Unless you are under a rock ... The Pope is in the states

Follow the coverage at American Papist

Pope Expresses Deep Shame Over Priests’ Sexual Abuse

Former Protestants and former Catholics

Steve Ray included a stat box from Christianity Today noting that 10% of Protestants are former Catholics. It also notes that 8% of Catholics are former Protestants. Its important to point that out. In most analysis of the situation everyone focused on the 10% number without giving much thought to the 8% number.

A Catholic Wind in the White House -- this is fascinating speculation that GWB may pull a Tony Blair when he leaves office. There is some traction to the speculation:

Moreover, people close to Bush say that he has professed a not-so-secret admiration for the church's discipline and is personally attracted to the breadth and unity of its teachings. A New York priest who has befriended the president said that Bush respects the way Catholicism starts at the foundation -- with the notion that the papacy is willed by God and that the pope is Peter's successor. "I think what fascinates him about Catholicism is its historical plausibility," says this priest. "He does appreciate the systematic theology of the church, its intellectual cogency and stability." The priest also says that Bush "is not unaware of how evangelicalism -- by comparison with Catholicism -- may seem more limited both theologically and historically."

Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, another evangelical with an affinity for Catholic teaching, says that the key to understanding Bush's domestic policy is to view it through the lens of Rome. Others go a step further.

Paul Weyrich, an architect of the religious right, detects in Bush shades of former British prime minister Tony Blair, who converted to Catholicism last year. "I think he is a secret believer," Weyrich says of Bush. Similarly, John DiIulio, Bush's first director of faith-based initiatives, has called the president a "closet Catholic." And he was only half-kidding.

I am with Mark Shea, on this ... I have hope that he will pull a Tony Blair and it wouldn't shock me if he did. I have speculated privately about this in the past. His brother, after all, is a convert and every once in a blue moon someone comes out with a rumor regarding it. I am not, however, going to put any great hope into it. Creative Minority Report is more skeptical.

All of that said, Opinionated Catholic links to an interview with Bush on EWTN that ends with something that certainly is interesting:

Mr. President, final question.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, sir.
Q You said, famously, when you looked into Vladimir Putin's eyes you saw his soul.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
Q When you look into Benedict XVI's eyes what do you see?
THE PRESIDENT: God.
Q Good way to end the interview.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, sir.
Q Thank you, sir. My pleasure.

Film at 11 ... Apparently this is a squeaky clean blog ...


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Hitler ... in German advertising?

A hat company has broken a German taboo by advertising its products using an image of Adolf Hitler.

Tuition-free Catholic schools

Of particular interest is the story of the Wichita, Kansas Catholic School System. With but 120,000 Catholics in the diocese Wichita maintains 39 Catholic schools. 36 of these are parish schools (including 34 elementary schools), one is a free-standing preschool, and four are Catholic high schools. According to the report, "What makes the Wichita system truly unusual in this day and age is the fact that all Wichita Catholic schools have eliminated tuition for Catholic students."

This would cause me to give serious consideration to send my kids to school.