Letter to a Young Catholic Considering Leaving the Catholic Church (After Mike and Cathy's Chick-fil-A Cheerleading Stunt)*

I understand.  Believe me, I do.  At least, I think I do.

I think I understand why you are thinking about leaving the Catholic church right now—about  distancing yourself from a religious community which claims to offer you the living memory of Jesus, but tells you in the name of Jesus that your humanity is less than that of all other human beings.

Frank Cocozzelli on Ryan's Aquinian Epiphany: So Much Smoke and Mirrors

At Talk to Action, Frank Cocozzelli has just reposted a piece he wrote last May on Paul Ryan's p-r driven Aquinian epiphany in the weeks leading up to his appearance at a debate on economic issues at Georgetown this past April.  As Frank's detailed chronology of Ryan's faux epiphany reminds me, Ryan has had ample help in his repackaging project from "centrist" beltway commentators, who will say and do anything to promote powerful folks who tack right and give the appearance of being rising stars--no matter how extreme their tacking.  We can look for much more of this mainstream media repackaging of Ryan in days to come--Ryan the nice guy, Ryan just one of the folks, Ryan the intellectual (!), Ryan the exemplar of the work ethic who pulled himself up by his bootstraps, Ryan the exemplar of Catholic values.

Frank Cocozzelli on Father Ratigan's Guilty Plea and Dr. Donohue's Curious Silence

Father Shawn Ratigan recently pled guilty in Kansas City to four counts of producing child pornography and one of attempted production of child pornography.  Ratigan's bishop, Robert Finn, is facing charges of having failed to report that Ratigan had pornographic photographs of little girls on his computer, after Finn became aware of this fact.

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: Paul Ryan and "Give Me Thomas Aquinas"

After Paul Ryan discovered that there was a downside to his infatuation with Ayn Rand (a radical individualist who also happens to have been a pro-choice atheist), he then informed the world that he's Thomas Aquinas all the way, all the time.  In a speech to a group of Rand devotees in 2005, Ryan said, 

The Paul Ryan Selection and Spectacular Pastoral Failure of U.S. Catholic Bishops

The New York Times on Romney's selection of Paul Ryan: after weeks of hearing nothing but vague, mendacious, marshmallow blather from Romney about the (non-)specifics of how he would govern, with the Ryan selection "voters will now be able to see with painful clarity just what the Republican Party has in store for them":

Disqus Problem? A Fix for Readers Receiving Disqus Error Message

Dear Folks,

Two readers of Bilgrimage have told me of some problems you've just encountered, in which the Disqus commenting system is now telling some of you that your browser is not supported by Disqus.  I'm sorry this is happening and am grateful to you for telling me about it.

Paul Ryan, Midwesterner, Catholic, Intellectual: The GOP's (Catholic) Long Game

Steve Kornacki thinks that the choice of Paul Ryan as Romney's running mate reveals the hand of the "long game" the GOP has been playing for some time now: "dramatic changes in social safety net programs, in the tax code, and in the government’s basic spending priorities" that will, of course, favor the rich and punish everyone else, particularly the least among us.  Kornacki writes: