exactly a week later, the USNS Mercy arrived in the Port of Los Angeles.

“There is no sign that the Navy hospital ships that the President made such a big deal of — the ‘Comfort’ and the ‘Mercy’ — there’s no sign that they’ll be anywhere on site helping anywhere in the country for weeks yet,” Maddow said.

She highlighted Trump’s announcement that the “Comfort” and the “Mercy” would arrive in the upcoming weeks and dismissing the news as “nonsense.”

She so smart.