Today’s top story, is hard to miss if you have anything to do with the Internet at all during your daily life. The House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate’s Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) both have riled tech companies, websites, and publications to black out their content in protest. David Gibson of Religion News service seems irked by the move, but mostly just points out how much he hates Wikipedia, which incidentally is used by the Vatican for compiling biographies before selecting cardinals.
Grant Gallicho of dotCommonwheel takes R.R. Reno and Robert Barron to task for “putting words in other peoples’ mouths” after both Reno and Barron accused the National Catholic Reporter of being predictable for naming Elizabeth Johnson their Person of the Year just for having her work, Quest for the Living God “criticized by the USCCB doctrine committee as promoting a theology not in accord with Catholic teaching.” Barron specifically claimed NCR chose Johnson because ”she was a persecuted victim.” Actually, Gallicho points out, NCR praised Johnson for her poise and professionalism when the U.S. bishops publicly criticized her book, without first notifying her. See, it’s not that, but how, she was criticized. And Johnson rose above it all.
NCR has a nice overview of the breadth of work Catholic Charities is engaged in, all focused on protecting life.
Oh, and if you’ve got the cash, and don’t decide to give it to charity, you can own Pope Innocent X’s private home.
