On The Square today

“On The Square” today, Joe Carter points to the alarming double standard on sexual assault he finds in our culture: A deep disdain for rape, vicious crime that it is, but a cavalier attitude toward the epidemic of prison rape:

In 2004 the corrections industry estimated that t 12,000 rapes occurred per year—more than the annual number of rapes reported in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York combined. Three years later a survey by the U.S. Department of Justice found that more than 60,000 inmates claimed to have been sexually victimized by prison guards or other inmates during the previous twelve months.

Today’s second essay comes in from George Weigel , who draws our attention to one reason we should maintain hope in the ideal university: the phenomenon of “Aggie Catholics.”

Aggie Catholicism is something to behold. Daily Mass attendance averages 175; there were closer to 300 Catholic Aggies at Mass on a weekday afternoon when I visited a few years back. Sunday Masses draw between 4,000 and 5,000 worshippers. There are 10 weekly time-slots for confessions, which are also heard all day long on Mondays. Eucharistic adoration, rosary groups, the Liturgy of the Hours, and the traditional First Friday devotion are staples of Aggie Catholicism’s devotional life.