Papal Surprise

Today, without fanfare and behind closed doors, Pope Benedict XVI met with victims of sexual abuse by priests–something John Paul II never did. Michael Paulson, who reported much of the scandal from Boston, reports on this development in the Boston Globe. Pope Benedict XVI, in a dramatic move likely to alter forever the image of…

Hell as Self Exclusion from Heaven

Christopher Hitchens demonstrates the validity of the theory that hell is a place you choose; it is self-exclusion from the presence of God. He hates the sound of heaven as a place of endless praise, where you can’t get away from Jesus (he throws in some obscenities to make his point). All religions are equally…

The Pope’s Homily

The homily preached by Pope Benedict XVI was vintage Joseph Ratzinger, with little discernible admixture of USCCB bureacratspeak (unlike his talk last night to the bishops). I tried listening to his homily while doing some other things, but his accent is thick and requires close attention. Read the text here. He begins by noting that…