Two blockbuster appointments to important archdioceses in Italy. Described as "due preti di strada" - "two priests from the streets" - one of them is not even yet a bishop, and will now be the Archbishop of Palermo. To put this in perspective, the last parish priest named a metropolitan archbishop in the U.S. was +Oscar Lipscomb, named Archbishop of Mobile in 1980.
Archbishop Mark Coleride of Brisbane, Australia pens his last post on the synod. Whatever effect he had in the aula, +Coleridge emerged as the literary star of the synod. I would not be surprised to see a red hat on his head at some point in the future.
An open letter to the synod fathers from 100 converts, begging the synod not to change a thing. Don't you just love it when converts think themselves more Catholic than the pope?
At Politico, conservatives are already objecting to a proposed budget deal that seems to be in the offing. On this one, albeit for different reasons, I may side with the conservatives. Cutting Medicare should not be on the table until the top marginal tax rate returns to what it was in the Eisenhower years: 70 percent!
