Check out the brief NPR interview with National Catholic Reporter s John Allen about the batch of new cardinals named by Pope Benedict and what it may mean for the future of the Church In short probably nothing dramatic Allen says the announcement would be like a midterm election in which all the

The Washington Post s Michael Gerson picks up on a remark made by President Obama at a rally in Boston last week claiming that it further demonstrates the president is out of touch with average Americans Campaigning for Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick Obama said that Part of the reason tha

I watched Waiting for Superman this weekend read America s Raymond A Schroth s review here and found the film a thought provoking couple hours in which the director Davis Guggenheim examines the darker side of American public education a system where so many children are failed by schools that

A couple interesting posts on the recent rash of gay suicide victims across the nation see In All Things reactions here and here First openly gay Fort Worth TX city councilor Joel Burns made a tearful plea for gay youth to avoid the temptation of despair that comes along with bullying and hatr

Perhaps more than other Christians who seem more open to floating freely among various denominations for worship and identity Catholics tend to view some other churches as monolithic institutions with clear doctrine and discipline guiding all members along a straight and narrow path But the cove

I spent much of this weekend reflecting on last week rsquo s post by Fr Jim Martin on what the Catholic response could be to young people who despair to the point of ending their lives because of the negative messages they receive and bullying they endure for being gay Jim rsquo s thoughtfulness t

Over at the American Spectator writer Mark Tooley takes to task the Episcopal bishops of the United States for promoting the notion that impenetrable national borders may immorally block access to basic human rights such as employment health care food education and other necessities and that t

Politicians addressing their own religiosity is nothing new in this country for sure President John F Kennedy had to promise that his public policy would not be unduly influenced by his Roman Catholic faith which was seen as threatening to the American read WASP way of life in the 1960s More r

In this Sunday rsquo s New York Times magazine political reporter Mark Leibovich profiles the meteoric rise of America rsquo s favorite fear monger Glenn Beck his colleague at FOX News Shepherd Smith once introduced Beck rsquo s program as ldquo the Fear Chamber rdquo Beck rsquo s ubiquity

Check out the images by Eric Fischer that offer stark reminders that major American cities are still quite segregated Using data from the 2000 census Fischer uses colored dots to signify the majority ethincity of people in a given area Check out some examples below red is white blue is black g