Reporting on the Pope

You know you're doing your job as Pope when you create these kind of headlines:

Hindus denounce Pope for being offensive to atheists

Pope's speech deemed 'wily and cunning' but 'playing it safe'

Video Ian Paisley denounces Pope Benedicts visit to Scotland

Atheists: Apologize for Adolf Hitler's crimes

European Raelian Movement Sues Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict trip: Why move John Henry Newman toward sainthood?

Steve Bell on Pope Benedict XVI and gay rights

Christians are in the world, not of it. Such bile wouldn't be spewed if the Holy Father had embraced the values of the secular world.

May God grant him many more years.

Oremus pro Pontifice nostro Benedictus.

Dominus conservet eum, et vivificet eum, et beatum faciat eum in terra, et non tradat eum in animam inimicorum eius. [Ps 40:3]

(Find the English translation here.)

Media Reaction to the Pope's Visit, in Cartoon

cartoon source

A more subtle weapon of the culture of death?

From the New York Times:

A Majority of Caesareans Precede Labor

by Denise Gradey

A new study suggests several reasons for the nation’s rising Caesarean section rate, including the increased use of drugs to induce labor, the tendency to give up on labor too soon and deliver babies surgically instead of waiting for nature to take its course, and the failure to allow women with previous Caesareans to try to give birth vaginally.

Thirty-two percent of all births in the United States — nearly 1 in 3 — now occur by Caesarean section. The operations have been increasing steadily since 1996, setting records year after year, and have become the most common surgery in American hospitals. About 1.4 million Caesareans were performed in 2007, the latest year for which figures are available. The increases have caused debate and concern.

...

Caesareans also increase the risk of dangerous abnormalities in the placenta during later pregnancies, which can cause hemorrhaging and lead to a hysterectomy. Repeated Caesareans can make it risky or even impossible to have a large family. In addition, costs for a Caesarean are nearly twice those for a vaginal delivery.

Hmm. More money and less babies. Call me cynical, but that has "culture of death" written all over it.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.

Reason 4,879 I'm grateful to be Catholic...

...the thought would never occur to us to replace an altar with a coffee bar.