Admonish with Love

1. Another priest out west admonishes his parish to examine their consciences if they voted for the 100% anti-life President-elect. Perhaps I'm naive, but wouldn't you expect a priest to admonish his flock regularly to examine their consciences? Shouldn't we be doing that every day? Do people think it's not possible to sin in the voting booth? Do people think it's not possible to sin at all any more?

2. From the "What Are You Thinking?" department, according to this report (which does not cite a source, and is thus suspect), Catholic priests in the UK have been directed to avoid "heterosexist" language. So much for Romans 1:24-27.

3. From that same department, a Vatican official has expressed his thanks to the Muslims for returning God to secularized Europe. Sorry, but I just finished reading a book about the tragic fall of Constantinople in 1453, and I feel great gratitude and admiration for the labors of the doomed defenders of the Roman Empire, as well as other men like John III Sobieski, Don John of Austria, and all the heroes of the Reconquista. I actually remember why the universal Church celebrates the Feasts of Our Lady of the Rosary and the Holy Name of Mary. I also see the threats looming from the demographic suicide of Europe (see the below-replacement level birth rates of Spain and Italy), and the activities of radical Islamists in various countries. I know what the good Cardinal was getting at, but this kind of talk makes no sense to me.

4. Here's an odd story about a couple who took pre-marital chastity to the point where they never even kissed. I suppose that if you can't kiss without sinning, then you shouldn't, but this strikes me as being more than a little bit weird.