Leon J. Podles :: DIALOGUE

In Chapter Seven of my book The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity (available on line at another part of this web site) I examine the strong streak of erotic mysticism in Catholicism, a streak that turns to turn men off. 
Kath.net has a brief article on Marcelo Rossi, a Brazilian priest who is a hit [...]

[Read more →]

It really looks like this - except 100,000 times bigger!

[Read more →]

Our boat delivers us to a rock island at the edge of the Viedma Glacier.

We cross the rock polished by the recently-retreated glacier.

We don our crampons.

We survey the summer landscape.

Our leader cuts steps to smooth our path.

We stroll carefree amid the summer breezes.

Charlie enjoys a refreshing cooling drink.

I laze in the summer sun.
And only one [...]

[Read more →]

Gerald at the Cafeteria is Closed attended the dinner for the International Theological Institute in San Francisco (I went to the one in San Diego); Gerald gives excellent coverage of the current situation at ITI.

[Read more →]

According to Ship of Fools (who has done the most intelligible translation of the Portuguese news article): 
The final document of the 12th National Meeting for Presbyters, which ended yesterday in the Monastery of Itaici, in the city of Indaiatuba (SP), asks the Vatican for alternatives to priestly celibacy - which would mean the ordination of [...]

[Read more →]

In San Diego I met with Cardinal Schönborn to discuss, among other things, my book Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church. He said it was painful to read, but that it was important that the truth be told about what had happened. He is a Dominican, and the motto of the Dominicans is Veritas, [...]

[Read more →]

By a vote of 30 to 26 with three abstentions, the parliament of Luxembourg has legalized doctors’ killing of their patients. According to Kathnet:
Ärzte, die Beihilfe zum Selbstmord leisten, begehen mit dem neuen Gesetz keine Rechtsverletzung mehr.
Doctors, who assist with suicide, under the new law will suffer no legal penalties.

Luxembourg is 86% Catholic.

[Read more →]

The new head of the German Bishop’s conference, Bishop Zollitsch, has raised a minor fuss in Germany by his comments on celibacy. According to Der Spiegel
Der Freiburger Erzbischof und neugewählte Vorsitzende der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, Robert Zollitsch, spricht sich “gegen Denkverbote” beim Thema Zölibat aus. Im Gespräch mit dem SPIEGEL sagt der 69-Jährige, die Verbindung zwischen [...]

[Read more →]

A factoid has taken root in the minds of the Vatican: that less than one percent of Catholic priests have been accused of pedophilia. According to CNA, 
The prefect for the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, said pedophilia is one of the gravest problems of sexual misconduct, but he asserted that the media exaggerated [...]

[Read more →]

 One would think this sign is superfluous: 
 No esta permitido nadar - is not allowed swimming
But this guy tried to climb on the iceberg:

[Read more →]

Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz in the Tagesspost (acknowledgement to Kath.net) has asked that the church consider the possibility of opening the diaconate to women. Gerl-Falkovitz is a professor of the philosophy of religion at the Technical University of Dresden. I have heard her speak at the International Institute of Culture’s seminars in Eichstaett, Germany. She is known [...]

[Read more →]

Venice is the most claimed city in the world : ”Cleveland- The Venice of Northern Ohio!”
Buenos Aires has its Venice, Tigre, built on hundreds of island in the river delta. Most of the houses are modest and un Venetian:
 
The houses are served by supermarket boats
  
But here and there is a truly Venetian pile that comes [...]

[Read more →]

The boat that took us to the Viedma glacier and then to the Estancia Cristina was the Nunatak. The name was explained by a sign on board:

[Read more →]

The Recoleta cemetery is perhaps the strangest place I have ever seen.
 
This city of the dead contains 60,000 bodies in hundred of mausoleums built like row houses. Perhaps the Via Appia in its heyday gave the same impression, but the Via Appia was not in the best neighborhood in Rome.
The monuments are neoclassical
 
or art nouveau

 or Mussolini-esque

 or [...]

[Read more →]

[Read more →]