Association Of Catholic Bloggers

I picked a mix from 'science news' this week: tardigrade genes, fertility fears, and what is probably the world's oldest living culture. Folks in Western civilization have known about our neighbors in Australia for about four centuries. Understanding their beliefs became easier, I think, when some of us realized that respecting them makes sense. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Today is American Independence Day. It's also the anniversary of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland's publication and Trois-Rivières founding day. Ashikaga Yoshiakira's birthday, Pactum Sicardi , and whole bunch of other stuff make this day important, too. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Many folks who lived in Grenfell Tower got out. Many others died. We don't know how many. A current estimate is 79. Determining the exact number will be difficult, since high temperatures may have effectively obliterated some human remains. Some survived because they didn't listen to official instructions to stay in their homes. That advice makes sense in a building with sprinklers and adequate interior firewalls. In Grenfell Tower, not so much.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Wanting respect is reasonable. I think folks who support Gay/LGBT Pride Month for that reason have a point. I don't agree with much of what's said on the gay/LGBT pride issue — and explained why I won't spit venom in today's earlier post. Basically, I should love God, love my neighbor, and see everybody as my neighbor. No exceptions.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

(From European Press Agency , via BBC News, used w/o permission.) ("Thousands attended a vigil in Manchester earlier" (BBC News) Manchester is England's second-largest urban center, in terms of population. At around 10:30 Monday night, something like 21,000 folks — pre-teens, teenagers, adults — were leaving a music concert at the Manchester Arena. Someone with a bomb set it off in or near the arena's foyer. He's dead. So are more than 20 other folks. Except for the chap who killed them, the dead had been enjoying an Ariana Grande concert. The youngest victims I've read about were eight years old. Quite a few others are injured. Some are missing. I am not happy about this, putting it mildly.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

A young man killed more than four dozen folks at an entertainment venue last night/early this morning. He took some of the survivors hostage, and is now dead, too. I've run into several assumptions about what happened: and a few facts.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

A dozen folks, three families, rode back to the Vatican with Pope Francis. I think that's a good thing, since their homes in Syria aren't there any more. They survived, obviously, and had made it as far as Lesbos, 1 an island in the Aegean Sea. "A Gesture of Welcome" (From AFP, via BBC News, used w/o permission.) (" The migrants are travelling on the same plane as the Pope back to the Vatican " (BBC News)) More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Despite this post's title, I won't be indulging in a guilt trip , or bewailing the decline and fall of practically everybody. 1 An incident earlier this month could have been much worse: like the Judenschlacht of 1241 or Hep-Hep riots in 1819. What happened was bad enough, though.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Some scientists say they've learned that a 300,000,000-year-old whatsit was a very early version of lampreys. That, Neanderthal DNA, and a newly-analyzed Tyrannosaur, gave me something to talk about today.... ...I'll do my usual explanation of why God's design choices don't offend me: but first, a recap of why I don't miss the 'good old days.'... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

(From BBC News, used w/o permission.) (" The names of victims have started to emerge. Top left to right: Nohemi Gonzalez, Marie Mosser, Djamila Houd. Middle left to right: Juan Alberto Gonzalez, Guillaume Decherf, Nick Alexander. Bottom left to right: Mathieu Hoche, Thomas Ayed, Valentin Ribet " (BBC News)).... ...Another article tells about efforts to find folks who are still missing: either dead, or hospitalized and not able to say who they are. I'll get back to that.... ...A few names from that BBC News article — "Dado," the nickname of a man killed at the Bataclan. Hugo Sarrade, Cedric Mauduit, Mathieu Hoche, Quentin Boulanger, Guillaume B Decherf, Marie Lausch, Mathias Dymarski, and Lola Salines, had been at the Bataclan, too. No pressure, and this is just a suggestion: but praying for everyone involved couldn't hurt.... More, at A Catholic Citizen in America .

