Video Meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor

My own instincts are to suppose that many leaders of such mainstream Catholic organizations do not hold fully Catholic views concerning sexual morality, do not possess sufficiently clear vision to persuasively articulate the benefits of living by Catholic principles, or do not have the courage to advance these principles against the prejudices of the larger culture. When that is the case, policies will often fall short of what they should be even if the policy-makers are trying to avoid a formal breach with Catholic teaching. We see again that the Church is in the midst of a long and painful institutional renewal. It is no surprise that Catholic Relief Services must be added to the list. - Jeff Mirius of "Catholic Culture" website, regarding this

A society and a humanity will not long endure in which persons in service careers -- in hospitals, for instance -- no longer find meaning in their service [because it is not intellectual]... God's revelation was to the simple -- not out of resentment against the great, as Nietzsche would have it -- but because they possess that precious naivete that is open to truth and not subject to the temptations of nihilism. This should be the foundation of the great respect the Christian should feel to those who are simple of heart. - then Cardinal Ratzinger

When you rock her to sleep, sing Ave Marias, Jesu Bambino, and other lullaby-like tunes. If you can't carry a tune, turn on the stereo. Frequent talk about God is always permissible because, unlike adults, children are not horrified by it. When you tell a little girl that you thank God every day for her, she knows what you mean. The idea of the unseen Maker of All and Giver of Gifts recommends itself to her uncluttered mind. The Christmas story will dawn upon her consciousness like the happy ending she'd been expecting all along. God came down from heaven? As a baby? Of course He did. What would you expect? Later, she will ask awkward questions (look for this around 6 years of age) without hindering her faith. The invisible world is to her just another of the neat things about being alive. - William of Apologia, with tips for new fathers of baby girls

Fifty years ago, Detroit was one of the world’s greatest cities, and now it’s been a sociological and economical crater for over thirty years. Though African-Americans under the racist Coleman Young deserve some blame, there’s plenty of blame for whitey, too. The federal highway system tore apart the old ethnic neighborhoods, many of them Catholic parishes. Urban renewal demolished ethnic neighborhoods like Corktown. Once the federal government and urban planners had killed all the neighborhoods and parishes, there was only one thing left: The State. There were no mediating institutions between The State and individuals, and the individuals were crushed . . . and continue to be crushed. Get rid of The State in Detroit, and maybe Detroit could return to a somewhat-livable city. It’s just a theory, but Detroit’s current reality is a damning indictment of every aspect of 20th-century American political practice. - Eric of "The Daily Eudemon"

I made a custom book stand that I use in my bathroom (a.k.a. library) and I bet I have read more books in bathrooms than many people have read in their whole life. In fact I think I have read more books in chow lines aboard ships than many people have read in their lives. - Jeff Miller of "Curt Jester"

My main complaint is that his music has become such a standard and quite over used. It just does not deserve the "pride of place" it has received. It is not the writers of music that are at fault really, it is those who continue to promote inferior pieces of sacred music. Even the Saint Louis Jesuit's never intended that there music would be used at Mass. - Curt Jester on Marty Haugen's music

I love reading and writing polemics, and engaging in public discussion and debate... Yet I'm finding that I'm coming to the age in which the idea of going to the party and being nice to everybody is sounding more and more appealing...I used to know a political journalist who, in a discussion about arguing and sociability, said something that has come to strike me as profound: "You get to an age when you just want to go to the party and be nice to everybody." - Rod Dreher

Bill Buckley and Charlton Heston within about a month of each other. As Lord Escher wrote almost a hundred years ago, "All the old buoys which have marked the channels of our lives seem to have been swept away." - Recta Ratio on the death of Charleston Heston

One of the things that's been striking me as very odd...is Obama's tendency to talk about his mother and grandmother as being of another race, and thus not fully understanding him. Now clearly, he's half Kenyan, and they're not, but I still can't help finding it rather odd that he in some ways seems to place more of a premium on his skin tone than his ancestry -- especially given that his father abandoned the family when Obama was two...African ancestry has traditionally been cause for incredible amounts of discrimination and oppression in the US -- though I think one is justified in saying these have got much better over the last 40 years. So I can certainly see how Obama might well feel that he's faced challenges due to his skin color that his mother and grandmother did not face. But at the same time, consistently referring to your parent and grandparent -- who were the ones who actually raised you -- as "someone of another race" seems very odd to me. - Darwin Catholic

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind. - Shakespeare

I was beginning to learn about the farmers and what I found I liked. They had a toughness and philosophical attitude which was new to me. Misfortunes which would make the city dweller want to bang his head against the wall were shrugged off with "Aye, well, these things happen." - From "All Creatures Great and Small" via Jim of "Bethune Catholic"

Literature is an artificial construct devised by the pale penile patriarchy to confuse, oppress, and otherwise disenfranchise people of color, women, extraterrestrials, animals, and microbiota. Its sole purpose is a form of intellectual terrorism that will weed out the haves from the have-nots and inculcate and continuing world order of imperialism, capitalist hegemony, and patriarchal condescension. Anyone in disagreement obviously needs to reread their Paul de Man, Jacques Lacan, and Judith Butler. - Steven Riddle joking on Bill Luse's blog

We are not perfect, and yet we hope to enter the Kingdom of God. Therefore things which enter the Kingdom of God do not cease to be, but are perfected. Furthermore, life without jest and beer is less perfect than life with them. In Heaven there is no Milwaukee's Best.> - Zippy of Zippy Catholic on whether there is irony (and beer) in Heaven