Change the subject for a second.

On our trip last week, we had several mediocre meals, one pretty good one (the buffet at Caesar's) and one very good one - on the way back, north of Pittsburgh, at a place called the Log Cabin Inn, which is part of the Springfield Restaurant Group with establishments mostly in Eastern Ohio. Any of you who live or travel through that area - it seems like they've got a good thing going. Check out one of their restaurants.

The details from Boston. Sickening.

Blech.

Yeah, I know it's all he said - he said stuff, but here's more on the Bishop of St. Petersburg's alleged sexual harrassment of an employee.

I repeat what I said earlier about this. No matter how you "interpret" the words and actions, one is moved to ask: This is what bishops do today? Float on rafts in their swimming pools with their communications directors?

From Kathryn Jean Lopez of the National Review Online

An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education about an effort she's spearheading through the Cardinal Newman Society to provide support and guidance to students interested in starting up alternative newspapers on Catholic college campuses:

Two of the country's most-prominent Catholic institutions, the University of Notre Dame and the Catholic University of America, once had conservative publications, but they are now defunct. Only Georgetown, Boston College, Villanova, and the University of Dallas currently publish alternative papers with a conservative or Catholic emphasis, according to supporters of such publications. Students at Holy Cross expect to publish the first issue of their recently revived conservative newspaper this month, and Ms. Lopez said she has been contacted by students at two other colleges interested in starting a paper

A very worthy cause, wouldn't you say?

Hey, get your own Blog!

Not really, Carl. I like adding your insights to mine, especially when I'm feeling lazy:

From Carl Olson, soon to be of Envoy Magazine:

1. Most Catholics don't read the Catechism.

2. Many Protestants do read the Catechism.

3. Many of those Protestants (myself included) become Catholic.

4. Once Catholic, these former Protestants are labeled by not a few DREs and religious ed teachers as "right wingers," "extremists," and "triumphalists," even though everything these new Catholics believe is based on the Catechism.

As a former DRE myself, I can honestly say that I know more Protestants (including former Protestants) who have read the entire Catechism. I just wonder how many bishops, DREs, and religious ed teachers have actually read it...

Okay. My husband's dishing over at his place, so let's see what I can do to match him. Thinking...thinking..well, that didn't take long. I can't. (Thank goodness!). But here are a couple of tidbits to share about my own disillusionments with the institutional church Back When I Was Young.

When the Catechism was released, I was a parish Director of Religious Education. At a diocesan gathering of DRE's with the bishop of our diocese, the bishop said, "We have to be careful about who gets their hands on this catechism...we don't know what people will do with it."

Dig that. The primary teacher of the diocese doesn't want the unwashed to see the authoritative compendium of what the Church teaches. Why? As the subsequent discussion made clear, it was essentially because he and many of the DRE's present didn't want the parents of the children under their catechetical care to be able to compare what they were being taught to what they should have been taught.

Today is the one-year anniversary of my mother's death. She passed away around 12:30 am, just a few days after Joseph was born. Here's something I wrote about the conjunction of the two events. One of the morning Masses at the parish is being said for her - pray that Joseph is good so that I can stay through the whole liturgy....

Fabulous, fabulous literary news. Wow.

Richard Russo won the Pulitzer for Empire Falls.

Finally, some justice: a truly great living writer is recognized. A writer who has deep love and respect for human beings, an uncanny sense of human relations and a conviction - worn lightly but truly - that it all really means something.

I can't help but think, though, that this award isn't just for Empire Falls, which is, indeed, a wonderful, rich book, but for Russo's whole body of work so far, my favorites of which are the very funny Straight Man and the very best, beautiful, and very true Nobody's Fool.

Great. Just great.

An Irish priest (of the Church of Ireland) is accused of heresy:

Rev. Andrew Furlong was suspended from his duties in December after saying Christ was neither a savior nor divine.

In an article posted on his personal Web site last year, Furlong wrote that Jesus "was neither a mediator nor a savior, neither superhuman nor divine; we need to leave him to his place in history and move on."

He also called Jesus a "mistaken and misguided" prophet.

Furlong, the rector of Trim, a parish northwest of Dublin, has refused an invitation to resign from Richard Clarke, the Anglican Bishop of Meath and Kildare

Okay - here's what absolutely and totally ticks me off about gasbags like this guy:

Work it, baby. Work it. Work your church. Dis it. Reject its teachings. Not even its ambiguous-well-maybe-you-know-it's-all-a-mystery teachings. Central, essential stuff. Throw it out the window. (Are you listening Bishop Spong?)

But - keep pulling that paycheck! Keep living off of the hard-earned donations of the fools who actually believe the stuff that you're so over. Get fat off their sweat.

Do you know what I call that? Fraud. Theft. Highway Robbery.

And we Romans do it too - think of the faculty at "Catholic" universities who write books about Jesus' body being stolen by wild dogs. Consider all the many religious educators who are doing their best to disseminate what they learned at the "Catholic" universities in sneaky euphemisms and dreary "new paradigms" that do nothing but undermine the Gospel.

What a bunch of con artists.

Good Stuff Catholics Do:

Lamp Ministries:

LAMP Ministries is a Catholic lay missionary association, comprised of persons who serve among the materially poor with a focus on evangelization. Married couples, single men and women as well as religious sisters and priests who experience a call to commit at least one full year, with ongoing training and support, assist in materially poor parishes, or serve with homeless families. The primary emphasis is on supporting and strengthening the faith commitment of the materially poor. Through realizing the extent of God's personal love, their own dignity and goodness is discovered, enabling them to take responsible steps in bettering their condition.