Hepzibah Responds to My Posting about Ratzinger on "Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons": How to Deal with Homophobia Central?

Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith, "On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons" (1986)

At his wonderful Hepzibah site, my friend Alan McCornick responds con brio to my comments earlier today about Ratzinger's 1986 Hallowe'en letter on the "pastoral care" of "homosexual persons":

Bill Tammeus's Open Letter to Pope Francis about Bishop Finn, and More on St. Paul-Minneapolis and Archbishop Nienstedt

Bill Tammeus's open letter to Pope Francis at National Catholic Reporter this week is excellent: he writes to Francis as a brother in Christ, stating,

Scary Hallowe'en Reads? Cardinal Ratzinger's "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons"

There's an interesting Hallowe'en thread right now at Commonweal, responding to Dominic Preziosi's question to readers about forgotten, overlooked, or lesser known scary stories. As I've thought about the question, it occurs to me that it's hard for me to think of many scarier documents than the one the previous pope issued on Hallowe'en 1986,* when, as Cardinal Ratzinger, he headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The CDF document purports to be about the "pastoral care" of "homosexual persons."

Cooking to Save the Planet: Tamar Adler's An Everlasting Meal

When I blogged several days ago about our method of shopping weekly and cooking most of the vegetables we buy on the day that we shop and then storing them for use in meals later in the week, I told you I'd post a follow-up piece about Tamar Adler's book An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace (NY: Scribner, 2011). I read the book two summers ago, loved it, made copious notes and told myself I'd blog about it. And then I somehow neglected to do so.

Religious Right Leaders Note Declining Numbers and Conclude, "People Want God but They're Not Happy with Churches"

Last week, I noted Kathy Lynn Grossman's recent article which shows that baptism rates are dropping precipitously in churches in the U.S., and quite specifically in churches of the religious right (e.g., the Southern Baptist Convention) which have previously boasted that their hefty numbers of adherents show that God loves conservatives. Grossman notes that Southern Baptist churches saw 314,959 baptisms last year, a low not seen since 1948.

The Sea Change in Cultural Attitudes Toward Gay Lives: Importance of Telling Gay Stories and Bearing Gay Witness

Last week at the Huffington Post site, Arianna Huffington announced that the Oprah Winfrey Network would air several programs on 27 October about being gay in America. I'm telling you about this after the fact. Those shows aired last evening. Steve and I taped them but haven't yet watched them. The network will, I would hope, run them again at various times, in case you missed seeing them.

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: "High Time for Catholic Publications" to Include Women in Leadership Structures

(One of the good droppings): Heidi Schlumpf, commenting at National Catholic Reporter on the lack of women's representation in the leadership structures of leading U.S. Catholic publications: