Around the Blogosphere . . .

• Yeah! Christine -- formerly of "Christus Victor" -- returns with her own solo blog: "Laudem Gloriae". =)
• Mark ("Minute Particulars"), asking what if Rome really doesn't care? -- on the implications of those who believe that the Pope was "morally and criminally negligent, in allowing predator priests to flourish."
• G. Thomas Fitzpatrick ("Recta Ratio") posts a few personal suggestions for Lenten practices, and recommends An Exercise in the Way of the Cross by St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori.
• Dennis ("Vita Mea") had the opportunity to meet a presidential candidate over lunch.
• Dr. Philip Blosser ("Scripture and Catholic Tradition") offers a page-by-page analysis of Harold Bloom's reading of St. Paul in Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds. ("Yet even an intellect so learned and fecund as Bloom's can betray signs of inadvertent influence, if not entrapment, by uncritically received ideological trends of his age . . .")
• William Luse ("Apologia") goes to the movies and blogs a not-exactly-raving review of Return of the King, in which he includes the startling confession:

  I know it’s my own fault. I missed the boat on this one. Back in the mid-seventies, when the Tolkien craze began, I saw people – hip-eyes, straight arrows, rednecks, Christians, atheists, panhandlers and drug addicts – walking around campus and coming out of Goring’s bookstore with an LOTR in each hand, one in the armpit, and The Hobbit in a hip pocket. While I tried to learn how to write, read back issues of The Sewanee Review, played intellectual hot potato with various philosophies, and even began toe-dipping in the Christian pond – some Bonhoeffer here, some Muggeridge there – it seemed the whole world was reading Tolkien.

  To which I reply -- it's never too late! ;-)