The U.S. bishops are drawing more heat than ever from the mainstream media. First it was the somewhere around $550,000 of church funds funneled to the Maine ballot initiative repealing the state's same-sex marriage law, including money raised during second collections at Mass. (I honestly can't believe that the diocese of Portland did this.) This week it's been the U.S.

U.S. News and World Report blogger Dan Gilgoff questions National Catholic Reporter contributor David O'Brien's claim that the "silent majority" of U.S. bishops supported, or at least weren't strongly opposed, to the president's appearance at Notre Dame. O'Brien points out that most of the 270ish U.S.

Having posted on what I think is overheated and, in the final analysis, completely counterproductive rhetoric on abortion, I ran across an instance of an overzealous concern for the slippery slope that I think has the same effect.

I am continuously amazed by the hatefulness of the rhetoric that continues to issue forth from certain parties in the Notre Dame debate.

The case of the 9-year-old Brazilian girl who was discovered to be pregnant with twins after being raped by her stepfather has now drawn comment from Rome, according to the BBC.

Time magazine has an interesting story about the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops recent campaign against the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). Prolife advocates have whipped up a frenzy about the law, which, according to some, would eliminate state restrictions on abortion; their efforts have included email campaigns filled with dire consequences, including all Catholic hospitals shuttin

The Catholic swing vote appears to have gone to Obama yesterday, with most exit poling showing the Democrat make huge gains among Catholics over John Kerry's results in 2004. Beliefnet.com has some interesting numbers, along with commentary from Beliefnet editor Steven Waldman.

Both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are running stories on the Catholic vote today. NYT is focusing on how abortion is again becoming the deciding issue in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

With news of Bristol Palin's pregnancy--at five months, it could hardly have been a secret to anyone--the presidential race is acquiring a stranger-than-fiction feel. What I've found funniest is the way the media has been running to every Christian conservative leader to ask what they "think about" the pregnancy of the GOP's VP candidate's unmarried teenage daughter.