Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: Sharp Drop in Religious Affiliation in Northeastern U.S. Due to Catholic Abuse Crisis and Bishops Shielding Child Molesters

This is a Catholic birdcage dropping in that it addresses Catholic issues: as Fred Clark points out at his Slacktivist site today, yesterday at his Spiritual Polticis site, Mark Silk looked at the story of religious decline in the northeastern U.S. Mark notes that Rod Dreher recently asked for help in understanding why there's such precipitous decline in religious affiliation of late in that region of the country.

Joyous Couples in Florida Marrying in Droves on Feast of Epiphany: Connecting the Biblical Story to Today

Midnight mass marriage ceremony in Palm Beach. History in the making. In tears #FLmarriage #gaywedfla @CompassCenter pic.twitter.com/1ZVVAMTMQQ
— Tony Plakas (@TonyPlakas) January 6, 2015

Epiphany: if I remember my long-ago classical (and biblical) Greek, the word is comprised of a prefix, epi, that has the connotion of "upon," and a root verb, phanein, that means "to show," "to flash forth." Epiphanies suddenly flash forth in the middle of the ordinary.

County Clerks in Florida Refusing to Marry Anyone if Gays Can Marry: A Footnote

A quick footnote to my posting earlier today about the decision of some county clerks in Florida to shut down courthouse marriages altogether — for everyone — rather than marry the gays: on my Facebook page, I posted a link to Mark Joseph Stern's Slate article about the Florida story, an article that I discussed in my posting here earlier today

Odds and Ends of News: Cologne Cathedral to Go Dark to Protest Muslim Bashing, Continuing Need for Wake-Up Call about Racism for U.S. White Catholics

Here are some odds and ends of news in the past few days that seem noteworthy to me, and which I haven't quite known how to fit into any other posting than this grab-bag one:

Remembering Mario Cuomo: Issue That Above All Others Defines His Legacy Was Opposition to Death Penalty

John Nichols's eulogy for Mario Cuomo at The Nation is the best I've yet read. I like how Nichols gets that Cuomo's political vision was deeply informed by a Catholic vision of the common good on which Cuomo continued to insist even as his political party, at a national level and under several popular Democratic presidents, moved decisively to the "center" (that is, to the right) and endorsed neoliberal socioeconomic ideas that left working- and even middle-class Americans out in the cold.

Gerald Slevin on 12 New Year's Resolutions for Pope Francis: Time to Act Is Now

In a new posting at his Christian Catholicism site, Jerry Slevin invites Catholics to dream about the impossible. As he notes, countering the idea that such dreams are "impractical," who dreamt that a "pope for life" would resign in the midst of the mess the Catholic church has made for itself at this point in history?

County Clerks in Florida Refuse to Permit Anyone to Marry if Gay Couples May Marry: Segregationist Roots of "Principled" Resistance to Marriage Equality

I remember it as if it happened yesterday. And as I read the announcements of several county clerks in Florida that, rather than marry same-sex couples, they'll shut down courthouse weddings for everyone, the memories come flooding back all over again: