I've collected a lot these last couple of days, and it's just been awaitin' a place to live... so here goes my little laundry list of interesting stuff, fascinating finds, and whatnot...

- The Washington Post hits another one out of the ballpark with some tremendous coverage of young (~30... hey! my age!) parents in NoVA (northern Virginia, for those unfamiliar with where my "main office" for my day job is located) that attend Mass in a very traditional, "old school", conservative Catholic parish.  God bless them and this wonderful parish.

"Young, orthodox Catholics are more enthusiastic about Benedict than are many in the older generation, said Colleen Carroll Campbell, author of 'The New Faithful,' a book about the youthful set. 'They like his countercultural stance on a lot of things. . . . They also like his emphasis on Catholic identity and fidelity to Catholic doctrine.'

"Like Catholics of their generation, young conservatives grew up under the liberalizing changes to the church brought on by the Vatican II Council in the 1960s, but some rejected those reforms as they reached adulthood.

"Paulitz, 32, remembers 'lots of guitars and banjoes' at church services and priests who had fallen away from church doctrine.

'"I felt uncomfortable about it constantly,' he said.

"Those who eschew artificial birth control and have large families say they hear comments and rude remarks when they venture out with their children: 'Don't you have enough?' and 'Aren't you done yet?'

"Sam Fatzinger, a Bowie mother of 11, has learned to respond with a tart: 'No, I'm just getting warmed up.'"

- Try this test over at Ten Reasons that "every Catholic eighth-grader should be able to pass before graduating from a Catholic grammar school."  If you don't get 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 11 without reference support, let me know so that I can flog you with a wet noodle (just kidding, of course.)  Number 12 got me.  For some reason, I've never been able to remember them all.  But I know people at our church that can recite them like they can their own childrens' names.

- Former coworker and good friend Nicole Hollway is pregnant!  I can finally say (even though I'm happy to say I've known for weeks) since she's shared it on her blog and is actively blogging about it now. Congrats and best wishes to her and Cameron and baby!  I know of one other former coworker who's also expecting - due date at around the same time - but my lips are still sealed on that one.  ;-)

- Insight Scoop pulls out some wonderful Pope Benedict XVI quotes from back in his days as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (before the good old Holy Spirit singled him out to lead the Church), from his book "God and the World" about "The Essential Nature of the Church."  Invest two minutes to check it out.

- William F. Buckley is remembered as "truly touched by the grace of God"... check out this report on his funeral Mass at Catholic News Service.

- Matthew over at Creative Minority Report (whose writing and coverage I absolutely LOVE lately) talks about the joys of children and the wonderment that they cause in modern society.

- From the same entry at Creative Minority Report, this wonderful t-shirt that I'm wanting to buy. I have to go ask Suzanne...

Pamela Paul columnized in the Washington Post today on whether she and her husband's decision to try to have three kids was "showing off" or "selfish." If it is, please sign me up.

"Like a fruitful vine your wife within your home, Like olive plants your children around your table. Just so will they be blessed who fear the LORD." (Psalm 128:3-4)

She starts by setting the story that she and her husband are "are getting ready to do what many couples in these brink-of-recessionary times would consider unthinkable... have a third child."

She then rambles on about how they're stared at already with two children, how friends think they're crazy for thinking about a third ("how will you ever get all of those kids on board an airplane for vacation with you!?!") and the costs of raising a "deluxe family."

I have an idea:

The joy is in the numbers. And in the simplicity that it requires. Every single child is such an awesome blessing and gift.

I will happily "show off" by making thoughtful, personal gifts and tokens of nice things I'll do for my wife and kids rather than going out and spending hundreds of dollars on a birthday or holiday.

I will "show off" by taking my sons on a walk around the park instead of a walk around the mall to brainwash them into more consumerism.

I will "show off" the hand-me-downs that my youngest son wears the conjure the joyful memories of both sons that have worn them.

God bless Mrs. Paul for this column and for being open to a third precious child in her family, but goodness gracious, ma'am, it's not about all the stuff you talk about. The only true costs with children are time and love. And those are the costs in any genuine, meaningful human relationship. Love is the price tag - why does it seem so hard for our nation to afford?

I'm not faulting him.  We need messages like this.  Especially in an era when the popular media constantly tries to tell us the opposite.

"Divorce and abortion are offences in the sight of God," said Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday, while calling on the Catholic Church [and, by extension, the faithful] to be merciful to those who had experienced such events.

"They are serious offences... which violate human dignity, inflict deep injustice on human and social relations and offend God himself, guarantor of conjugal peace and origin of life," he said.

