Scrolling around...March 15, 2013

Francis' Agenda: "To Walk, To Build, To Profess Christ Crucified"
Here, a Vatican English translation of Jorge Mario Bergoglio's first extended message on Peter's chair – which, in a shift from papal protocol, wasn't delivered from the chapel's throne, but with the new Pope standing at the pulpit (above), sin miter... not to mention a braccio (that is, off-the-cuff)...

The Pope From Beyond the Seas
Philip Jenkins "...In crude terms, the choice of Cardinal Bergoglio meant symbolically picking a pope from the Global South, while in fact opting for the most European alternative and the closest thing to an Italian..."

The First American Pope
 George Weigel: "The swift election of Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio, S.J., as bishop of Rome is replete with good news — and not a little irony. To reverse the postmodern batting order, let’s begin with the good news..."

Dr. Albert Mohler Reflects On Pope Francis
"Well, that’s why I think being a Jesuit indicates a deliberate kind of activist distinction from that. John Paul II was a philosopher. Benedict was a true theologian. I mean, he was heart and soul committed to doctrinal theology as his focus. And I think what you’re going to find in Francis is probably going to be a more pastoral activism, which evidently the College of Cardinals thought that the Roman Catholic Church needed at this time."

Obama couldn’t eat at Hill meeting without food ‘taster’
...“Unfortunately, you know, the president can’t,” said Collins when asked if Obama ate at the lunch meeting.
“He looked longingly at it,” Collins continued. “He honestly did look longingly at it, but apparently he has to have essentially a taster, and I pointed out to him that we were all tasters for him, that if the food had been poisoned all of us would have keeled over so, but he did look longingly at it and he remarked that we have far better food than the Democrats do, and I said that was because I was hosting.”...

Obama's Approval Ratings Worldwide Plummet from 2009
By the time Barack Obama reached his fourth year in office in 2012, the world had grown far more disenchanted with American leadership, according to a new Gallup poll. Obama's erstwhile worldwide popularity dipped by the end of his first term. In 2009, 130 countries were polled, and the median approval level of United States leadership was 49%. That number dropped to 41% in 2012, which was approaching worldwide approval numbers posted for George W. Bush’s last two years, when his numbers stood at 38% in 2007 and 34% in 2008....
Obama’s Second Term Troubles Have Begun

Bishops to Meet With Gov. Cuomo to Stop His Bill for Late-Term Abortions
...The Catholic Bishops of New York State will meet with Cuomo on Tuesday at the State Capitol in Albany. Cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan, archbishop of New York, will be unable to attend the meeting as he will still be in Rome, where Pope Francis’ formal Mass of Installation will be held that same day...

MOVIES: The profanity counter vs. the eye-rollers
...At the end of a press screening for some R-rated film, I discussed the subject with a fellow critic who views movies from a decidedly secular viewpoint. As I often do, I brought up the picture's offensive language. He said he didn't mind bad language in a film ... so long as it wasn't gratuitous. A bit perplexed, I remember responding, "They used the f-word nearly 70 times. How gratuitous does it have to get?" He had no answer. But at least he was gentleman enough not to roll his eyes...

Court Rules Fifth Grader Can Invite Classmates to Church Party
A U.S. Appeals Court ruled on Tuesday that a then-fifth-grade student should have been allowed to pass out fliers to her classmates to invite them to a Christmas party at her church as it wouldn't cause "substantial disruption."...

Hateful school play mocking Bible and religion with blatant homosexual themes attracting national attention
...The school is performing the play, "The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told," by Paul Rudnick. It's billed as a "comedy." But it's described by many as "blasphemous and hateful." The play retells stories from the Bible using homosexual characters in a pornographic and mocking fashion.

The play begins with a retelling of Genesis using a homosexual couple, Adam and Steve, instead of Adam and Eve, along with other homosexual characters who are are very sexually explicit in their speech and actions. As one review puts it, this re-telling of Genesis "gets so specific as to be a gay how-to sexbook."

It includes a depiction of Steve having a sexual relationship with an animal during the Noah's Ark scene. After several other hideous defamations of Bible stories, the first act ends with Adam and Steve being two of the wise men at the Nativity. The second scene appears to be a modern-day depiction of the birth of Jesus in a New York apartment with the "wise man" Steve now being HIV-positive and the pregnant Mary being a lesbian who (among other things...