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I'm pretty sure that the current Pope's 'communist crucifix' will be as well-remembered in the mid-22nd century as Leo XIII's tricycle is today. Pope Francis called it "protest art," said he understands the idea behind it, and isn't offended by the gift. I think that's reasonable. (From PA, via The Telegraph, used w/o permission.) (" The table, which is called an EVO 8000, came with customised bats painted with the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes flags " ( The Telegraph ) Sometimes diplomatic gifts aren't very diplomatic. For example — the pingpong table British Prime Minister David Cameron gave the American president was a great idea, with just one problem: it was made in China. That was in 2012, so maybe the fuss about a "best of Britain" being made in China has stopped. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

This post is about sex, Catholic Style. Now that I've got your attention, a little background. I'm a Catholic: an adult convert, so I'm rather gung-ho about my faith. This post is longer than most 'Sunday' ones: mostly because I discuss a recent Supreme Court decision in the context of love, free will, and Addams Family Values... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

I've run into — and experienced — many flavors of angst over the decades. Back in my 'good old days,' some folks feared the communist menace, others the population bomb and imminent death of all the ocean's fish. And there's that perennial favorite — the End Times Bible Prophecy. ( June 9, 2012 ; October 3, 2009 ) I take the last things — death, judgment, Heaven and Hell — quite seriously. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1021 - 1022 , 1023 - 1029 , 1033 - 1037 , 1681 - 1683 ) But recognizing that there's a really big closing ceremony for Creation 1.0 coming up — the Last Judgment — doesn't mean I think someone knows more than God the Father. ( Mark 13:32 - 37 ; 1038 - 1041 ) More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Golda Meir, 1 Henry Kissinger, 2 or someone else, said "even a paranoid can have enemies." I do not think humanity is doomed to extinction, or that life on Earth will end because we built factories. I do, however, think we need to use our brains: and take care of the planet we live on.... ...I also think remembering who we are — and what we've been learning about Earth — is important.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

"...'Brother Wolf, you have killed and pillaged like a wanton criminal, and for that you deserve punishment! But accept instead the forgiveness of all the men you have wronged. Come now, here is my hand. In the name of the Holy One, come to me, and pledge that from this day on you will live at peace with men. Come!'... "...He was only in time to see the berserker-wolf take the last hesitant step of its advance. To see it raise one metal paw — and with its steel claw-fingers gently touch the kneeling friar's extended hand...." That's from Fred Saberhagen's "Brother Berserker." The "berserker-wolf" part of Saberhagen's tale is based on a legend in " Fioretti di San Francesco ," written a century and a half after Francis of Assisi died. "Firoetti" is probably the most popular collection of stories about Saint Francis: but "Scripta Leonis, Rufini et Angeli Sociorum S. Francisci," compiled by Brot

A young man joined a Wednesday evening Bible study group at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, earlier this week After participating for about an hour, he killed nine of the folks there and left. I'm angry, and sad, that nine lives were unjustifiably ended in that church: and am profoundly impressed at the calm shown by some of the victims' relatives. In my considered opinion, what the young man did was wrong. I'll get back to why I think that's true: and what I'm doing about my anger and sorrow. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Folks have looked up and been impressed for a long time: " 1 Think! The heavens, even the highest heavens, belong to the LORD, your God, as well as the earth and everything on it. " ( Deuteronomy 10:14 ) " The heavens declare the glory of God; the sky proclaims its builder's craft. " ( Psalms 19:2 ) That galaxy is M31, the Andromeda Galaxy . Back when I was in high school, a fair number of books I read called it the "Great Andromeda Nebula." More up-to-date books occasionally called it an "island universe." More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

It's Corpus Christi Sunday: the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Weather permitting, we'll have a Corpus Christi procession here in Sauk Centre. That photo is from last year's event. I won't be walking, but I plan to take photos, posting them later today. Taking what looks like a bit of unleavened bread for a walk makes sense to Catholics who understand our faith — maybe not so much to other folks. Corpus Christi is Latin for Body of Christ, and what happens to unleavened bread connects to why we've been celebrating ever since that first Easter. ( April 20, 2014 ) More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

I grew up in a mainstream Protestant household, so I think of today's Gospel reading, Matthew 28:16 - 20 , as describing the "great commission." The phrase started rattling around in various European languages a few centuries back. Hudson Taylor , a Protestant missionary, popularized the English translation. Folks at the Vatican describe evangelization as the "great commission" occasionally, generally when communicating with those who are more familiar with Protestant culture.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

One my favorite bits from the Bible is in this morning's readings: " ...We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, " Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, " both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.' " ( Acts 2:9 - 11 ) That was about two thousand years ago. Some things have changed. Phrygia 's land became part of Rome's holdings about a century after the " tongues as of fire " appeared.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

At 2:49:43 and 2:49:57 pm EDT/18:49 UTC, April 15, 2013, two pressure cooker bombs exploded on Boylston Street near Copley Square in Boston. They were about 210 yards, 190 meters, apart; near the finish line of the Boston Marathon . Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev's bombs killed Krystle Marie Campbell, Lu Lingzi (吕令子), Martin William Richard, and Sean A. Collier. Dzhokhar said that he and his brother wanted to defend Islam from America. I think their experiences as Chechens and Avars may have been a factor, too. Don't expect a rant against Muslims, 'foreigners,' Americans, or anyone else.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

