Wednesday, August 14

Interesting concept: Best blogging on culture, all gathered in one spot: BlogCritics.
Now here's a valuable service to humanity: the history of Michael Jackson's face.

(Warning: a couple of profanities ahead if you click on the link)

A clarifying piece on the facts about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from NRO.
Speaking of the new LA Cathedral (which we do from time to time), Victor Lams has a photo of the statue of Mary that adorns the front and comments about which Hollywood starlet she most resembles.
I've not weighed in on the bishops' statement on evangelizing Jews - I'm not in much of thinking mode this week. For thinking on that important subject, check in (if you haven't already) at HMS Blog and Mark Shea
Patience of a saint needed to get into Vatican Museums

The museums' director, Francesco Buranelli, in an interview on Vatican Radio on Tuesday, implied that scrupulous security checks with metal detectors and X-ray machines to screen bags and knapsacks were to blame. Italian authorities have said that the Vatican, for its tourist-drawing power and religious significance, could be a target for terrorists in the post-Sept. 11 world. "All the tourists are grateful for the controls," Buranelli said. The Italian news agency ANSA said the long wait apparently was at least in part to blame on a protest by unhappy guards. British tour guide Julia Charity said security guards were apparently disgruntled after being searched when a visitor's wallet went missing -- although museum officials said they hadn't heard about such an incident.

A Vatican Envoy explains the Archbishop Milingo situation

THERE'S a deliberate campaign of misinformation over Archbishop Milingo's issue bent on maligning the Catholic Church, the Vatican representative to Zambia Archbishop Orlando Antonini has said.And the chief government spokesman Newstead Zimba has called for calm among the Zambian public following the assurance from the Vatican that Archbishop Milingo is alive and well.In an interview yesterday Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Antonini said he regretted that there was a deliberate campaign of misinformation by certain quarters in the country bent on maligning the Catholic Church.He said the same misinformation was now threatening the safety at the Embassy as several local groups had indicated that they would demonstrate against the alleged holding of Archbishop Milingo against his will by the Vatican. "Archbishop Milingo is on a retreat and immediately he completes this, he will continue with his public ministry ," he said.

The NY Post on the situation

Today is the memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe:

No one in the world can change Truth. What we can do and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it. The real conflict is the inner conflict. Beyond armies of occupation and the hecatombs of extermination camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love. And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves?