corrente

Today's homily will be on the topic of "hypocrisy," which in the case of the Roman Catholic Church appears to be spelled "IOKIYAR":

(via NYT)

In the view of the nation's Roman Catholic bishops, politicians who belong to the church but depart from its teachings on abortion should be denied honors from a Catholic institution.

Unless, some would say, you happen to be a national hero of Sept. 11 who has raised a lot of money for a church-affiliated hospital.That would be the former [um, REPUBLICAN] mayor of New York, Rudolph W. Giuliani, an abortion rights supporter, whose name will grace a new $25 million trauma center at St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan. Ground was broken last week.

The Rev. Thomas Reese, editor of America magazine and a prominent speaker on Catholic affairs, saw some irony in the position.

"They can name a hospital wing after him, but he can't give a commencement address or get an honorary degrees?" he said. "This makes perfect sense!"

Father Reese said the naming of the wing "raises serious questions about the consistency of the bishops' policy."

We shall now turn to page 911 of our hymnals:

I'm a Roman Catholic,
And have been since before I was born,
And the one thing they say about Catholics is
They'll take you as soon as you're warm.

You don't have to be a six-footer.
You don't have to have a great brain.
You don't have to have any clothes on.
You're a Catholic the moment Dad came,
Because...

Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate.