La Stampa’s Asia editor Francesco Sisci offers a contrarian vision of a ” Catholic ‘Destiny’ in China ” on the newspaper’s blog today, predicting an early rapprochement between the Vatican and the Chinese government. China already has 130 million Christians, . . . . Continue Reading »
One of benefits of human cloning, we were told, would be the ability to clone someone with a disease like ALS (Lou Gehrig’s in America, motor neurone disease in the UK and elsewhere), to obtain stem cells from the embryo for disease study. Indeed, before he decided to abandon cloning in favor . . . . Continue Reading »
In a medieval history class my junior year of college, our professor assigned us a book of the selected works of Bernard of Clairvaux. I found it to be the richest spiritual work I had ever read, and would later take Bernard as my confirmation name. Now re-reading Bernard’s sermons on the . . . . Continue Reading »
Readers of SHS will recall the home invasion of the Santa Cruz cancer researcher who enraged animal rights fanatics for experimenting on lab rats looking for a cure for breast cancer. There hasn’t been much news from there lately, until now. New threats are being made. From the story: There . . . . Continue Reading »
It’s not just the American mainline that is running dry ; over at EPPC, George Weigel notes the latest divorce for Henry VIII’s ecclesial progeny: “England’s cause, and Anglicanism’s, are no longer thought to be the same.” Unfortunately, this arguable de facto . . . . Continue Reading »
This is a tale of two stories: I have long said that what I call the “egg dearth” will stymie the drive by biotechnologists to engage in human cloning research. That is happening now, and the scientists are none too happy about. And, as I predicted, the push is on to permit buying eggs . . . . Continue Reading »
We have been told repeatedly over the years that IVF babies are just as healthy as those conceived naturally. Well, it looks like things are not going as well as we were led to believe. From the story: IVF children are also at an increased risk of being born prematurely and of weighing less at . . . . Continue Reading »
Joke of the day: Two fonts walk into a bar. The bartender snarls and says, “We don’t serve your type here. If you don’t leave, I’ll have to call the serif.” . . . . Continue Reading »
Joy isn’t the first word that comes to mind when most people think of cloistered nuns. For that matter, most people don’t think of cloistered nuns at all, or when they do cobwebby, claustrophobic choir stalls and deafening silence and penitential potatoes form their image of the strange . . . . Continue Reading »
This August, Kay Ryan will begin serving her one-year term as the sixteenth Poet Laureate of the United States. A friend of mine pointed me toward one of her poems, which gives a delightful twist of thought that I’d never had before. Originally in the November 2003 issue of Poetry , it is . . . . Continue Reading »
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