From Argo to Tom Reese SJ

An interesting post at Close Read/The New Yorker ... Argo vs. Zero Dark Thirty: Two Takes on Torture. I don;t plan to see Zero Dark Thirty but I'm signed up for Argo. Here's the trailer ...



Non-Catholic Christian Churches and other religions, including the Church of Ireland, the Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Jewish and the Muslim faiths, have agreed that the Irish government must clarify abortion legislation. A poll has shown that most Irish want that too. Read more about all this at Human Rights Watch.

Saw that the Washington National Cathedral is going to perform same-sex weddings. I've mentioned that cathedral a few times - Keith Ward and Marilyn McCord Adams have preached there - but the first time I remember hearing of it was in a West Wing episode, Two Cathedrals ... the president tells his aid that the cathedral is so big, the Washington Monument could lay down inside it, and later he berates God for his friend's death and everything else that's gone wrong as we walks through the cathedral ....



With the news of the German Church's messed up sex abuse investigation, it was refreshing to read a talk by Thomas Reese SJ on sex abuse from last year at America magazine ....

The problem in the Catholic Church today is that the hierarchy has so focused on obedience and control that it has lost its ability to be a self-correcting institution. Creative theologians are attacked, sisters are investigated, Catholic publications are censored and loyalty is the most important virtue. These actions are defended by the hierarchy because of fears of “scandalizing the faithful,” when in fact it is the hierarchy who have scandalized the faithful.