Here & There . . .

• John Paul II's Poem Foreshadowing the Conclave Official translation of the text of John Paul II's poem foreshadowing the conclave, which he wrote in Polish in 2002 as part of a volume of poetic meditations published by the Vatican the following year. From Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.

• Jeff Miller (Curt Jester) has some good thoughts on the coming conclave.

• Blogodoxy recommends some Orthodox Books For You Intellectual Types -- among them two I'm familiar with:
  The Christian Tradition: Volume 1 The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600) & Volume 2 The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600-1700) by Jaroslav Pelikan - Both of these volumes together comprise the greatest intellectual work in history on the development of Christian doctrine.  Unlike past attempts, Pelikan actually gives the East its due credit and dedicates the entire second volume of his work to exploring post-Chalcedonian Christianity up through the contributions of the Russian Orthodox Church after the fall of Byzantium.  Pelikan's citations are also a terrific guiding light for individual exploration of the Fathers who hammered out these doctrines and other scholarly sources exploring the issues.  Essential.

  Having read The Christian Tradition and now partway through The Spirit of Eastern Christendom, I second his recommendation. If you ever had the desire to learn about the various christological controversies of the early Church, as well as a general introduction to the Fathers of the Church, I've found Pelikan to be an able guide. See his post for additional recommendations.

• Jimmy Akin wishes "Happy Birthday to Jack Chick" April 13, 2005, "the world's cheesiest anti-Catholic!". You can view Jack Chick's anti-Catholic tracts at Chick.com, including "The Death Cookie" and "Why is Mary Crying?".

  Personal research by Jimmy Akin can be found here.

  Karl Keating devoted a chapter solely to Mr. Chick in his excellent Catholicism and Fundamentalism: The Attack on "Romanism" by "Bible Christians" (Ignatius Press, 1988).

• "Progressive Catholics: The Episcopal Church wants you!" - Pontifications extends an open invitation to disgruntled Roman Catholics to join a congregation where you "will be free to believe and teach the religion of your enlightened choice -- a freedom of faith beyond your imagining" and "all priests have been anointed by the Spirit to lead the Church into the progressive, unencumbered-by-tradition ways of the cosmic Christ." What are you waiting for?

• Peter Vere has "8 Things You Can Do to Stop the Judaizers", in response to "The usual tinfoil-hatted-tinpot-prophets [who] increasingly fear that well-known Jewish converts to Catholicism may be secret infiltrators."

• "John Paul and Sex", a followup by Bill Cork (Ut Unum Sint). Responding to an distorted portrayal of the Pope's teachings on the subject -- seems to be a lot of that in the secular media -- Bill posts excerpts from a presentation at the Respect Life Conference of the Diocese of Galveston-Houston in 1999.