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New Advent
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These stories have been handpicked from blogs and news sites around the Web -- some Catholic, some not.
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"Obama just may have lost the election": HHS edict threatens reelection bid; opponents seize on issue as liberal Catholics withdraw support...
President Obama’s decision to force employers, including religious institutions, to provide health insurance coverage for contraception is becoming a big problem for his reelection campaign. GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney launched a petition on Monday against the mandate, arguing it was an attack by Obama on “religious liberty.” Conservatives, including Catholics such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), are attacking the administration for the decision. And now, nine months before the presidential election, the backlash is growing even among Obama supporters, who say the move was politically tone-deaf.
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How Are Things At Work?
I’ve asked this question of friends countless times, usually with a sympathetic grin. It’s a question that acknowledges the fact that work is fraught with difficulties. Perhaps an ongoing disagreement with the boss or a coworker. Insufficient hours in the workday. Fear of being downsized. The tough part about work often isn’t the work itself. We’ve all been there. Anxiety about work runs hot in today’s hyper-productive culture, and we feel it acutely, at a visceral level. At the same time, our faith tells us there’s something more. Scripture and good homilies remind us time and time again: be not afraid.
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St. Paul Miki's final words: "I ask God to have pity on my persecutors, and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a fruitful rain"...
The toughest theological challenges I face always and without exception come from children. Not just because they ask such bottom-line questions, but because they don’t allow sophisticates to dazzle them with a profusion of heady words and complex arguments. In response to such attempts, one of my sons, at the age of six, simply said to me, ‘Too much, Dad;’ or my daughter recently quipped back as I tried to explain transubstantiation, ‘Dad, can you speak American?’ Gotta be simple, clear, to the point.
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Who Was and Is and Is to Come
Fascinating thing, ancient grammar. Did you know that when St. Jerome translated the Greek New Testament into Latin, he rendered the Greek word ἦν (was) in John 1:1 with the Latin word erat (was), but he also rendered the same Greek word with the Latin word fuit (has been) in 1 John 1:1? It has some pretty serious implications for theology, so why did he do it?
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Pecan Pie Protestantism
My grandmother used to bake one pecan pie a year. Using her own pecans. From her own tree. Which she guarded with her very own rifle. She said she shot any crow that messed with her precious pecans and threatened that pie. Somebody might steal a scarecrow, so she figured she could do the job herself. Memommy was as tough as nails, but she labored 24 hours a day, humbly and faithfully, to serve her family. She cried in her last days because she’d never been gone at Christmas. She held her namesake, Marie, our fourth daughter, only once, and I promised her that this two month old child would know all about the strength of her great-grandmother.
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