sisu

"Men who will deal likewise with their fellow men"

"St. Francis preaching to the birds" attributed to Giotto (1295-1300. Fresco. St. Francis, Upper Church, Assisi, Italy)

"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men," St. Francis of Assisi said of the dark side of human nature. In celebration of today's Feast of St. Francis we offer a replay of our April 22, 2005 post "The cats are invading the Holy See":

"Every time he met a cat, he would talk to it, sometimes for a long time," said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone of Benedict XVI, reports the Daily Telegraph (special thanks to frequent commenter and catpoet Dr. Hull for the heads up):

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said the Pope's image as a German "panzerkardinal" was unfair. "He is human and he will convince you," he said. "He is both a man of science and of faith. He possesses a great sense of humanity, he loves nature and music."

The same churchman said that Cardinal Ratzinger was a cat lover. "Every time he met a cat, he would talk to it, sometimes for a long time. The cat would follow him. Once about 10 cats followed him into the Vatican, and one of the Swiss Guards intervened, saying 'Look, your eminence, the cats are invading the Holy See.'"

"He loves to debate with you, not only about theology," the bishop [of Munich] said. "He plays Mozart on the piano before he goes to bed at night."

A Google search of "joseph ratzinger loves cats" brings up our blog in the number two spot. That was before we even knew that Pope Benedict XVI is an ailurophile. Google combined two unrelated bits: "Joseph Ratzinger" in the body copy of one of our posts plus "I particularly love the cat blogs," a testimonial in our Kudos list. Is it one of those "miracles and wonders" Peggy Noonan spoke of yesterday?

Loving it, we Googled for more (see surprise results of a search for "joseph ratzinger loves cats" in caption above). From the caretaker of the pope's house in Regensburg, Germany in the NYT:

The house — built in the 1970's style on a quiet street with a walled garden -— has the feel of an oasis. A bronze sculpture of the Virgin Mary gazes over beds of roses and daffodils, while a statue of a cat stands next to a sliding-glass door. The pope, Mr. Hofbauer said, adores cats.

And from The Kansas City Star:

His most heartfelt talks may have been the ones he gave after celebrating Mass. "I went with him once," said Konrad Baumgartner, the head of the theology department at Regensburg University. "Afterwards, he went into the old cemetery behind the church.

"It was full of cats, and when he went out, they all ran to him. They knew him and loved him. He stood there, petting some and talking to them, for quite a long time. He visited the cats whenever he visited the church. His love for cats is quite famous.

[His housekeeper] pointed up a staircase to a wall full of painted plates, each depicting a different cat. The brothers collected the plates together, she said.

"When we were on vacation, a cat, a little kitten, would come by, and he'd be giddy, almost giggling with joy," she said. "Cats love him; they always go to him straight away. And he loves them back."

He doesn't have a cat, however. Heindl doesn't think he can have one living in the Vatican.

He loves cats, he plays Mozart on the piano before he goes to bed at night and the dictatorial relativist Left is apoplectic. Hallelujah!

The Big Lie that is the commentariat's narrative of the Obama presidency

"Let everyone reject the destructive power of hatred and prejudice, which kills men's souls before it kills their bodies!" Pope Benedict told "tens of thousands of adoring followers in Jesus' childhood hometown" of Nazareth "with a message of reconciliation" Thursday.  (Jack Guez/ AFP/ Getty Images photo of workers preparing site on the aptly named Mount Precipice where Pope Benedict XVI would celebrate Mass)

“We cannot do whatever we please with the world,” Pope Benedict XVI told religious leaders of Galilee the other day (full remarks here) during the final leg of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land:

Rather, we are called to conform our choices to the subtle yet nonetheless perceptible laws inscribed by the Creator upon the universe and pattern our actions after the divine goodness that pervades the created realm . . .

By moulding the hearts of the young, we mould the future of humanity itself.

And there's the rub, the tragic vs the utopian view of human nature that we're forever flogging here. Generations of young hearts have been stunted through the soul-deadening p.c. propaganda of the decades-long Gramscian march through the institutions, as blogged here just the other day:

The 18th-Century Pats believed, as John Adams wrote, that "Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom." But in the wake of the 20th-Century Gramscian march through the institutions, promulgated through the insidious propagandizing of future teachers by "critical pedagogy" proselytizers like President Obama's old pal Bill Ayers, all too many children of the 21st-Century — even some of the best and the brightest who sit on the editorial board of the Harvard Crimson — don't seem to understand the fragility of this thing that is their birthright. In Ben Franklin's words, oft quoted here, "A republic, madam, if you can keep it."

