Saturday, October 25, 2003

Around St. Blog's . . .

  • Fr. Rob Johansen reports from St. Petersberg, Florida, on his meeting with Msgr. Malanowski and Terri's parents and offers some reflections on the Church's understanding of personhood in contrast to the utilitarian "quality of life" assessment of Terri's husband, his attorney and the ACLU. (Worth reading in full).

  • The first part of Envoy magazine's critique of The DaVinci Code (by Carl E. Olson & Sandra Miesel) is online. Especially helpful is a list of recommended links at the end of the review.

  • On October 8, Cardinal Ratzinger sent a letter of support to a conference of conservative Episcopalians meeting in Dallas to protest the planned consecration of bishop-elect Gene Robinson. Apparently some enthusiastic Anglicans interpreted the Cardinal's letter with unwarranted optimism as a significant step in ecumenical relations. Writing from the blog of the ecumenical journal Touchstone, David Mills clarifies what Ratzinger said.

  • Amy Welborn blegs for reader recommendations of a good history of Vatican II. I recall making the same request earlier this summer, and getting roughly the same response. Apparently as one reader suggested one's options are: "Vatican Council II, by Xavier Rynne. (gossipy, progressivish); The Rhine flows into the Tiber, by Ralph M. Wiltgen. (gossipy, conservativish) . . . [or] Fr. Joseph Komonchak's five-volume History of Vatican II."

    I made it through nearly half of Xavier Rynne, but he writes with an agenda and the persistent characterization of everybody as either progressives (good guys) or conservatives (bad guys) grew quite tedious after a while. Perhaps I might tackle Wiltgen next, although I expect a similar depiction of events from the other side of the spectrum.

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