Vermont Takes the Wrong Road

1. Sadly, the Vermont Legislature overrode the Governor's veto and legalized same-sex "marriage". At least they did it through the democratic process, and not by ukase from our judicial masters. Maggie Gallagher notes the small silver lining -- the Legislature recognized that SSM poses a threat to religious liberties, and enacted some protections.

2. Columnist and blogger Rod Dreher nails the diagnosis dead on -- secular liberalism has become such a norm in society that it has become a virtually invisible tyranny, and those who argue from outside its parameters (like us) are incomprehensible and bizarre outlaws. He's also right about the danger that approaches -- when there's a vacuum of values at the heart of society, we need to worry about what will fill it.

3. You have to love it. A guy puts up a pro-NDU petition. Fair enough. But he's a former leader of the left-wing politcial hatched group MoveOn.org and a host of other Democratic and leftist political groups, none of which are notorious for their adherence to the Catholic faith in the area of respect for human life. Who's politicizing it now?

4. As Msgr. William Smith said, social engineering is preceded by verbal engineering. Here, a Catholic hospital in Canada does "early inductions" on those babies with adverse prenatal diagnosis -- in other words, they induce labor early so that the disabled baby will die. An abortion by any other name is still as infamous, especially when it is done in a Catholic hospital under the advice of Catholic priests.

5. Bishop Martino of Scranton continues the rebuilding process. He has now contacted the heads of all the Catholic colleges in his diocese to ask them about the policies of their health services, to ensure that they are in conformity with Catholic teaching with regard to contraceptives. The best part is that Bishop Martino cites little-known and rarely-used Canon 810.2: "The conferences of bishops and diocesan bishops concerned have the duty and right of being watchful so that the principles of Catholic doctrine are observed faithfully in [Catholic] universities." Lead the way, Your Excellency.

6. Further piling on the Pope for his comments about condoms and HIV/AIDS, the Belgian Parliament… Oh, never mind, it's impossible to take seriously any sentence that includes the words "Belgian Parliament". Read it for yourself and laugh. You expect the story to mention that the leader of that august body is His Excellency, Rufus T. Firefly. Hail, hail Fredonia.

7. Please tell me that I'm hallucinating. This news article reports that Her Serene Highness Princess Caroline Kennedy may be appointed ambassador to the Holy See, at the behest of John Kerry. Meanwhile, it's also reported that the Holy See has already rejected three proposed ambassadors as being unsuitable to improve relations with the United States (i.e., they were pro-abortion). At least somebody has standards.

8. Uh oh. Another Administration official has tax problems.

9. I'm giving up the internet for the Triduum, so no more Varia until next week. I'll leave you with a very nice article describing why the author became a Catholic, and the spiritual consolation he finds in the Rosary. He is Risen!