It’s a tragedy that President Obama’s lockstep legions haven't a clue about Papa Ratzi's "subtle yet nonetheless perceptible laws” of the universe. Rodney King's fatuous "Can't we all just get along?" comes to mind, as does Santayana's prescient "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." As military historian-cum-family-farmer Victor Davis Hanson — one who "remembers the past" better than almost anyone — wrote the other day:

The cracks … in Obama’s Pentelic statuary … will widen, because in about six areas he has taken on human nature itself, age-old logic and common-sense opponents that even a Harvard Law degree and Chicago organizing are no match for.

The controversy over Notre Dame's decision to award the president an honorary degree shines a spotlight on the Big Lie that is the commentariat's narrative of the Obama presidency as "Critics Decry Wording of Notre Dame's Honorary Degree for Obama." From the citation:

Through his willingness to engage with those who disagree with him and encourage people of faith to bring their beliefs to the public debate, he is inspiring this nation to heal its divisions of religion, culture, race and politics in the audacious hope for a brighter tomorrow.

While honorary-degree citations are expected to put a well-scrubbed face on the recipient's accomplishments, this one just ain't true. Catholic theologian George Weigel explains:

"I don't see any evidence that President Obama takes the moral arguments of those who disagree with him on the life issues seriously," Weigel told FOXNews.com. "This was most clear in his address at the time he announced the federal government's stance on embryonic destructive stem cell research."

Back to the Holy Father for blogfriend Elizabeth Scalia's (AKA The Anchoress) take:

A reading of all of Benedict’s remarks throughout this pilgrimage suggests that he is doing more; he is pushing aside entangled, energy-sapping emotionalism to propose a reinvestment in our shared humanity. This last great man of the 20th century lived through Nazism and statism and he understands the societal weaknesses that spawned them. His speeches in the Holy Land are of a piece, meant to paint the “big picture.”

And a few final words from Benedetto himself in his South Lawn speech at the White House last year:

In reflecting on the spiritual victory of freedom over totalitarianism in his native Poland and in eastern Europe, [John Paul II] reminded us that history shows, time and again, that "in a world without truth, freedom loses its foundation," and a democracy without values can lose its very soul.

Amen.

Update: "Note this story," writes The Anchoress in the comments:

Israel may be ready for a two-state solution. And the credit goes to ... not Benedict, who Netty just met with, but OBAMA, with whom he will meet soon.

Isn't Obama amazing, though? No credit to Benedict!

As we wrote back:

Exactly what I was thinking as I caught the headline on Drudge this afternoon. Reminds me of the old Christmas story Why the Chimes Rang.

Ronald Reagan would have understood the Lord's -- and the Pope's -- mysterious ways: You can accomplish much if you don't care who gets the credit.

Update: "Even committed secularists need their godlings," writes The Anchoress, who links -- Thanks! -- in "Post Pope, Israel may support 2-state solution - UPDATED."

When your heart is breaking, everything else falls easily into place

"A little more to the right, please. Tuck knows what a pussycat likes," we captioned this pic of our two favorite boys back in September of 2007. Not easy getting used to living without that big fluffy ball of love, no way,

When your heart is breaking, everything else falls easily into place …  second place. Now comes Papa Ratzi on what we deeply believe to be the wrong side of the euthanasia debate:

During his Sunday blessing, Benedict said that love can help confront pain and that "no tear, from those who suffer and those who are with them, is lost before God."

Benedict didn't mention Eluana Englaro by name, but it was clear he was referring to her case, which has made headlines in Italy for months. Englaro has been in a vegetative state since 1992 after a car accident. She was 20 at the time.

Her father has fought a decade-long court battle to disconnect her feeding tube; he says his daughter visited a friend in a coma shortly before her accident and expressed the will to refuse treatment in the same situation …

In 2007, the Vatican condemned American Terri Schiavo's death as "arbitrarily hastened" and called the removal of her feeding tube a violation of the principles of Christianity and civilization.

She died March 31, 2005, in a Florida hospice after her parents unsuccessfully battled a court order to have her feeding tube removed.

