Leon J. Podles :: DIALOGUE

T-shirt seen at the Gathering of Nations Pow-Wow in Albuquerque:
Sure You Can Trust the Government: Ask an Indian

[Read more →]

David Ben Gurion observed that where there are two Jews, there are three opinions.
One Jewish web site agrees:

Although Jews have excelled in many different sports, only one sport truly has a claim as being the Jewish national sport. Soccer? Dreidel? No. The Jewish national sport is…arguing!

Jonathan Kay in the National Post reports the opinions of [...]

[Read more →]

Focus (April 11, 2009) in “Fructbarer Glaube” (not on-line yet) reports on the birthrate in Switzerland in 2000.
Children per woman according to religious membership
2.79 — Hindu
2.44 — Moslem
2.06 — Jewish
1.62 — Eastern Orthodox
1.42 — Buddhist
1.41 — Roman Catholic
1.35 — Protestant
1.24 — Jehovah’s Witnesses
1.11 — No religious association

The Worldwide Value Survey (1986-2004) correlated the number of [...]

[Read more →]

Many Baltimore fortunes were built on captured British ships. The Baltimore Clipper was built to run fast and function as a privateer. The idea has been revived. The National Post reports
U.S. lawmaker says Somali piracy has an age-old solution: “Letters of marque” empowering private citizens to chase the seaborne scoundrels from the oceans.
Republican Representative Ron [...]

[Read more →]

In 1912, a member of the Church and Religion Forward Movement complained that trained choirs were replacing congregational singing and were becoming a form of religious entertainment. He added 

What is worse than that is this: That in this tendency to aestheticism, we have brought within the pale of the church—may we blush for it—a kind [...]

[Read more →]

Mel Gibson’s wife has filed for divorce. His behavior over the years has been provoking both his alcoholism and his remarks that she would not be saved because she was an Anglican. Gibson himself belongs to a schismatic group so the latter remark was especially puzzling.
I have observed over the years that individuals and societies [...]

[Read more →]

Die Welt reports: 

Spam-Mails fressen so viel Strom wie Millionenstadt

Spam gobbles as much electricity as a city of millions

(2.4 million, to be exact, as the Germans like to be). Spam: Umweltschmutzer!

[Read more →]

Misleading statistics indicated that Germany’s birth rate was rising because of new, generous government polices. But the statistics were misleading. Despite lavish benefits, the German birth rate continues to drop. Der Spiegel reports

On Tuesday, though, the German Federal Statistical Office released preliminary figures for all of 2008, and the news is not pretty. Rather than [...]

[Read more →]

[Read more →]

Today is hung upon the Tree, He who suspended the earth amid the waters.
A crown of thorns crowns Him, Who is the King of Angels.
He is wrapped in the purple of mockery, Who wrapped the heavens with clouds.
He is buffeted with blows, Who freed Adam in the Jordan.
He is transfixed with nails, Who [...]

[Read more →]

Ubi Caritas et amor, ibi Deus est
A new commandment (mandatum) I give to you, love one another, as I have loved you.
But the beloved disciple, reclining on Jesus’ breast, asked, who it was who would betray him. The one who dipped his hand in the dish with me is the one, Jesus answered. Judas took [...]

[Read more →]

Today is Spy Wednesday, because Judas was spying out an opportunity to betray Jesus, as he would do with a kiss.
I often wonder whether Judas thought Jesus would escape as he had before, no harm would have been done, and Judas would have been thirty silver pieces richer. When Judas realized that his plan was [...]

[Read more →]

Sometimes one wonders about absolute freedom of religion:
From CNA:
Father Hugo Valdemar, spokesman of the Archdiocese of Mexico City, warned this week about the “terrorist” nature of the call for a “holy war” against the Catholic Church by the leader of followers of “St. Death.”
David Romo Guillen, leader of the devotion to “St. Death,” especially popular [...]

[Read more →]

Notice the hats on the right. Jews were required to wear these during the fourteenth century.

[Read more →]

The Gallup poll I cited below is puzzling. Why should Church regularly-Church-going Catholics be laxer in their attitudes to morality than regularly-Church-going Protestants?

The Church regards Tradition as the source of revelation. Tradition is That Which is Handed Over, tradere, and includes Scripture. Scripture is part of the life of the Church, and is to be [...]

[Read more →]