Author: Richard Chonak

AP reports:

A burial box that was recently discovered in Israel and dates to the first century could be the oldest archaeological link to Jesus Christ, according to a French scholar whose findings were published Monday. An inscription in the Aramaic language — “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus” — appears on an empty ossuary, a limestone burial box for bones….
Until now, the oldest surviving artifact that mentions Jesus is a fragment of chapter 18 in John’s Gospel from a manuscript dated around A.D. 125. It was discovered in Egypt in 1920.

It’s a local truism: the name of our nearby Jesuit institution, Boston College, is a misnomer. First, it’s not in Boston; and as it’s a university, the title “College” doesn’t really fit either. Sometimes it’s not clear whether it can even be fairly described as Catholic, since a certain amount of the thinking and activity there is at odds with a Catholic ethos.
There are some fine Catholics there, of course. However, they are probably not the people writing a sex column for the undergraduate student newspaper. I won’t impugn the Catholic commitment of the foolish administrators who let such a rag be distributed on campus, but it would seem they are excessively tolerant of certain evils.
When I read about this in today’s Herald, it was clear that somebody would post about it: Fr. Bob Carr won the race.
Perhaps this is all to be expected: the local cynics remind us that “B.C.” stands for a world not yet influenced by Christianity.

My favorite bad boy of the Left says Yes, please do bomb Saddam in my name.
Maybe we should ask Evelyn Waugh or Malcolm Muggeridge to pray for poor Hitch’s conversion. Or Mother Teresa for that matter; considering he wrote a nasty book about her, it would be the perfect way for her to get even with him. Even he would appreciate the irony.

I’m starting to like that proposal (discussed below) about building a huge arch on Lake Erie and a shrine in honor of Our Lady. Of course I’m not saying that it can’t be improved one way or another.

One detail I missed in yesterday’s announcements from Rome is how fast the new Mixed Commission proposes to work; Cardinal Law pointed it out during a press conference:

Almost as an aside, Law expressed surprise that the glacial pace at which the Vatican normally moves has been quickened so that the review will be completed by the time US bishops gather again in Washington on Nov. 11. ”I frankly am amazed,” Law said of the three-week window in which the Vatican plans to resolve the issue.

Now that Msgr. Michael Foster has been exonerated and his accuser rejected by the civil courts, he’s been waiting a bit more than three weeks for justice. Can the Cardinal put an end to his ongoing ordeal?