Oh, yes. Terry Schiavo. We came down on the other side of that debate from our usual philosophical allies, big time. In that case, the parents wanted to keep the feeding tube in place. In the Italian case the father wants it removed. In both situations, an obscene bureaucratic fiat just says no to an intimate family decision that should be nobody else's business. Been there, done that.

"All too often the United States starts by dictating"

A lion cub can roar at a pope. "The beast was brought to the pontiff in the Vatican's Paul VI hall on Wednesday as part of a performance by members of the Medrano Circus … The lion's response: a roar, which drew laughter from the Vatican audience." (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, HO) We happen to think the "roar may well be more of the pussycat's social yawn — or maybe akin to the feline hiss — but that's open to debate. No question, though, about Papa Ratzi's adoration of his feline "suppliCAT."

"And so what I told [envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell] is start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating — in the past on some of these issues — and we don't always know all the factors that are involved," said the newly minted Leader of the Free World, displaying his slippery, disingenuous language of Arab-style diplomacy larded with BDS innuendo for all the world to see. "Dictating?" Can you say projection.? Pardon us as we gag.

Meanwhile Pope Benedict XVI noted that "While I renew with affection the expression of my full and unquestionable solidarity with our (Jewish) brothers, I hope the memory of the Shoah will induce humanity to reflect on the unpredictable power of hate when it conquers the heart of man."

"An amused Benedict looked on as jugglers in sparkling costumes performed. He got up when the lion cub was carried closer so he could pat it."

In answer to a press question re "the significance of the President’s decision to give his first formal interview to an Arab network that Is part of a broader strategy for reaching out to the Muslim world":

[Robert Wood, acting State Dept spokesman]: Well, I think, clearly, if you see some of the initial reporting that’s come from the region, there’s been a really, really positive reception to the President’s interview. And I think it shows, based on what I’ve read so far in terms of the reaction from the region, that people are very, very pleased with the President’s approach and the fact that he really wants to engage seriously in a dialogue with the people of the Middle East, a two-way dialogue.

Egad. If only he really wanted to engage seriously in a "two-way dialogue" with the people on the other side of the aisle in Congress and such as ourselves. But he doesn't. His way or the highway. "I won."

"Not a superficial gratitude given lightly"

"Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Great Mass in C minor 'resounded through the elevating ambiance of the Sistine Chapel'" at a recent concert given by the "Regensburger Domspatzen" orchestra and choir in honor of Pope Benedict XVI's brother Msgr. Georg Ratzinger (left), maestro di cappella emeritus, apostolic protonotary, for the occasion of his 85th birthday. Screen grab from a Catholic news service H2O video report of the event.

"The thanksgiving to God expressed in the Mozart Mass [in C Minor, K.427] 'is not a superficial gratitude given lightly,' the pope said, but is wholehearted and reflects Mozart's 'interior struggle, his search for forgiveness, the mercy of God and, then, from these depths, his joy in God shines more brightly than ever,'" reports Catholic News Service [via Thoughts from an Oasis in French Catholicism], quoting from a recent Vatican Radio broadcast:

Speaking after the concert, Pope Benedict said that although he was a 14-year-old boy when he and his brother first heard the Mozart Mass performed, "I understood that we experienced something other than a simple concert, that it was music at prayer, the divine office, in which we almost could touch something of the magnificence and beauty of God himself, and we were touched" …

In the presence of the choir, orchestra and guests, the pope told his brother, "The 85 years of your life were not always easy."

The pope said his parents had lost all their savings in the 1930s, then a new economic crisis enveloped the world, then the Nazis came to power and World War II broke out.

But the brothers found "hope and joy" after the war as they returned to the seminary and were ordained to the priesthood together in 1951 …

Pope Benedict said his brother discovered almost from the beginning the fact that God was calling him to exercise his priestly ministry while using his musical talents.

Tiny strikes a soulful pose atop the dining room table this morning, thinking, perhaps, of  her own brother, whose loss has left an empty place in our hearts.

"He loves cats, he plays Mozart on the piano before he goes to bed at night and the dictatorial relativist Left is apoplectic. Hallelujah!" we wrote in "The cats are invading the Holy See" back in April of 2005, one of the earliest of our Pope Blogging posts, now numbering over 75 and counting. A random excerpt from the first of those dozens that pops up in a google search for "sisu benedict," "Mugged by Pope Benedict XVI":

Take-home quotation [from the pope's White House South Lawn speech last April]:

Freedom is not only a gift, but also a summons to personal responsibility. Americans know this from experience -- almost every town in this country has its monuments honouring those who sacrificed their lives in defence of freedom, both at home and abroad.

