The National Catholic Review

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  • While very many synod fathers warmly welcomed and appreciated the midway report presented by the Relator General, Cardinal Peter Erdo, on Oct. 13, a significant number expressed serious objections to parts of that interim text, both in terms of content and style. That text sought to summarize the rich and often heated debate inside the synod hall during the first week, but the day after the report was presented there was an evident attempt at pushback.

  • Wendy Davis, the Democratic nominee for governor of Texas, released a commercial last weekend reminding voters that her opponent is confined to a wheelchair.

  • If the rumors are true, today at Vandenberg Air Force Base, near Lompoc, California, the U.S. Air Force will land its robotic space plane X-37B after 22 months in orbit. 

    What—you didn’t know the Air Force had a “space plane”? That it was robotic (among other things it supposedly lands itself)? That it had been circling above us for the last 671 days?

  • In "Chasing Middle-School Admissions Is Test for Parents," the Wall Street Journal reports on the rising competition for New York middle schools:

  • A new wind is blowing at the extraordinary synod of bishops on the family.  A wind that is bringing back ‘the spirit’ and even ‘the letter’ of the Second Vatican Council several synod fathers said.  It’s a wind that reveals a clear desire for the Church to dialogue in a fresh, positive and hopeful way with the family as it is in today’s world with its variations and problems and, in this context, with the issue of homosexuality.

  • America magazine and Saint Thomas More Chapel at Yale University, seeking to recognize the finest literary work of Roman Catholic intelligence and imagination, announce the creation of the George W. Hunt Prize, a $25,000 award that will consider works in a variety of genres, including journalism, fiction, poetry, drama, music, memoir, biography, history, art criticism and academic scholarship.

  • Today the Synod of Bishops issued a document that represents a stunning change in the way that the Catholic church speaks about the LBGT community. The Synod said that gay people have "gifts and talents to offer the Christian community." This is something that even a few years ago would have been unthinkable, from even the most open-minded of prelates--that is, a statement of outright praise for the...

  • This is the first entry in the Bible Junkies Online Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles. This will be a challenging commentary to take on in an online format because there are numerous technical issues associated with the text of the Acts of the Apostles which are not at the heart of this online commentary project and its goals, but which must be considered or at least noted for those who are interested in further and deeper study.

  • Cambridge, MA. I was intrigued to read in today’s New York Times (October 11) an article by Mark Oppenheimer on “conditionalism,” a theological perspective on the non-eternity of hell proposed, in modern times, by Dr. Edward Fudge. Read it yourself here.

  • As the synod on the family reached the midway stage on a positive note, Pope Francis took the unprecedented and highly significant decision to add six highly qualified synod fathers to the team that will write its Final Report.  That decision could prove to be a game changer.