...and into the night of his very own room where he found his supper waiting for him...
and it was still hot.
...and into the night of his very own room where he found his supper waiting for him...
and it was still hot.
As far as I can tell, it's only available in .pdf form on the internet, which is a pain, but it's also in the May 26 issue of America magazine if you want to go search it out:
It's a good statement, and I have no argument to make with it, nor do I have snide anti-Jesuit remarks to make.
One thought did pop into my mind while I read this, however, and it applies not only to this statement, but to all official Church statements on abortion.
They could all use a little contrition.
Seriously. This would be nice to see in the midst of all of this inspiring verbiage:
We believe in the right to life that begins at conception...we are sorry for our obvious failure to communicate this belief powerfully and clearly through our institutions.
We're sorry for being silent when other Catholics misrepresent the teaching of the Church on this issue or try to diminish its importance.
We're sorry that we don't spend more of our resourceds directly helping women and girls in need..
We're sorry that every single Catholic college and university doesn't have an officially sponsored, well-funded program for students facing this problem in their lives.
We're extra sorry that students leave these same Catholic colleges and universities not understanding the value of human life at every stage of development.
We're sorry that so many defenseless human beings, real and unique, have been killed. We're going to stop writing documents now, and we're going to try do something concrete about this...one child killed in abortion is too many, brings us sorrow, and moves us to action.
McDonald's helped sponsor papal visit to Spain
Microsoft thinks it has a good thing going with Xbox headlining Lollapalooza this summer. But McDonald's quietly scored an even more divine sponsorship coup this month, teaming up with the Roman Catholic Church in Spain to sponsor Pope John Paul II's visit there.
A highlight of the Pope's trip was a massive pray-in at a Madrid aerodrome, with tickets going for between $11 and $45 apiece. According to a report in The Guardian, believers received a backpack (dubbed the "pilgrim's bag") full of papal merchandise, including a "You Will Be My Witness" tour cap, CD, rosary and prayer book, plus vouchers for dinner (a burger, fries, soft drink and an ice cream or baked apple pie) at McDonald's.
Despite the absence of a Soccer Jesus figurine in the package, more than half a million people showed up for the event, ensuring that Catholic leaders would more than offset the estimated $1.5 million cost of the visit (profits beyond that are going to charity) and that McDonald's would have lines out the door in the evening.
The Pope and other Vatican officials speak of the dangers of globalization; Spain's RC chuch involves THE symbol of globalization in sponsorship of the papal visit. Is there a Spanish word for chutzpah?
And paying to go pray with the pope? Is this typical on papal visits? The only factor that would even come close to excusing such a thing is if parishes and other groups bought up tickets and then distributed them, but even then......