NCR Headline: "Church Teaching Doesn't Change" Really?!

I wonder who wrote the headline for the article by Cindy Wooden of Catholic News Service that National Catholic Reporter is now running. It reads, "Church Teaching Doesn't Change, but Church Laws Can."

South Carolina Lawsuit: State Assigned Gender to Hermaphrodictic Baby (and My Theological Reflections)

I blogged a few weeks ago about the story of Thomasine/Thomas Hall of colonial Virginia, who appears to have been a hermaphrodite, and who baffled the Virginia government because she/he straddled the line dividing the genders neatly into this and that, so that Virginia's General Court decided that Thomas (as he was known in Virginia) was both a male and a female, and should wear men's clothes surmounted by a woman's bonnet and apron.

Carla Hale Story Goes National Through Frank Bruni Column in New York Times: "Consider the Selectiveness of the Church's Outrage"

Carla Hale's story is getting national attention today through Frank Bruni's column in the New York Times. He notes a point I stressed in a recent posting about the stories of both Carla Hale and Timothy Nelson: the scouring of obituaries for damning information by the temple police who are determined to keep the gays in their demeaned place in the Catholic church: "The problem is he is a homosexual. He was recently married to another man. He does not hide this or keep it silent," the anonymous letter that resulted in the removal of Nicholas Coppola from ministries in his parish in New York said.

The Devastation in Oklahoma: Government and the Common Good

The devastation in Oklahoma is, of course, in the forefront of my mind this morning. Just yesterday, I swapped emails with a former colleague who now lives not far from Oklahoma City. He was telling me about the previous round of tornadoes that passed close to where he lives. We agreed that those of us who have grown up in or lived in areas where tornadoes are prevalent learn to heed that humming in the blood and bones that tells us tornadic conditions are nearby, though there's precious little one can do except take the best shelter one can find when a tornado approaches.

"He Ate with Outcasts": Another Update on Poster Project

I want to update those of you interested in obtaining a poster copy of the painting, "He Ate with Outcasts," which I've discussed here previously. Before his surgery, Steve made some very good digital images of the painting, and took these to the printshop he uses to do pieces of work for him.

The Catholic Church and Extension of Human Rights to LGBT Persons: When Good News Becomes Bad News

Time spent by the bedside of someone recuperating from illness is musing time. It's the kind of space in which thought reaches deeper inside toward the heart. Musing time opens the door to thinking coupled with reverie, prayer, dreaming. As a result, it can lead to deeper recognitions, ones that see patterns in our lives and the lives of others which we miss when we don't have opportunities for  such recollected listening.

Post-Surgery Report, with Thanks to All of You

Thank you all, who have commented here with good wishes for Steve's recovery or sent us emails. I owe all of you replies, and apologize for being slow to thank you personally.