Category: Blithe Spirit

Birth Control, Bishops and Religious Authority

From “Roma locuta est, causa finita est”  (Rome has spoken , that settles it” to “Populus . . . ” (The people have spoken . . . ), opines a Notre Dame philosophy prof in NY Times.  via Birth Control, Bishops and Religious Authority – NYTimes.com.

Or as the Cardinal Newman Society writer has it, Jesus told Peter, “upon this poll I will build my Church.”

And that man in the White House has decided to take this poll.

I do not recall his being asked, however.

Wheeling Jesuit University office raided by Feds

J. Davitt McAteer’s, to be exact.  He heads several govt.-sponsored on-campus programs, is high-profile mine-safety expert, took over WJU as acting president when Rev. Julio Giulietti SJ was peremptorily ousted in August of ’09, serving in that capacity until February of ’10.

Charleston Daily Mail:

Wheeling Jesuit University acknowledged Wednesday it’s cooperating with federal investigators who seized records from the offices of J. Davitt McAteer, the school’s vice president for federally sponsored research programs and a prominent critic of the coal mining industry.

The files were removed Feb. 15, but spokeswoman Michelle Rejonis said she didn’t know which federal agency was involved.

Wheeling Jesuit has many federally sponsored programs, including collaborations with NASA and a center that helps commercialize new technologies, Rejonis said, so it works with several agencies. Many of those agencies have an Office of Inspector General, an entity that investigates fraud, waste and abuse.

Chris Zumpetta, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Wheeling, also declined to identify the agency involved but acknowledged there is “an ongoing investigation.”

 

Don’t need no stinkin’ I-D in Vermont?

To vote, no. To drink or get into a Motel 6, yes. James O’Keefe and friends are at it again.

Zay Smith and Pam Zekman of Chicago Sun-Times did their Mirage Tavern series undercover this way in the ’70s, exposing city corruption, and won a Pulitzer for it, but that paragon of journalistic ethics Ben Bradlee of Wash Post objected on grounds of deceit in undercover reporting, and they did not get the prize.

Now, of course, newsies applaud O’Keefe and his merry pranksters. Huh?

Does Rev. Obama decide the Catholic position?

Church Reporter: Its not the Presidents job is at Chicago Catholic News:

In dissing Sandra Fluke, the birth-control advocate who testified in a mock Congressional hearing, Rush Limbaugh gave us a new unusable word. I dare not say it but can tell you its the s-word. If he had used fornicator or adulterer, he would at least have had the Bible to fall back on, including what Jesus said in Mark 7:

. . . from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man.

. . . .

Dionne’s case for going along with HHS

Straw man sighted, sank same.  E.J. Dionne makes an argument.  handily ignoring cavalier treatment offered bishops’ envoys seeking to negotiate HHS issues, per Obama’s advice.  RealClearPolitics – Catholicism Is Not the Tea Party at Prayer.

In which they were told take it or leave it.  And what indeed about the self-insuring among Catholic institutions?  And what of their being expected to go along with the wink-and-nod effect of having their insurers cover the cost of coverage?  

It’s OK with Dionne if gummint makes them do it (such a problem in itself), he being convinced they will swallow the cost and not add it to what they charge their customers.

Cardinal George has a knack for over-top pronouncement, but that is no reason for Dionne to ignore problems that remain after the presidential “adjustment.”