(Primarily political edition; hopefully not too many more of these.)

It’s important for Catholics to be people of faith who pursue politics to achieve justice; not people of politics who use and misuse faith to achieve power. I have no doubt that Prof. Kmiec belongs to the former group. But I believe his arguments finally serve the latter. For 35 years I’ve watched thousands of good Catholic laypeople, clergy and religious struggle to recover some form of legal protection for the unborn child. The abortion lobby has fought every compromise and every legal restriction on abortion, every step of the way. Apparently they believe in their convictions more than some of us Catholics believe in ours. And I think that’s an indictment of an entire generation of American Catholic leadership. - Archbishop Chaput

I don’t want to look like a freak, so I brown-paper it while reading in public and tell acquaintances that I’m looking at porn. - Eric of "The Daily Eudemon" on reading "The Imitation of Christ"

Thank God for Vatican II! - prayer of petition from 97-year old very orthodox (small 'o') priest

Our pastor mentioned that we should vote, and not step out of the election - vote for the lesser of two evils. He made mention of abortion, and gave examples of persons throughout history who won elections by ONE vote. In other words, if we step out of this election, the greater “evil” may win, and more children will be killed in the womb. We all got the message without Father mentioning names. - commenter from Virginia on Amy Welborn's blog

I now have reports from four different dioceses in various parts of the country on how the bishops' document "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship" is being used to clear the way for Catholics to support Obama. The most egregious "teaching" of the document goes like this: Democrats agree with 90% of the Church's social teaching, Republican's 10%. So the fact that the GOP is pro-life is offset by the weight of the many other issues --minimum wage, national health insurance, etc. -- supported by the Democrats. Conclusion: Catholics can ignore the pro-life and marriage issues." No surprise here that the same people who turned the documents of Vatican II into some nebulous Spirit of Vatican II would do the same to the USCCB's document. When you use the hermeneutic of "I am going to vote for Sen. Obama anyway" it is amazing what documents can then yield. Kind of like National Catholic Reporter's new editor who wrote this year that he would rather have the bishops go to Hell than for him not to vote Democrat.- Jeff Miller at Curt Jester quoting Deal Hudson

Supporting a Democrat such as Obama may mean compromising on the abortion issue (while hoping that the economic miracle that will spontaneously occur when a Democratic posterior inhabits the chair in the oval office may in fact do a better job of “decreasing the incidence of abortion” than actual restrictions)... - DC at "American Catholic"

Barack Obama...the Christian who won't acknowledge that Mary was not pro-choice. - Eve Tushnet

I like my boss and indeed his boss as well -- but is there any more idiotic example of a Hallmark holiday that "Boss's Day"? At least with the other celebrations like Mothers' Day and Secretaries' Day and Peasants' Day and Political Prisoners' Day we celebrate those whom we forget, neglect or otherwise abuse the rest of the time. But Boss's Day? - Darwin Catholic

As we were driving in, another woman was supervising workers who were stuffing huge plastic bags full of plastic pumpkin-shaped trick-or-treat baskets into the back of her station wagon - I assumed she was picking them up for a school or charity drive or some such. But the sight of the dozens of pumpkin baskets being claimed by one person clearly bothered Little Michael. He kept mentioning it while we shopped and at one point burst out with, “I think that was a bad woman.” I kept telling him I’m sure there were some left in the store, but the simple task of providing proof was denied us because Michael, torn between his newfound terror of Halloween displays and his concern about the baskets, ultimately let the former win out. - Amy Welborn

Obama may win this election. Obama may lose this election. McCain may win this election. McCain may lose this election. No matter what happens, we are entering a new era, and I believe everyone knows it. With the prayer and fasting, I am “in training” making myself ready for whatever comes, because whatever comes is going to be very different; it will jar us from all of our complacencies. So, yes, I feel very peaceful right now, and my prayer and fasting continues. I hope you’ll consider joining me in this training, in whatever measure you may. - Anchoress

You have to pinch yourself – a Marxisant radical who all his life has been mentored by, sat at the feet of, worshipped with, befriended, endorsed the philosophy of, funded and been in turn funded, politically promoted and supported by a nexus comprising black power anti-white racists, Jew-haters, revolutionary Marxists, unrepentant former terrorists and Chicago mobsters, is on the verge of becoming President of the United States. And apparently it’s considered impolite to say so. - Melanie Philips at the Standard via Irish Elk

Each day for decades, Doc Hite walked, stood, sat and eventually slumped outside a Portland abortion clinic, urging adoption over abortion. His mission was persistent testimony to what he considered a slaughter of innocents. Hite, a member of Holy Rosary Parish, kept up his protest until he was 100. He died Oct. 4 at age 102, after several years of sickness thwarted his mission... Hite, who according to the article had many nieces and nephews, never had any children of his own, and said two years ago that it might have been nice to have had children. But he did have children--the women he helped, the babies he saved, they will be the children who know him someday, God willing. - via blogger at "And Sometimes Tea"