Columns
Rand Paul’s Victory
By Mark Silk — May 19, 2010
Not only is Rand Paul’s victory a wake-up call for the national GOP establishment but it should also be one for those who imagine that the Tea Party movement is somehow unfriendly territory for the religious right. Other than Paul himself, the big winner was Dr. James Dobson, who weighed in with a video endorsement […]
No Madrasas Here
By Mark Silk — May 19, 2010
Diane Ravitch on why she flipped and started loving public schools again: Was there a moment where you first thought: “Uh-oh”? There were a number of moments, really, scenes of doubt. But one of them came about because of research I’d been asked to do about higher-education standards in Pakistan. What I discovered was that […]
(Almost) Everything about Hingham
By Mark Silk — May 18, 2010
Yesterday, Fr. James Martin, S.J. reviewed the situation at St. Paul’s parish in Hingham, and what he had to say will only confirm the views of my conservative commentators that it’s the Jesuits who are leading the church down the primrose path to progressive perdition. Martin not only takes the part of Cardinal O’Malley and […]
Republican = Pro-life
By Mark Silk — May 17, 2010
In its latest poll on abortion, Gallup headlines its conclusion that the “new normal” is that more Americans are pro-life than pro-choice. This is the second poll that confirms the reversal of pro-life and pro-choice positions that Gallup first revealed a year ago. In fact, the current preference, by two percentage points, is not statistically […]
O’Malley v. Chaput
By Mark Silk — May 14, 2010
What a difference a diocese makes! Two months ago, two girls were booted out of a Catholic school in Boulder, Co. because their parents are lesbian partners. There hadn’t been any problem, it seemed, until that fact came to the attention of headquarters–the Denver archdiocese over which Charles Chaput presides. Two days ago, the AP […]
Taking on the Curia
By Mark Silk — May 13, 2010
Finally it is becoming clear that the big stumbling block to dealing with the abuse crisis is the Roman Curia itself. In America, the way forward is being led by America, which in an editorial this week identifies the curia as “at the center of the present crisis” and calls for a renewal of the […]
Stupak accuses bishops…
By Mark Silk — May 12, 2010
…of using abortion to oppose health care reform. There’s really no other way to read his essay in the new Newsweek. The relevant paragraphs pick up the story on the eve of passage of the Senate bill: On that Sunday, seven or eight of us pro-lifers sat with silver urns of coffee, yellow legal pads, […]
Kagan’s Rehnquist-like Establishment Clause
By Mark Silk — May 11, 2010
During her confirmation hearings to be solicitor general last year, Elena Kagan was asked by Arlen Specter to discuss a memo she wrote while clerking for Justice Thurgood Marshall in 1988. Senator, thank you for raising that memo. I first looked at that memo, thought about that memo, for the first time in 20 years, […]
The Battle for Benedict
By Mark Silk — May 11, 2010
Winging his way to Portugal, the pope showed his Augustinian colors and embraced a view of the church as beset with sin and a penitential approach to the abuse crisis: In terms of what we today can discover in this message, attacks against the pope or the church don’t come just from outside the church. […]
Schönborn v. Sodano
By Mark Silk — May 10, 2010
It is a rare thing when one Catholic cardinal publicly attacks another. The most famous example occurred in the middle of the 11th century, when Humbert of Silva Candida bitterly criticized Peter Damian for claiming that bishops who had purchased their offices were still valid bishops. The saintly (later sainted) Damian was one of the […]
Cheers for Sister Carol
By Mark Silk — May 9, 2010
Michael Sean Winters reports on how those attending the NCR’s Washington Briefing yesterday received Sister Carol Keehan, CEO and President of the Catholic Health Association: The room rose as one. The applause was loud, not to say raucous, and it was sustained. That applause came from somewhere deep in the consciousness of the assembled Catholics, […]
Bob Bennett and the LDS Church
By Mark Silk — May 8, 2010
Utah Sen. Bob Bennett, now fighting for his political life at the state GOP convention, is Mormon aristocracy–a grandson of Heber J. Grant, seventh president of the LDS Church. If he survives to fight another day–i.e. as one of two contestants in the upcoming primary–will it be because the Church has stuck in its oar? […]
Rekers’ ball
By Mark Silk — May 7, 2010
I’m as ready as any red-blooded ex-journalist to wax hysterical about a good sex-cum-hypocrisy story, and the case of Dr. George Rekers is hard to beat. A leading family values crusader, co-founder of the Family Research Council, expert witness against permitting homosexuals to adopt–he is discovered to have traveled around Europe with a male prostitute […]
The Levada file
By Mark Silk — May 7, 2010
Over on First Thoughts, Joseph Bottum takes another swipe at the New York Times‘ ongoing coverage of the current Catholic crisis by cocking a snoot at Michael Luo’s review of the history of Cardinal William Levada’s handling of sexual abuse cases in yesterday’s paper. Nothing new there, saith Bottum. Just the Gray Lady intent on […]
What’s Wrong with the Day of Prayer?
By Mark Silk — May 6, 2010
If nothing else, Franklin Graham. Before doing his own little things outside the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill, he had this to say to Fox: The Muslims have their holidays that they celebrate at the Pentagon. They celebrated Ramadan. They have prayer services there. But for us Christians to have prayer services, and for them […]
