The Problem at Notre Dame

Well put…from Exile Street:

This is not a discussion of censoring works of art like VM. They are easily available to any who wish to view them. It is the failure of Notre Dame to become a place where such sin is not celebrated. Can’t there be one “last homely home,” one last Rivendell, where an alternative culture can exist?

Must one allow sin, blasphemy and the celebration of the unholy, to live the examined life? Aquinas did not think so. Socrates did not either. What does the President of Notre Dame know that they did not?

Once a mind has been debased, Sacred Scriptures and the Holy Fathers make it clear that purity is difficult to regain. What academic merit would justify such a thing?

The notion that having one token Catholic to respond on a “panel” to a forceful dramatic presentation is so weak and impotent as to merit pity or laughter more than anger. It is as if the owner of a home felt honored that he was allowed one seat at his own dinner table, dominated by barbarians.

The sheep have invited the wolves to dinner, but a shepherd will comment after the meal.

Where Owning a Rosary Might Put You in Prison

Saudi Arabia extends a hand of friendship to the Pope, from the Times Online:

The Vatican is believed to be holding talks with Saudi authorities over opening the first Roman Catholic church in the Islamic kingdom, where Christian worship is banned and even to possess a Bible, rosary or crucifix is an offence.

The disclosure came the day after the first Catholic church in Qatar was inaugurated in a service attended by 15,000 people and conducted by a senior Vatican official.

The Vatican and Saudi Arabia do not have diplomatic relations. However, Archbishop Paul-Mounged El-Hachem, the Papal Nuncio to Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, Yemen and Bahrain, who attended the Doha inauguration, said that moves towards diplomatic ties were under way after an unprecedented visit to the Vatican last November by King Abdullah. This would involve negotiations for the “authorisation of the building of Catholic churches” in Saudi Arabia, he said.

The move would amount to a potential revolution in Christian-Muslim relations, since Saudi Arabia adheres to a hardline Wahhabi version of Sunni Islam and is home to Mecca and Medina, the most holy sites of the religion. No faith other than Islam may be practised.