Catholic Standard - Weekly Update

Had a restful vacation. No television and no 'net access.

Here is a summary of The Catholic Standard (Archdiocese of Washington DC) this week.

The cover story as you can expect is on the encyclical of Pope Benedict entitled Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth). There are also a number of related stories. I have not had the chance to read them, but I hope to do so shortly.

Well, I missed the meeting of His Holiness Pope Benedict and the Most Merciful, Lord High Barack Obama. Yes, the Standard covers this via CNS and that makes me wonder about how accurate it really is, considering some of their previous stories.

There is also a review of the meeting with religious writers. I remember when the story first broke, it was to be Catholic journalists but I guess it cannot be since America and the National Catholic Reporter were there.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) seems to be kow-towing to the Most Merciful's plan to fund embryonic stem-cell research. We know that this method has not produced any results but damn it, he intends to go thru with it. NIH asked for comments and over 30,000 of them were against it but because they "were not responsive to the question at hand" they were thrown out. The question was "how to fund" not "should we fund." I guess the NIH really doesn't care what you think, just like the Most Merciful.

For a president who keeps taking about reducing abortions, he seems to have no problem including a line for federal funding of abortions in DC. I guess you not only kill them when they are in the womb, those who do survive can be considered dead, since he is also killing DC Opportunity Scholarships.

Learn about the importance of having a Catholic wedding in the Marriage Matters section.

There is a story about Archbishop-designate DiNoia returning to DC for his Episcopal ordination. He is to be the secretary for the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

SOME held their 40th anniversary inaugural concert on July 1st. It is a good organization that helps many. There is an interesting quote about the number of homeless people over the last 30 years -- it seems that the number has stayed the same. I guess all those who claimed that it increased under both George Bush's lied. But what else do you expect.

There are also some articles on Fr. L. Branch (Navy Chaplin), Fr. King (Georgetown U) and Karl Malden.

As always, if you don't get the Standard, pick one up in your parish. Remember, they are required to carry it -- whether they like it or no.