Recent news highlights...
* Tragic: Catholic Portugal is reportedly "set to legalize gay 'marriage'"
* 2012 not the "end of the world": Vatican astronomer notes that "People have been predicting the end of the world since the dawn of humanity" and also notes that "These beliefs spread because we are all tempted by the desire to possess secret knowledge of the future, thinking that it will make us more powerful than others. In reality, this is only a sign of bad science or bad religion." Instead, he gives two precautionary measures "to increase the possibility of a long and healthy life", namely "stop smoking and fasten your seatbelt" [Related: Jesus' Second Coming (Topical Scripture)]
* Heartbreaking: Planned Parenthood is turning a former bank building in Texas into the "largest abortion clinic in the U.S." The facility will include a surgical wing "equipped to provide late-term abortions"
* New study reveals that "children who had been physically disciplined when they were young, between the ages of 2 and 6, grew up to be happier and more successful, performed better at school as teenagers and were more likely to do volunteer work and to want to go to university, than those who had never been spanked." Related: User-Submitted Article on Spanking]
* Hold your cookies: Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran decries "ignorance of Islam", saying "I wonder if these persons [referring to Swiss persons who - with a "feeling of fear" - voted to ban construction of new Muslim minarets] know Muslims, if they have ever opened the Qur’an." Commentary: Isn't it shocking to hear a Cardinal suggesting persons subject themselves to the offensive - even blasphemous - material in this "holy book"? Doesn’t history speak clearly enough for him? Don't the publications which clearly expose the ...um... 'peaceful' parts of this "central religious text of Islam" speak clearly enough? Does the Cardinal also suggest persons drink poison to experience for themselves what it's like? Rather than advising people to read material that offends God, perhaps the good Cardinal should spend more time on the truly holy book of his own religion - the Holy Bible - perhaps starting with passages where followers of Christ are instructed to be on guard against those who distort truth and where we are told to flatly reject error in matters of religion.
* The Iowa Catholic Conference has joined secular efforts to outlaw seemingly astronomical interest rates on "payday loans". Missing from news accounts: The word "usury", mention of lenders' risk on such loans, and references to the voluntary nature of such agreements (regrettable though they be).
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