He quotes his predecessor:

In reflecting on the spiritual victory of freedom over totalitarianism in his native Poland and in eastern Europe, [John Paul II] reminded us that history shows, time and again, that "in a world without truth, freedom loses its foundation," and a democracy without values can lose its very soul.

No wonder the great man has won our heart and soul. Listen to the Kyrie of the Great Mass here. Sing along with virtual sheet music here. Our own favorite version, featuring Kiri Te Kanawa and the Academy and Chorus of St. Martin in the Fields under the direction of Sir Neville Marriner CD available for purchase here. Fun fact: Sir Neville was conductor for the soundtrack of "Amadeus."

Update: Bird Dog hears the music.

"I also doubt they are calling themselves Sissy with any kind of ironic intent"

What is it? The bleached remains of some long-ago army column defeated by enemy forces or perhaps the forces of nature in desert warfare? Look a little closer and you'll see the remains of a family of tiny Pantry Moths — who knew that's what mealy worms turned into? — who had lived out their lives inside an old can of Ghirardelli chocolate powder in the farthest reaches of our kitchen cabinets. We tossed the chocolate powder but learned a thing or two about death by chocolate and parallel lives.

"I just looked at Sissy Willis's blog. The person (I am still not clear what sex/gender the person is) does not seem to be sane," writes commenter Matt Penfold at PZ Myers's science blog Pharyngula in response to an admittedly provocative comment we had left there ourselves this afternoon. We are intrigued with Mr. Penfold's scientifically-challenged powers of research and analysis, not to mention his tenuous grasp of the language:

I also doubt they are calling themselves Sissy with any kind of ironic intent. Which also suggests their grasp of English is as bad as their understanding of climate change, or since they seem to consider the current Pope to be some kind of hero, their grasp of morality.

They/themselves/their? Didn't you mean she or he, sir? Had Penfold delved a bit further, he might have been puzzled to learn that along with Pope Benedict XVI, Charles Darwin is one of our intellectual heroes. But then for him, the debate is over, the scientific consensus is in, and Sissy Willis is insane. Talk about parallel lives.

"From so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful"

   

February 12, 1809 isn't just for fans of Abraham Lincoln. Another great man whose legacy — like Honest Abe's, larger than life — inspires and enlightens ever more with the passage of time, was born the very same day in the very same year. Darwin's Shrewsbury (graphic image from their site, above) invites fans to send birthday wishes to Shrewsbury's favorite son, British naturalist extraordinaire Charles Darwin, blogged here early and often.

While Leader of the Free World-Elect Barack Obama channels Abraham Lincoln as "the world" looks on in shock and awe, admirers of Charles Darwin are getting ready to celebrate their hero's 200th birthday, together with the 150th anniversary of publication of the great naturalist's earthshaking On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (full text available online here).

"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one," we quoted from Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species in a caption accompanying this image taken from the deck of the schooner "Friendship" heading out of the Chelsea Creek on a sunset cruise three years back, "and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."

We're delighted to note that that greatest of great men of our own day, Pope Benedict XVI, reiterating a point he has made before, has sent his own good wishes Darwin's way at a recent conference:

In agreement with his predecessors Pope Pius XII and Pope John Paul II, the holy father stated that there is no opposition between faith’s understanding of creation and the evidence of the empirical sciences. He stated, “Belief in the creator does not exclude accepting the theory of evolution.” In fact, the pope bluntly asserted that the antithesis that some assume exists between the concept of creation and the theory of evolution is absurd, “… because there are so many scientific proofs in favor of evolution which appears to be a reality and enriches our knowledge of life and being as such.”

Which brings us to something David Brooks said in that February 2007 NYT op ed we cited in our previous post, something that's been puzzling us for years:

And here’s another perversity of human nature. Many conservatives resist the theory of evolution even though it confirms many of conservatism’s deepest truths.

We suspect it has to do with our species' primal hard-wired fear of being watched and the concomitant — do you love that word as much as we do? — "natural tendency to believe." We are not at all surprised to find faith-based protestations on both sides of the aisle. Compare the Young Earth Creationists who "believe that God created the Earth in six 24-hour days on the right with the similarly willfully anti-scientific Al Gore-allied Anthropogenic Climate Changeists on the left whose fire-and-brimstone sermons declare that "the debate is over" and "scientific consensus" is the last word. The coldest winter in years be damned!

