Links for 04/05/16 | National Catholic Reporter

Links for 04/05/16 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: Manners have been missing for a long time on the GOP side, starting in 2008, when some were gunning for Clinton and got Obama and really flew the coop.  Of course, one can argue that 1992 and the election of Bill Clinton set the wheels in motion for really bad manners.  People usually behave badly when they feel they have been slighted.  Electing a philaderer President was such a slight.  Electing a black President another.  Trump's crowd has been chomping at the bit to severly disrespect the POTUS and Trump is letting them vent.  Of course, Obama's roots go back to Plymouth and Jamestown (as do I).  Most of those who hate him have not been in America so long.



I worked for Marion Barry during the control period.  We did good work and the Board worked with us behind the scenes.  The biggest person in the loop was our unelected Delegate to Congress.  I suspect that the Puerto Rican control law will have significant input from their non-voting Delegate - and he will have lots of input in how the new board runs things.  Of course, to get a board, often things must be worse before they can enact.  A major default is still in order.



Weigel and the Council of Trent totally misunderstand worthiness to receive Communion, as Garry Wills pointed out in his book Why Priests?  It is not a matter of inflexible doctrine as it is about flexible history (which Pius tried to settle in his condemnation of Modernism - Modernism won).  Even granting the current thinking on what receiving in a state of sin, the Pope can still declare whether some actions are gravely sinful or not.  For instance, scripturally, masturbation is probably equivalent to nocturnal emissions.  In Torah, the penalty for that is staying away from people until the pool warms up enough to take a cleansing bath.  Hardly damnation there.  The same level of sin exists in gay marriage (or not at all) and finding love a second time (not sinful).  Of course, when the divorce is for cause, like violence or alcoholism, I would give the aggrieved party full freedom and the offending party no freedom unless the aggrieved spouse grants it.  This puts the power in the couple, not in the clergy.  Sadly, the clergy are not mature enough to handle that.