Church stuff and Star Trek

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- The Vatican survey results in Ireland shows the same disconnect between church teaching and people's lived lives as has been shown in other survey results from around the world .... Catholic teaching on contraception, cohabitation, same sex relationships, the divorced and remarried is “disconnected from real life experience of families – and not by just younger people”, said Archbishop Diarmuid Martin last night.

- More on the divorce/remarriage front: Kasper's "secret" speech to the other cardinals, Müller disagrees with Kasper's more lenient view, and the pope seems to be leaning towards Kasper.

- Related: You can be a faithful Catholic without taking Communion, says Nichols. I guess this is about trying to reconcile divorced Catholics to the church ... those who are not being allowed to take communion ... but still the idea that communion isn't necessary is so atypically Catholic - I like it :)

- I see the ex-AB of C is upset that the religious freedom to kill animals in a cruel fashion is being trampled upon in Denmark. I wrote about this in 2011 - The spirit and the letter of the law.

- Yay! :) I think Francis is having second thoughts about canonizing Pius XII (I've written many times about Pius XII and his unfitness for sainthood). COMMENTARY: It’s time to open the wartime pope’s records ...

London’s Sunday Times reported that Francis wants to make public the Vatican’s archives of Pius XII’s pontificate .... Francis wants to release the Pius XII papers for study before determining whether to consider his controversial predecessor for sainthood. Francis has already “fast-tracked” the path to sainthood for John XXIII and John Paul II, but not Pius XII ...

- Finally, on last night's episode of Star Trek TNG, Captain Picard plays music with a friend. I really liked the way this song sounded in the echoing jeffries tube - kind of like Paul Horn in the Taj Mahal :). Here's the song ...