Philip Pullman on Storytelling: An Excerpt from His Introduction to the Brothers Grimm

I love Philip Pullman. I found His Dark Materials engrossing, and I enjoyed his quirky fictionalized biography of Jesus as well. Because few books exercised such a formative role in my imaginative life after I began to read than did Grimms's fairy tales, I was delighted to discover that Pullman has done a re-telling of the Grimms's stories.

Resources for Pope-Watching: Paul Vallely's New Book on Francis, Paul Lakeland's VOTF Lecture

For those engaged in pope-watching (and who's not, these days?), Paul Vallely's new book Pope Francis: Untying the Knots may be of interest. I haven't read the book, but find Ken Briggs's recent review of it in National Catholic Reporter thought-provoking. According to Briggs, Vallely tells Bergoglio's story as one of conversion: in his life as a priest, Jorge Bergoglio has moved along a trajectory from rigidity to openness. Something along the way triggered this remarkable shift in his spirituality, and the shift is now on evidence in his papal style.

Papal Commission on Sexual Abuse Crisis Announced; Survivors Respond

The Vatican announced yesterday that Pope Francis has set up a papal commission to advise him about dealing with the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic church. As Elisabetta Povoledo, Alan Cowell, and Rick Gladstone report for New York Times, this is the first concrete step Pope Francis has taken to address the abuse crisis, and the announcement comes two days after a United Nations panel resoundingly criticized the Catholic church for its mishandling of abuse cases.

Marilynne Robinson on "The Great Narrative" of Wondrous Love in the Gospels: An Advent Meditation

I posted this excerpt from Marilynne Robinson's essay "Wondrous Love" during Holy Week 2012. I'm of a mind to publish it again now as an Advent meditation. I love its insistence that what Christians think and say in the name of Christ--what they profess as the teaching of churches called into being to remember Jesus and transmit his memory--has always to be normed by the "great narrative" of the Christian gospels.

For Those in Petition-Signing Mood: Rush Limbaugh and Pope Francis, Koch Brothers and Catholic University of America

The political right is not going to give up the cozy alliance that the U.S. Catholic bishops have forged with it in recent years without a fight. Pope Francis represents a direct repudiation of that alliance, and so he himself is becoming the target of many right-wing American media commentators and political figures.

Catholic Hospitals and Women's Needs: Dueling Catholic Perspectives--Phyllis Zagano and Katie McDonough

Two competing narratives in response to the ACLU lawsuit vs. the USCCB re: Mercy Health Care of Muskegon, Michigan, which I discussed yesterday:

Cooking to Save the Planet: Mushrooms and Eggs (and Sweet Potatoes and Crème Fraîche)

Writing about food in the week after American Thanksgiving is like carrying coals to Newcastle, isn't it? Or gilding the lily. Or something along the lines of those two metaphors: too much too much, when we've just finished beating too much too much to death less than a week since.