Recent Reads

I came across a couple of interesting Catholic blogs recently I hadn't seen before. Father Stephanos, a Benedictine monk, blogs at Me Monk. Me Meander.
He's been keeping his readers up to speed on the new liturgical translation; it's surprising how much got changed after Vat. II. He also recently posted on living Benedictine martyr Brother Peter Zhou Bang-Jiu, O.S.B., who was recently released after years in a Chinese prison.

JimmyAkin.org, an apologetics blog that actually features the posts of the namesake and two others, is a good read for a Catholic perspective on news. Yesterday's posts included a link to Nat Hentoff's latest on the semantics of abortion--a soul-stirring piece of writing. Hentoff's latest was in the Washington Times, but can also be read at Jewish World Review if you have trouble with those darn ad boxes that cover the text. I don't have a clue what to do with those. JWR also has an archive, if you want to read his previous stuff. Out of curiosity, I hopped over to the Liberty Beat page of The Village Voice online--Hentoff was a Founding Father of that periodical and has a home there--but the column was a previous one. I'm beginning to suspect the Voice is avoiding running those of Hentoff's columns it doesn't agree with (i.e. the abortion and euthanasia ones.) I'll have to keep an eye on them. Hentoff must have some pretty colorful thoughts about the situation, if they're censoring his stuff.

CNA reports that four North African Christians were arrested and jailed in Saudi Arabia for holding a prayer meeting in a home. (hat tip: Italian (American) Catholic)

Been trying to figure out trackbacks, but my Luddite nature interferes. So I've been sticking with cut-and-paste for the time being.

Comments continue to appear on the 'Breast is Best' post on Jimmy Akin (all right, I'm responsible for a few of them.) Started me thinking about cultural acceptance of public breastfeeding. Some of the commenters seem to have the notion that it has seldom or never been acceptable, at least not in 'civilized' society; I've always been under the impression that most societies (except our own) to include some we would call 'prudish' have been pretty easygoing about the practice. It having been the only way to reasonably ensure the survival of children in much of the world until not so long ago (in some places currently,) it's hard to imagine there was much objection. Might be an interesting research project.