“'It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives,' wrote Charles Darwin," we captioned this image last April, adding "Yes, you, Ben 'No Intelligence Allowed' Stein."

How sadly predictable. We had thought that Ben Stein's loony anti-Darwin movie was an aberration, just as we had thought Susan Sontag & Company's anti-American post-9/11 rantings and ravings would soon pass. But no. They're here to stay. This from Reason was enlightening:

Opponents of Darwin traditionally have been led by biblical literalists, whose "arguments" on the subject have been generated mostly by the Book of Genesis. Now their camp includes some of the most prominent thinkers in the conservative intellectual movement.

As a matter of historical curiosity, this new turning of neocon eyes toward heaven comes just as Pope John Paul II has officially recognized that "the theory of evolution is more than an hypothesis." Indeed, it comes as evolutionary thinking itself is shedding considerable light on an array of questions and problems, from brain growth to the development of immune systems, from sociobiology to economics, from ecology to software design. Such research is yielding anti-designer results. F.A. Hayek long ago recognized the phenomenon of "spontaneous order" and described how it arose in markets, families, and other social institutions. Now, ingenious computer models are confirming Hayek's insights. It is increasingly obvious that social systems, from commerce to language, evolve and adapt without the need for top-down planning and organization. Order in markets is generated through processes analogous to Darwinian natural selection in biology. In other words, we can indeed have apparent design without a designer; the world is demonstrably brimming with just such phenomena.

Forget about the impotent Ben Stein. Is Baracko Bama listening?

"Rediscovering the warmth, simplicity, amity and solidarity which are the very values of Christmas"

The Christmas cards are in production. Description on the back is about Tuck's "America" model pictured on the front, but what to say inside? Some say "Merry Christmas" is de rigueur. Others, like ourselves, might prefer a more understated reference to the birth of Christ as in our last year's message from Isaiah 40:1, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people." Prototype of this year's card can be seen just  behind Baby's right ear above.

"Even a nonbeliever can perceive something special, transcendent and intimate that speaks to the heart," Pope Benedict XVI told visitors and clergy during his weekly audience last week, calling to mind an ur-quotation of our blog, the late Oriana Fallaci's timeless "If an atheist and a pope think the same things, there must be something true." Papa Ratzi's latest words:

Perhaps the world crisis that is affecting so many families and all of humanity could be the stimulus for rediscovering the warmth, simplicity, amity and solidarity which are the very values of Christmas.

Stripped of its materialistic and consumer trappings, Christmas offers a chance to welcome as a personal gift the message of hope that emanates from the mystery of Christ's birth.

Our own little household started trimming expenses midsummer when we noticed the grocery bills soaring, thinking about prices in terms of the downstream effects of both corn used for fuel vs feeding livestock and soaring gasoline prices. Then came the financial apocalypse. We're still reeling and don't understand why this particular business cycle seems so much worse than most others. Wouldn't it be lovely if we could depend upon economic journalists to enlighten us? Where is Maggie Thatcher when we need her?

Meanwhile, according to the Washington Times, not only Oriana Fallaci, but Wal-Mart agrees with the Pope, "judging by its new motto, 'Save money. Live better.' And at least one therapist vouches for thrift as the new global virtue":

"Forced frugality will give folks the chance to really examine their priorities and reconsider the role and meaning of gifts and holiday expenses. With less comes more appreciation and gratitude for what you have and what you´re given," said Kit Yarrow, a psychologist with Golden Gate University.

Is that the excuse we'll be giving this year for our first-time-ever failure to buy any Christmas presents whatever? We do have a family Xmas lottery and will be giving a monetary gift (his preference) to the person we drew, but we used to be the Queen of Xmas Gifts. Now it is all about feeding. We have cooked up a groaning board of comestibles for family and friends. Is that the new "true meaning of Christmas"? Raymond MacDonald Alden's Why the chimes rang comes to mind.

Update: The true meaning of cuteness is explored in depth at Carnival of the Cats #249: Christmas Edition, brought to you by the handsome tabby Nikita of Musings of a Mad Macedonian.

