At RNS, Mark Silk wonders if the chatter about schism within the Catholic Church is real or not. Like him, I think it will not happen or, if it does, it will be a sliver of people who bolt. But, I do not think that Pope Francis is going as far as the Eastern Orthodox, who accept divorce, but is instead saying that a first marriage might be understood to be invalid in ways that can't be proven in a canonical process, and that discernment can find that the sin exists in the first, failed marriage, and at the time it was consummated, not in the second marriage. It is a big change, but it is not an embrace of divorce.
At Politico, how incoming Attorney Genera Jeff Sessions is likely to attack marijuana legalization laws. This might backfire. I can't find the map of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that indicated how each town voted on the marijuana legalization referendum last month, but I recall that virtually all the rural areas voted in favor of legalization, even while they voted for Trump.
At Working Class Perspectives, a review of the move "I, Daniel Burke," and the power of storytelling. This blog may be the best run by a scholarly institute in the country.
