It’s tax day, and the only thing I can find worth posting is this profile of two world-renowned French economists who think America is crazy for tolerating our current leve of inequality. Mon Dieu!
The U.S. bishops’ statement “Our First, Most Cherished Liberty” is getting comment from both right and left. The U.S. branch of the Society of St. Pius X calls it “problematic”–they don’t believe in religious liberty, after all, and argue that our first liberty is our freedom from original sin–while at Religion News Service, Mark Silk put the U.S. bishops in historical context. Stephen Prothero justs lets them have it. In the U.K., the former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, claims that Christian freedom is also in danger there: “It is now Christians who are persecuted; often sought out and framed by homosexual activists.” Just how many homosexual activists are there in the U.K.?
As commencement season draws near, controversy envelops another Catholic campus preparing to honor someone not quite “Catholic enough”: In this case, though, it’s Desmond Tutu, whose honorary degree at Gonzaga in Washington State is drawing protest from some of the Jesuit school’s alums. Talk about a high bar…
I almost forgot: Happy Birthday to Pope Benedict, who turned the big eight-five today.
