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CERC WEEKLY UPDATE - November 19, 2009 NEW RESOURCES EDITORIALS OF INTEREST EDUCATION MATTERS Note from the Managing Editor:
Life After Death: The Evidence, is a new book by Dinesh D'Souza and a New York Times bestseller sitting at number 17 this week. I encourage you to have a look at the first of what will be a three article series by D'Souza on the subject matter covered in much more detail in his book. We'll be offering the other two articles over the next few days. Dinesh D'Souza is nothing if not thoughtful and readable and his rhetorical skills are impressive. While others quake at the prospect of entering the lists with the likes of Christopher Hitchens, D'Souza relishes the challenge and has a habit of emerging victorious. While perfectly willing to face other contestants, Richard Dawkins has refused to debate Mr. D'Souza. There is much else of interest for you below. Father Thomas Williams, Kathleen Parker, Father James Schall, Ralph McInerny, Theodore Dalrymple -- don't you just wish you could sit down to a pint with each of them. - J. Fraser Field This CERC Weekly Update is also available on our web site here.
• Love and life - USCCB • St. John Lateran, Virtually - Vatican.va • Denying Campus Club Funds Works in Favor of Pro-Life Group - NCRegister • Promises, Promises - The Scientist • A philosophy of journalism? - Chronicle Review • Restore the Noble Purpose of Libraries - CSM • Dominican Education and the Challenge of Contemporary Culture - Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology • Babies tune into language before birth - Science Daily • Irish bishops discuss Church handover of primary schools - Catholic Culture • America's Top College Professor - Wall Street Journal • Education Reforms . . . or Union Jobs? - National Review • The Edsel of Education Reform - WSJ The Impartial Spectator - Dinesh D'Souza - National Review Online A moral argument for life after death.
Health-Care U - Father Thomas D. Williams - National Review Online Catholics don't oppose universality -- but what does that mean?
One of the few incontrovertible assertions one can reasonably make is that no one supports forced abortion.
We never know what curiosities former students will come up with.
The hero of Evelyn Waugh's trilogy Sword of Honour, in the slough of despond in wartime Cairo, goes to a priest to confess that he has wished to be dead. "How many times?" the priest asks.
Advocates have almost convinced Americans that legalization will remove most of the evil that drugs inflict on society. Don't believe them.
National Addictions Awareness Week begins today (Nov. 18-24). Everybody -- informed or otherwise -- has an opinion on addiction and how to treat it, so the subject never fails to generate animated public debate.
The Vatican's Investigation of Women Religious in America - Father Robert Barron - Catholic New World In recent weeks, a number of angry voices have been raised to protest the Vatican's initiative to investigate communities of American nuns.
Islam and the Crusades - Ibn Warraq - City Journal It's commonly believed today that modern Muslims have inherited from their medieval ancestors memories of crusader violence and destruction. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Love and life - USCCB The full text of the document on marriage in the divine plan passed by the U.S. bishops yesterday.
Two Down... Missal Done - Whispers And the Big Story at this Plenary Tuesday's close -- the US Bishops have completed their work on the revision of the Roman Missal in English, green-lighting five of five votes and sending their approval of the re-worked Mass texts to Rome.  Bishops move votes - Chicago Tribune In case you were wondering, the Catholic bishops made a difference on abortion coverage in the healthcare bill.
"Leaven" in debate - Washington Times Chicago's Cardinal George insists Catholic opinion in public affairs is essential.
The Faith Once Delivered - The Catholic Thing It is no exaggeration to say that Catholicism today, not only in America but across the world, resembles nothing so much as a gigantic pizzeria – one in which some people spend their days enjoying the pizza, and others complaining about just which parts of the pie they dislike most.
Left's double-standard on religion and abortion - Spero News The Left opposes the Catholic Church's opposition to abortion provisions in healthcare reform. So why doesn't it oppose the YWCA, United Methodist Church, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis for favoring abortion?
Chaos theory - Telegraph The fallout from the Holy Father's outreach to Anglicans continues, and the Archbishop of Canterbury is not amused.
Wedded to vitriol, backers of gay marriage stumble - Boston Globe On election day, voters in Maine repealed a six-month-old state law authorizing same-sex marriage. Maine was the 31st state in which the legal definition of marriage was put to a vote, and the 31st in which voters rejected gay marriage. And once again, the response from many on the losing side was bitter.
New papal music album - Christian Science Monitor Can Pope Benedict XVI sing?
Back to the Drawing Board - Pia de Solenni - Headline Bistro Several weeks ago, Time magazine published an article based on a study on gender issues conducted with the Rockefeller Foundation.
Faith v. the law - Washington Examiner In the nation's capital, same-sex marriage seems imminent, and the Catholic Church is between a rock and a hard place.
A victory for free speech - OneNewsNow A former Planned Parenthood clinic director is freed from the constraints her former employer sought to impose on her.
Poland Comes to Italy's Defense on the Crucifix - NCRegister There's more backlash from the European Court of Human Rights' decision regarding keeping crucifixes in Italy's public schools. Poland's president, Lech Kaczynski, has said that Poland will never agree to remove crosses from its schools.
How the Nazis tried to take Christ out of Christmas - Times A new exhibition in Germany shows how the Nazis tried to expunge Jesus from their wintertime Julfest.
Satan, the great motivator - Boston Globe The curious economic effects of religion.
Did Christianity Cause the Crash? - The Atlantic America's mainstream religious denominations used to teach the faithful that they would be rewarded in the afterlife. But over the past generation, a different strain of Christian faith has proliferated—one that promises to make believers rich in the here and now.
Don't Forget Religious Freedom - Public Discourse While in China this week, President Obama said, "freedom of expression and worship…should be available to all people…" Yet one might question his administration's seriousness about freedom of worship when one considers its track record so far on religious freedom.
Vote on gay marriage banned - New York Times/Associated Press A District of Columbia "ethics" board won't allow voters to weigh in on "gay marriage."
This too shall pass - BBC Now there's a holy-water dispenser that isn't communal, but how will we feel about it after the H1N1 crisis passes?
Agassi's days of "atonement" - Get Religion I, for one, believe Agassi is seeking some form of atonement. But just because he (or some other celebrity) makes such a claim doesn't mean that journalists need to suddenly become reverential or passive. Instead, such claims call for more and deeper questions.
Conference Examines Responsibilities of the Catholic University - NCRegister The Vatican announced late last week that the Pontifical Gregorian University is planning a conference to discuss the responsibilities of Catholic universities
St. John Lateran, Virtually - Vatican.va Ever wanted to visit the Basilica of St. John Lateran but just never could get to Rome?
Denying Campus Club Funds Works in Favor of Pro-Life Group - NCRegister Last month hundreds of University of Victoria students witnessed a debate that pro-abortion groups on campus didn't want to happen and a graphic video they didn't want them to see.
Promises, Promises - The Scientist Ill-judged predictions and projections can be embarrassing at best and, at worst, damaging to the authority of science.
A philosophy of journalism? - Chronicle Review We need a philosophy of journalism says a philosophical journalist.
Restore the Noble Purpose of Libraries - CSM Libraries were once a sacred secular space of silence and reverence -- a place where one automatically lowered one's voice.
Dominican Education and the Challenge of Contemporary Culture - Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology I do not think that it is in any way an exaggeration to say that Western civilization is at a crossroads.
Babies tune into language before birth - Science Daily European researchers have discovered that even within the first week after birth, babies imitate the melodic patterns of voices they have heard while still in the womb. And that includes the "tunes" typical of the mother tongue.
Irish bishops discuss Church handover of primary schools - Catholic Culture Irish bishops and government education officials are meeting today to discuss the handover of some of the Church's primary schools to the state education system.
America's Top College Professor - WSJ Elliott West doesn't seem like the coolest guy on campus. With his tweed coat and thinning hair, he appears to be the stereotype of a studious professor, only truly at home among library stacks or in a dusty archive.
Education Reforms . . . or Union Jobs? - National Review The Department of Education reported the other day that, of the $97.4 billion in economic-stimulus funding that Congress steered its way, 69 percent was "obligated" by September 30.
The Edsel of Education Reform - WSJ The Ford Foundation finds a needy cause: teachers unions.
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