Daily Links, Dec. 1: Quarterbacks, immigrants, and closed parishes

I can’t believe it’s already December! December 1 is World AIDS Day – it’s worth taking a moment to remember all those who are suffering and who have died from this disease.

On a lighter note, picking up where yesterday’s Daily Links left off, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers quotes St. Francis in what to me explains just why Tim Tebow mania is so annoying. And former NFL great Kurt Warner weighs in as well, a little more bluntly.

56 years ago today, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. These days, Alabama is back in the news for its anti-immigrant policies which to many appear to hearken back to days of extreme racial prejudice. Next up? Florida, which looks to deny in-state tuition to lifelong residents of the state if they can’t prove their parents are legal citizens. In other “immigrant” news, that word will now replace what is usually translated as “stranger” or “alien” in the Common English Bible.

The U.S. economy has seen better days, and everyone is feeling the pinch, including Catholic health organizations. The city of Detroit, often a symbol of the economic crisis, is closing and consolidating many parishes, though it cites a priest shortage rather than financial difficulty as the reason. Bryan Cones asks if this is really a good justification.

Happy December!