However he added that there were people who had committed such "errors" but "suffered from wounds to the soul" and "sought peace."

"The Church has the duty to be close to these people with love and delicacy," the pope added.

"Divorce and abortion are choices... which sometimes develop in difficult and dramatic circumstances... and are a source of profound suffering for those who take such decisions.

"They also affect innocent victims, the barely-conceived and unborn infant, the children caught up in divorces."

It's days like today when I wish that I could say I was proud of my home state, but I just can't in all honesty.

What an embarassment, in fact...

"Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Monday signed into law a measure designed to ensure the presidency goes to the winner of the popular vote, joining Maryland and New Jersey in promising to award electoral votes to the candidate with the most support nationwide," reports the Belleville News-Democrat.

Ah, the irony. We, as students in the state's public education system have to take (and pass) civics classes and tests on the U.S. and Illinois Constitution. And we have to learn about the reasons that the founding fathers put the Electoral College into place and the value of the system.

But apparently our lawmakers missed those days in class and those questions on the test - or they just conveniently forgot them in the meantime.

Luckily, the law doesn't go into effect unless enough states to generate 270 votes (a majority) in the Electoral College approve the measure. But who knows... with the senseless and irrational "Not my President" and "Selected, not Elected" bumper sticker campaigns en masse after the last presidential elections, there may just be enough popular support to pull that off.  Let's hope not, for the sake of our nation and a smart balance to swings of popular momentum (need we only look to the Obamessiah to knock us to our senses on that one?)

In related news, Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn (yes, you read that right: THE Lieutenant Governor) is pushing for a constitutional amendment to the Illinois state constitution that would open the door for a recall of an elected official. Asked yesterday, Quinn said "that Governor Rod Blagojevich would almost certainly be the target of a recall attempt if the amendment passes." 

Ah, the irony of opening governance completely to popular whims...

I'm loving the bus ad that's now apparently on Metro busses around DC, according to American Papist. I really love the message and the side of Pope Benedict that it conveys. Come to think of it, I'm due for a trip to the Herndon office in the next couple of weeks.  I may have to do so and try to sneak a photo of one of these in real life one evening.

Sure, it's been out there a while.  But always worth reflecting upon again.

Which mode will you choose?

Via IF!, via Serendipity Book

I'm worn out... eyes are burning from looking at the monitor the bulk of today... and I'm also a bit brain-dead and losing efficiency with my work, so I'm heading up to bed.

But before I do, I thought it'd be fun to share a little news coverage that came in today's Belleville News-Democrat for the event/project Suzanne has been working on for the last several months that takes place this coming month in Alton... a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglas debate in Alton and a national conference and gathering of a group of Abraham Lincoln impersonators/re-enactors.

In fact, at one point in April (April 11-13), there will be no less than 70 Abraham Lincoln lookalikes in Alton. Almost anywhere you turn in town, you'll see a blast from the past in a stovepipe hat.  Dinners, one-act dramas, historical re-enactments, and trolley (or Segway) tours of historical sites are just some of the opportunities on the agenda to re-trace Lincoln's footsteps and re-live part of American history around Alton next month.

Read all about the festivities here.

See a full schedule of the happenings here.

Practically all day today, Drudge was all about the news report (Reuters) that "the Vatican said on Sunday... Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world."  It's been plastered across his homepage in red, the only above-the-fold exposure, as if a doomsday note to mankind.

From the article:

Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, who compiled the Vatican's newly-released 2008 yearbook of statistics, said Muslims made up 19.2 percent of the world's population and Catholics 17.4 percent.

'For the first time in history we are no longer at the top: the Muslims have overtaken us,' Formenti told Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano in an interview, saying the data referred to 2006.

However, Thomas Peters over at American Papist makes an interesting observation that the media completely misses, and is key to properly interpreting this announcement: 

"Islam" should be taken as an umbrella term much like "Christianity." Islam does not have a central authority, and divisions of Islam are many. Islam is primarily divided into Sunnis (~940 million) and Shiites (~170 million).

Thus, It would be more accurate to compare "Islam" with "Christianity" and compare "Catholicism" with, say, the Sunni branch of Islam. In both these cases, Christianity and Catholicism remain more numerous than their respective counterparts.

Notably, he also points out what I think is the key takeaway from this story: the Muslim population is simply having children at rates far greater than those of Christians.  Is the secret to return to God's command to "be fruitful and multiply," to take steps to put an end to our selfish culture of death, and to start to make and raise more Christian babies?  ;-)