The odds are that you hadn't heard of Barpak , between Kathmandu and Pokhara . It's the April 25, 2015, earthquake's epicenter. Fewer than 10 of 1,200 homes there came through intact. Survivors in Nepal are getting help from many outfits, including Catholic Relief Services . I'll get back to that. (From Reuters, via BBC News, used w/o permission.) (" Residents of Bhaktapur carry their belongs through the rubble of destroyed houses " (BBC News)) More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

I grew up in the 'good old days,' when many Americans enjoyed the seemingly-secure middle class lives of the Cleavers and Andersons . Some parents, mine included, remembered that there's more to life than wealth: so I never considered running away to a commune . But I understood why some folks my age, and a bit older, decided that buying stuff you don't need with money you don't have to impress people you don't like — made no sense at all.... ...I didn't have the horror that some older folks had for places like Drop City . It seemed to me that 'those crazy kids,' with their 'un-American' talk about peace, love, and brotherhood, had decided to take at least some of my Lord's values seriously.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

The Armenian genocide 's start is rather arbitrarily set as April 24, 1915. That's when Ottoman authorities rounded up and arrested about 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople, and eventually got around to killing them. Armenians had been rounded up and butchered in odd lots before that, though. The Ottoman Empire 's 1915 ethnic cleansing wasn't limited to Armenians . The Ottoman government exterminated Assyrians and Greeks whose crime was living in Ottoman territory and having the 'wrong' ancestry or faith. It wasn't called a genocide at the time. That word first showed up in Raphael Lemkin 's book, "Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation - Analysis of Government - Proposals for Redress" (1944). He defined it as "the destruction of a nation or an ethnic group." ( Wikipedia ) More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Earth was not destroyed on June 13, 1857 . The comet didn't even show up. Mass starvation and various related catastrophes didn't happen in the 1970s and '80s, but the Ehrlich 's reprise of Malthusian assumptions is still popular in some circles. Apocalyptic predictions aren't unique to Western civilization, or Christendom — which are not the same thing, and that's another topic — but I'll concentrate on the Christian variety today. Hyppolytus of Rome said the Second Coming would happen in the year 500 . He died a martyr more than two centuries shy of his spurious Parousia . Hyppolytus of Rome is Saint Hippolytus of Rome now. Saints are canonized for their heroic virtue, not for being spot-on accurate.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

About 150 people stopped living on April 2, 2015, in Kenya: Thursday of last week. They were killed at Garissa University College . Quite a few folks are upset about this.That's reasonable. (From AP, via Al Jazeera, used w/o permission) (" Several ceremonies to mourn the victims have been held in Nairobi " Al Jazeera)... ...The body count would have been higher, but the killers were very careful about choosing their victims. After collecting about 700 students, they only killed those who said they are Christians. Don't expect a rant about those [hated group] who always commit [atrocity of the day]. I think that's as foolish as making excuses for members of [approved group] who behave badly.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

(From Piero della Francesca, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.) ('Dead? I was, but now I'm better.' No, our Lord didn't say that: not in so many words.( John 20:26 - 27 )) I haven't died, not yet: and I'm still working on the 'dying to myself' that doesn't mean pretending that I'm garbage — and that's another topic. Topics. ( November 27, 2011 ; March 3, 2009 ) Our Lord: That's another matter. About two millennia back, Jesus was tortured, executed, and buried: but I'm getting ahead of the story.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

I could be a Christian, following my Lord, if I believed that we live on a flat plate with nothing between us and the cosmic ocean but a sold dome that holds the stars. But my faith doesn't depend on maintaining ignorance of what we've learned in the last two dozen or so centuries. Imagery in 1 Samuel 2:8 and Psalms 148:4 is beautiful, poetic, and consistent with Mesopotamian cosmology : hardly surprising, considering where the Hebrews lived. That was then, this is now, and we've learned quite a bit about the universe since the days of Kubaba and Enmerkar . Some details of their lives seem exaggerated, but folks still pad their resumes, and that — isn't another topic.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Someone called my father-in-law, asking which set of Bible readings were were using this week. It's a reasonable question. One set for this fifth Sunday in Lent is Ezekiel 37:12 - 14 ; Romans 8:8 - 11 ; and John 11:1 - 45 . The other, labeled "Fifth Sunday of Lent - Year A Scrutinies," is Jeremiah 31:31 - 33 ; Hebrews 5:7 - 9 ; and John 12:20 - 33 . Having options isn't odd: readings for some Sundays include an abbreviated version — I'm not a big fan of those, since I like hearing Sacred Scripture, and my attention span doesn't time out quite that fast.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Today's Gospel reading, John 3:14 - 21 , includes one of my favorite bits from the Bible.... ...My main job, just like everyone else, is loving and serving God. Whether or not I do that job is up to me, every moment. Humans are rational creatures, able to decide what we do: or don't do.... ...Some folks, understandably, don't particularly like being told "you will be wholly lost and thrown away of God" if you don't agree with some enthusiastic disciple of Edwards. I think, and hope, that Edwards meant well.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .