If you haven’t read this yet, you should definitely do so. It’s the funniest thing I’ve seen in awhile.

It’s the resolution passed by the city council of San Francisco two years ago, venting their spleen against the Vatican and Cardinal Levada in particular. It’s being reviewed by the ninth circuit this week to see whether it violates the Establishment clause in virtue of being “hostile” towards religion. I hadn’t heard anything about it until a few days ago, but I couldn’t stop laughing as I read through it.

Yes, okay, I know these are serious matters, that the Church has been publicly insulted, and that this is just another sign of a coming war that’s likely to be ugly. Trust me, I understand all that. Given how my family is enmeshed in the Academy, we’re in a particularly vulnerable position. Academics these days are unlikely to get in trouble merely for believing the Church’s teachings on homosexuality. But we’re already to the point where publicly espousing those views (even, sometimes, if it’s done very politely and compassionately) can be dangerous. Given the direction things are going, it’s certainly conceivable that secular universities could start taking more aggressive steps to weed out “homophobes” within the span of our careers. So really, I don’t take this stuff lightly. But still, we might as well enjoy a little humor where we can, no? And this one really is hysterical. So angry and juvenile! It’s like something you’d see published in a high school newspaper! When I got to the Inquisition reference at the end… well, that is truly priceless. It’s like the liberal equivalent of calling Cardinal Levada a poopyhead.

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This is cool. From Stella Borealis, a report on an increasing source of frustration for Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups: a lack of qualified doctors. Not wanting to be saddled with the burden of answering to pro-life groups, it seems most medical schools stay away from abortion these days, and doctors usually have to find their own training from outside sources. Assuming they want to, that is. Even if they don’t have moral objections to the practice, it can be difficult for doctors to get institutional approval and malpractice coverage, and then there’s the fact that being an abortion doctor just isn’t the pleasantest of jobs. The author of the article is obviously strongly pro-abortion and doesn’t mention it, but you’ve got to think that killing multiple unborn babies in a week starts to make a person feel pretty bad about himself after awhile. But even if he doesn’t, he still has to deal with all the protesters, the bad reputation, and sometimes even safety concerns. Most people would rather just be an orthodontist (or, if you really like babies, how about a pediatrician or an OBGYN?)

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It’s late, and I’ve got to get this up quickly or else I’ll end up posting it on the Seraphic Doctor’s Novus feast day! Of course Iosephus has already put up a post in honor of St. Bonaventure, but I’m sure he won’t mind if I make a little contribution as well. This is from Gilson’s Philosophy of St. Bonaventure. I will not include such a long quote as I posted on St. Francis’ feast day, but hopefully this succinct quote will still capture something of the excitement of studying the philosophy of this great saint.

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I’m sure everyone knows by now about the no-hard-words camp winning the day in the USCCB’s vote over the new missal. Depressing stuff, but here’s the part that fascinates me. We’ve all seen the news stories quoting Shirley what’s-her-name and other “John and Mary” Catholics who want the more “accessible” language in the Mass. Now, what kind of person do you have to be to want to go on record as being too stupid or lazy to look up a word?

“English is such a hard language! Please keep words small for dim-witted people like me who can’t keep up!” It’s just sort of hard to figure why you’d want to be the poster child for that campaign, isn’t it? Did they pay them, perhaps?

Once again, I saw this movie in time to put up a very timely review, but then I got lazy and waited a week. As a summer Blockbuster, though, Hancock should be in theaters for a long time. I don’t normally expect a huge amount from a summer Will Smith movie; most of them fit securely in the category of “popcorn movies” which is to say, they make for a fun evening out, but can’t be probed too deeply for deeper philosophical themes. Hancock definitely meets this bar, being both action-packed and basically lighthearted in tone. But it has just a bit more beneath it than the average popcorn movie, though, in my view, it was a film that started well and then didn’t fully fulfill its potential.

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The Doctor and I got a little surprise today at Mass today. We’re getting low Masses for the course of the summer at St. Augustine’s parish, sadly. It’s one of those “we’re giving the choir the summer off” things, I guess. Anyway, everything proceeded as normal until we sat down for the epistle reading. Father moved to the usual place, and began reading it… in English!

We’ve only been in town a few weeks, but this was the first time here or anywhere that we’d heard the readings done first in the vernacular (in a traditional Latin Mass, that is.) Naturally we were somewhat startled, and Father obligingly devoted his homily to explaining the change, which he apparently plans to apply now to all low Masses in his two parishes.

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