I was getting ready to talk about 1 Kings 4 - 8 and John 6:41 - 51 , two of today's Bible readings, when I read about Niloy Neel: (From Facebook, via BBC News, used w/o permission.) (" Niloy Neel was an atheist from a Hindu background " (BBC News))... Niloy Neel's killers probably thought they were committing an execution, not a murder. Either way, Niloy Neel is dead: and quite a few other folks in Bangladesh are in serious danger. At first glance, this looks like something that doesn't matter to me. I'm not an atheist; my life hasn't been threatened; and I live in central North America: a long way from Bangladesh. But "atheist" bloggers in Bangladesh are human, I'm Catholic: so I must care about them, and everyone else.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

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 .

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 .

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 .

Bovine tuberculosis may not be a big problem, if Ministry of Agriculture in Northwest A&F University, Yangling, research pays off. Meanwhile, we may be learning who made Europe look and sound the way it does today: and scientists at the Max Plank Institute discovered how a uniquely-human gene helps our brains grow.... I've seen attitudes toward science and technology shift, quite a bit. I grew up when quite a few folks still thought human ingenuity would solve all our problems: or at least make "the future" a magical place to live.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Muslims are still upset about those 'Mohammed' cartoons in Charlie Hebdo. That, I think, is understandable. Being upset is not an excuse for killing folks, though. ( January 11, 2015 ) I'm upset when my faith gets described as 'worshiping a cookie.' I was angry about a college professor's photo of a consecrated Host, a page from the Quran, and another book's page: treated as garbage. For that matter, I felt disgust when a preacher burned the Quran. ( July 20, 2012 ; April 1, 2011 ; March 5, 2010 ) Some of that comes from spending my youth in the '60s. When I became a Catholic, however, seeing humanity as one big family was no longer an optional: it's a requirement.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

As I'm writing this, 19 folks in France have died because — it's complicated. Assuming that the Kouachi brothers had religious motives for killing folks at the Charlie Hebdo offices is, I think, reasonable: but it's an assumption. Assuming that Charlie Hebdo's distinctly irreverent treatment of Islam led to this week's attack is — that's complicated, too.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

About 3,000 folks died in attacks on New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon on this date, 13 years ago. The death toll would almost certainly have been higher, if passengers and surviving crew of United Airlines Flight 93 had not attacked their hijackers. They died, probably because the Al Qaeda pilot deliberately flew into the ground. Depending on their views, folks have commemorated the 9/11 attacks in many ways. Some have declared that the attacks were justified, because America is a big meany. They usually express the idea in more sophisticated terms, of course. Others say that Muslims are to blame: all Muslims. Still others take the more sweeping view that all religion is to blame. I think there is a tiny element of truth in 'all of the above.' Al Qaeda's leader at the time, Osama bin Laden, almost certainly had sincerely-held religious beliefs: and chose American targets in response to this country's profound lack of fidelity to his

James Foley is dead: the photojournalist, not the movie director . If someone had paid the $132,000,000 USD that ISIS apparently wanted, he might be alive. Or maybe not: there's a reason for United States policy about not paying ransom. Folks who engage in kidnapping or terrorism have to have flexible ethics: I'll get back to that. I learned that James Foley was Catholic from post by Rebecca Hamilton , on Google Plus — indirectly. For a while, I thought I'd be writing about the Rosary, prayer, and family. Then I ran into this... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

(From NASA/Jim Grossmann, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.) (Some of America's new citizens at the Kennedy Space Center. July 1, 2010.) ...The Irish and Other 'Threats' Some of my ancestors were none too pleased when one of those Irishmen came sniffing around their daughter. When asked about her daughter's suitor, one of my foremothers said, "he doesn't have family: he's Irish." ( November 13, 2008 ) I can understand her attitude. Quite a few 'proper' folks were convinced that those Irish were violent, indolent, and chronic drinkers: hardly the sort one would want marrying into the family. The daughter of a decent family and that Irishman got married, anyway. I think we earned our reputation for being garrulous and charming, and that's another topic. When my father's father died, my father received a small inheritance from his maternal grandfather. My father figured that his grandfather didn't want 'that Ir