Some reflections.

Those young adults who are "embracing Christian Orthodoxy" are not a majority, but they are a force to be reckoned with. They are part of a wider generational trend which can be seen in other religions (Judaism and Islam) and in political movements (the Republican party); a significant segment of young adults, raised in a confusing and confused Baby Boomer culture, seek stable reference points and relationships.

Hardcore young adult Catholics are the evangelizers of the present and the future; they are the segment of the population we need to tap to equip for ministry.

There are problems--sometimes in their zeal these "young faithful" can alienate the peers that most need to hear the message of hope that inspires them. So they need some mentoring. They need guidance. They need formation.

And they need another pope who sees this and relates to them and calls them as Pope John Paul II did.

Thank you for writing to eBay. My name is Christobal, and I appriciate the opportunity to assist you with your questions and conerns, regarding the auction you have reported.

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Regarding offensive items, there are many items that are considered sacred to many people of various religions, and we sometimes hear complaints about these items. Examples would be Catholic relics of saints, Mormon (LDS) garments, certain Buddhist tablets, etc. However, eBay has made the decision not to prohibit any item only on the basis of the item being endowed with sacred properties by certain religious groups. In general, eBay will remove items for a violation of our Offensive Materials policy only in extreme examples in which the listing explicitly promotes hatred, violence, or racial intolerance. However, we do not remove religious items that are otherwise legal for sale and do not violate any other eBay listing policy.

Please keep in mind that many of us at eBay may also share your distaste with an item, and may not support the sale. In fact, eBay has many Catholic employees. However, we do our best to understand and tolerate the many viewpoints held by our worldwide community. The Eucharist is not illegal to sell, and is generally allowed on eBay as long as the seller does not otherwise include hateful text or images in the listing.

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Bi-focals by any other name remain a sign of getting older.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has the original story. It seems clear that Marty Minto, pastor of a little evangelical congregation, Turning Point Community Church in New Castle, PA, was not simply listening to callers voicing their opinions. Rather, as Minto himself tells it, this last conversation was connected with several days of programming in which he attacked Catholic teaching.

"I made it clear that the discussion was not an attack on the character of the pope but, rather, a look at the teachings -- not only of John Paul, but the Catholic Church in general," Minto said.

Mr. Minto reveals more of himself at TalkingTruth.org, where he has a link to the anti-Catholic site, Good News for Catholics.

The fact of the matter is that this guy was spewing rank anti-Catholic bigotry. If he was spewing antisemitism, people would be up in arms. That people are defending him shows that anti-Catholicism is indeed the "last acceptable prejudice." The radio station clearly realizes it has a wide audience and it needs to be positive, and not let its airtime be spent alienating a large block of listeners because of one man's ignorant views.

It's one thing to discuss differences--it's something else to simply be offensive.

See also the comments at Powerblog, the blog of Minto's producer.

First, the push for Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the pope's doctrinal czar for 24 years and the dean of the College of Cardinals, is for real. There is a strong basis of support for Ratzinger in the college, and his performance in the period following the death of the pope, especially his eloquent homily at the funeral Mass, seems to have further cemented that support. One Vatican official who has worked with Ratzinger over the years said on April 13, "I am absolutely sure that Ratzinger will be the next pope."

On the other hand, several cardinals have said privately that they're uncomfortable with the prospect of a Ratzinger papacy. It's not just that some don't believe his strong emphasis on the protection of Christian identity in a secular world ought to be the guiding light of the next papacy, but there's also a real-world concern about the election of a figure with his "baggage." Fairly or unfairly, Ratzinger is to some extent a lightning rod for Catholic opinion, and in a church that's already divided, some cardinals worry about exacerbating those divisions. One said April 12: "I'm not sure how I would explain this back home."

Returning from a meeting over by the Borgia about an hour ago, I am accosted by two well-dressed young men in front of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, just off St Peter's square. They are handing out flyers with a photo of their candidate and the legend 'Santo Subito. Godfried. Your New Pope.' The reference is to Godfried Cardinal Daneels of Belgium, and the two young Belgians, taking me to be an American cardinal, tell me I should vote for Daneels because he is 'pro-women and pro-condom.' These Europeans are so sophisticated.

As Glenn Beck would say, "I'm wrapping my head in duct tape so that when my head explodes, all the pieces will be in one place!!!!"

OK, so even the "theology of the body" she can only see in a negative light. Let's keep going. Who are these young adults?

In seminaries, they are the young priests who wear the long black cassocks cast off by an earlier generation of Vatican II priests.

In their parishes, these are the youth group members who are reviving traditional spiritual practices like regular recitations of the rosary or "Eucharistic adorations" - praying for long stretches in front of the consecrated host.

But John Paul left behind enough of a committed core of young Catholics who are now becoming the church's Sunday school teachers, youth group leaders, theologians and priests.

Catholics in the "millennial generation" are more likely to attend Mass weekly, pray every day, feel that religion is important and have a lot of confidence in the church than Catholics in either the Vatican II generation (born 1943 to 1960) or those in the Post-Vatican II generation (1961 to 1981)....

Sister Mary Bendyna, executive director of the Georgetown center, said young Catholics seemed to be "more receptive to the church, they participate more than their Generation X brothers and sisters, and are a little less cynical about institutions in general, the church included."

My initial thoughts would be to limit the course to Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. As an historian, I would be tempted to look at them in historical perspective, with more time focusing on the historical development of the Abrahamic religions, their separation and interplay.

Possible textbook: Huston Smith, The World's Religions.

Student assignment: paper on a religious tradition we didn't cover or a comparative study of a theme across traditions.

Please share your thoughts in the Comments Box.

The American Spectator compares and contrasts the treatment of Cardinals Law and Mahony by the LA Times and other papers.

At issue is the "morning after pill," an abortafacient. The Illinois law is quite clear and specific--including a section which the governor should understand as applying to his actions:

Any person, association, partnership or corporation that discriminates against another person in any way, including, but not limited to, hiring, promotion, advancement, transfer, licensing, granting of hospital privileges, or staff appointments, because of that person's refusal to recommend, perform or assist in the performance of an abortion, whether such abortion be a crime or not, shall be answerable in civil damages equal to 3 times the amount of proved damages, but in no case less than $2,000....

It shall be unlawful for any person, public or private institution, or public official to discriminate against any person in any manner, including but not limited to, licensing, hiring, promotion, transfer, staff appointment, hospital, managed care entity, or any other privileges, because of such person's conscientious refusal to receive, obtain, accept, perform, assist, counsel, suggest, recommend, refer or participate in any way in any particular form of health care services contrary to his or her conscience.

"Health care" means any phase of patient care, including but not limited to, testing; diagnosis; prognosis; ancillary research; instructions; family planning, counselling, referrals, or any other advice in connection with the use or procurement of contraceptives and sterilization or abortion procedures; medication; or surgery or other care or treatment rendered by a physician or physicians, nurses, paraprofessionals or health care facility, intended for the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of persons; ...

(c) "Health care personnel" means any nurse, nurses' aide, medical school student, professional, paraprofessional or any other person who furnishes, or assists in the furnishing of, health care services

Fist of all, I AM NOT CATHOLIC AND DO NOT BELIEVE I'M GOING TO HELL FOR SELLING THIS COLLECTIBLE. So, if you're going to send me a message saying that I am don't waist your time because it'll just be deleted w/o being read.

Television news crews, largely idled since the cardinals decided Saturday to stop granting media interviews, mobbed Ms. Blaine on the square despite a downpour.

John Allen joins in, opining grandly that Cardinal Law's celebration of mass illustrates a "clash of cultures" between the Vatican and the US.

But as Barbara Blaine reports, the commotion was caused more by the media than by her; and she was not escorted off church property, but that the police helped her get through the hordes of reporters.

In Mr. Roberts' model, the pope should be a facilitator and a manager, not a teacher or a pastor or a priest.

The Revealer pointed us to this, praising "Open Democracy" as "a fine new site."

I touched on John Paul II's teachings in a presentation I made at the Respect Life Conference of the Diocese of Galveston-Houston in 1999. Aspirations of the Heart: Young Adults and Catholic Teaching on Marriage & Fertility.

Here are some selections:

Karol Wojtyla, in his book, Love and Responsibility, written in 1960, frames his discussion of sexuality with two references: one is the proper understanding of love, the other is the understanding of personhood. For love is a relationship between persons. "Personalism," as understood by Wojtyla, is not individualism. Rather,

"The term ‘person’ has been coined to signify that a man cannot be wholly contained within the concept ‘individual member of the species’, but that there is something more to him, a particular richness and perfection in the manner of his being, which can only be brought out by the use of the word ‘person.’"

What distinguishes a person is not merely our separateness from other individuals, but our inner self, our inner life, our spiritual life—our capacity for truth and goodness. We relate to one another not simply on the sensory level, as objects, but as full persons, acting with freedom, and possessing inherent and inalienable dignity.

Love brings together two such persons in a relationship of total self-giving. It is this total self-giving that is at the heart of that experience that we sometimes glibly refer to as "making love." In his chapter, "Sexology and Ethics," Wojtyla illustrates the nature of this gift of self by refering to studies of human sexual response. This mutual self-giving requires

"that intercourse must not serve merely as a means of allowing sexual excitement to reach its climax in one of the partners, i.e. the man alone, but that climax must be reached in harmony, not at the expense of one partner, but with both partners fully involved."

Love excludes using another person for one’s own ends, or exploiting that person.

"In the present case love demands that the reactions of the other person, the sexual ‘partner’ be fully taken into account."

Here we see the very positive attitude towards sexual love that is at the core of Catholic teaching. The Church, and Pope John Paul II, have a reputation for being anti-sex, anti-body. But that is far from the truth. ...

Pope John Paul II summarized the essence of Catholic teaching in a paragraph in Familiaris Consortio which is also paragraph 1643 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

"Conjugal love involves a totality, in which all the elements of the person enter—appeal of the body and instinct, power of feeling and affectivity, aspiration of the spirit and of will. It aims at a deeply personal unity, a unity that, beyond union in one flesh, leads to forming one heart and soul; it demands indissolubility and faithfulness in definitive mutual giving; and it is open to fertility. In a word it is a question of the normal characteristics of all natural conjugal love, but with a new significance which not only purifies and strengthens them, but raises them to the extent of making them the expression of specifically Christian values."

The Catholic teaching on marriage and fertility does not diminish individual rights, but rather aims at our complete fulfillment as truly human persons, equals in a covenantal relationship of total self-giving, freely chosen. In such a relationship, lived as God intends, we need not ask in fear and anxiety, "Will you be there for me?" but rather we will say, "I will be there for you." In such a relationship our hopes and aspirations, our deepest cravings are satisfied, in a sacramental union which is a sign to the world of the love and faithfulness of our Creator and Redeemer.

The only hitch came at a rehearsal Thursday night in St. Peter's Square, when McDonald began to read his passage from Saint Paul's letter to the Philippians.

"What is that cadence in your voice?" the master of ceremonies asked.

"That's a Southern accent," McDonald replied.