"The presence of Christian values is fundamental for the survival of our nations"

"May Mary be for all of you, and in particular for young people, a Mother always attentive to the needs of her children, a light of hope that illuminates and guides your ways," said Pope Benedict XVI in a message to the French people on the eve of his four-day visit there this weekend. Above, screenshot of our own Benedetto, the Pontiff with the "winsome public personality" who loves cats and Mozart, as he steps away from the Popemobile toward the entrance to Notre Dame for vespers, brought to us live by EWTV mid afternoon EST.

"The presence of Christian values is fundamental for the survival of our nations and our societies," Pope Benedict XVI told reporters on the plane taking him to Paris this morning," we imailed Goomp this afternoon:

We: I am watching the Pope in Notre Dame de Paris. Just beautiful. Huge, enthusiastic crowds. Church attendance is down in France. This may be just the thing to push back the insidious Ummah creep.

Goomp: I hope so.

We: He is so lovable. He is always preceded by a false reputation for being unbending and cold. In fact, he is the opposite.

Goomp: The Church's Sarah?

We: Interesting thought! [We're pretty sure our friends on the other side of the aisle would substitute Barack for Sarah. In fact, someone over there is already comparing Sarah Palin to Pontius Pilate and Barack Obama to Jesus himself!] You can imagine how rousing the music is. The commentator is saying the organ is one of the greatest in the world: 7800 pipes! The Holy Father told reporters that "The presence of Christian values is fundamental for the survival of our nations and our societies." That sounds like YOU.

Goomp: When the Pope and Goomp think the same things, there must be something true.

"All of you desire to love and be loved, and it is to God that you must turn to learn how to love," Papa Ratzi tells ecstatic throngs chanting "Benedetto, Benedetto" outside Notre Dame as they listened, rapt, to the Pope's "Greeting to Young People" in Cathedral Square following vespers.

More pontifications — in the best sense! — that echo the wisdom of the Old Salt, Goomp himself. This from an AP report on a speech this afternoon following talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace:

Traditionally Roman Catholic France is wrestling with its changing religious landscape, and how to reconcile it with the secularism that underpins the modern French Republic. The country has a growing number of Muslims whose visible customs, such as wearing headscarves in public schools, have raised the hackles of officials determined to preserve the boundaries between church and state …

The pontiff said it was "fundamental on the one hand, to insist on the distinction between the political realm and that of religion in order to preserve both the religious freedom of citizens and the responsibility of the State towards them."

But he added that societies must also be "more aware of the irreplaceable role of religion for the formation of consciences and the contribution which it can bring to — among other things — the creation of a basic ethical consensus within society."

A basic ethical consensus. Isn't that what Goomp has been calling for all these years?

Update: Maggie's says "Amen."

Update II: More things that must be true at Dr. Sanity's Carnival of the Insanities

Update III: Mind of Mog links.

"Our hearts are one with theirs"

"God of understanding, overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy, we seek your light and guidance as we confront such terrible events," Pope Benedict XVI prayed with family members at Ground Zero April 20, 2008. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

"But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard" (Leviticus 25). Before moving on to our usual contentious cogitations on this seventh anniversary of that unholy day, let us pray with Benedetto. Excerpts from the Pope's benediction during his visit to Ground Zero last spring. (Full transcript here):

We ask you in your goodness
to give eternal light and peace
to all who died here—
the heroic first-responders:
our fire fighters, police officers,
emergency service workers, and Port Authority personnel,
along with all the innocent men and women
who were victims of this tragedy
simply because their work or service
brought them here on September 11, 2001 …

Heal, too, the pain of still-grieving families
and all who lost loved ones in this tragedy.
Give them strength to continue their lives with courage and hope.

We are mindful as well
of those who suffered death, injury, and loss
on the same day at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Our hearts are one with theirs
as our prayer embraces their pain and suffering …

Turn to your way of love
those whose hearts and minds
are consumed with hatred …

Grant that those whose lives were spared
may live so that the lives lost here
may not have been lost in vain …

—Pope Benedict XVI Prayer at Ground Zero, New York, 20 April 2008

Contentious cogitations will return shortly. Teaser: "Pope, During Visit to France, Will Try To Bridge Gap Between Faith, Reason."

Update: Miss Kelly links: "My prayers go out to President Bush, who has certainly done something right to prevent further terrorist attacks." Like Papa Ratzi, kindred spirit George W — "the nation's first Catholic president?" — is a rock, and we have faith that history will vindicate him.