Re conversion, have to love Maritain’s bluntness in late 1938 Commonweal interview (published Feb ‘39).

This is the real tell:

Nikolaj Bill@nikolajbill.bsky.social · 2w ago

I'm not sure I agree with you a hundred percent on your discernment there, Bob.

Sister Theresa Aletheia and Sister Danielle Lussier are the only community of religious sisters in the Catholic Church fully dedicated to serving abuse victims. https://www.globalsistersreport.org/news/ministry/these-catholic-sisters-want-start-new-order-difficult-mission-helping-clergy-abuse

These Catholic sisters want to start a new order with a difficult mission: Helping clergy abuse survivors

Sister Theresa Aletheia and Sister Danielle Lussier are the only community of religious sisters in the Catholic Church fully dedicated to serving abuse victims.

globalsistersreport.org

Come to learn Vietnamese, get asked to do the arithmetic yourself!

Ben CitM@contemplativeinthemud.com · 3w ago

Ok, yes, thx, I did that part. Giáo sư đó tên là Văn. What I want from you, dear book, is to help me improve my Vietnamese.

Moving gradually together and everywhere more conscious already of its unity, the human family cannot accomplish its task of constructing a world more genuinely human unless each person devotes himself to the cause of peace with renewed vigor. —Gaudium et Spes §77

“Jesus warns us against the temptation of thinking that God is a powerful figure who imposes himself by force, who takes over and dominates, or who arrives triumphantly. Instead, God favors smallness, a sign of his discreet love, by which he leaves us free to accept or reject him.” — Pope Leo

Temptations to Imagine a Strong and Powerful God

The title of this post is provocative. In truth, though, it’s little more than a welding together of two sentences in Pope Leo’s most recent Angelus. While he’s on vacation restin…

contemplativeinthemud.com

There is "something similar to a mafia" in the Catholic Church: In an exclusive interview, French Catholic priest Camille Rio warns that beneath official "safeguarding" protocols lies a self-protecting ecosystem operating like organized crime. losangelespress.org/english-edit...

There is something similar to a mafia in the Catholic Church: Father Rio

Camille Rio, a French priest warns about the pervasive effects of the lack of transparency in the global Catholic Church.

losangelespress.org

If you have time this weekend, please check out the doc (~30 min.) my team & I released this week on Musk’s push into Greater Memphis with xAI and its noisy, methane gas burning turbines, data centers, broken promises & impacts on majority Black communities next door. www.cnbc.com/2026/07/16/e...

Elon Musk's Memphis AI empire is the epicenter of the data center backlash

Data center-related policy proposals, protests and litigation are underway across the country citing Colossus and Memphis as a cautionary tale.

cnbc.com

As I keep saying, the reason we imagine God as powerful and also in every way invulnerable—even though it flies in the face of our freedom to accept or reject God—isn't really about theory. It's a social question. It's about how we frame and use power. Pope Leo today: www.vatican.va/content/leo-...

"God favors smallness...His love makes its presence felt even among the weeds, acts in a hidden and invisible way like the smallest of all seeds, and leavens the dough without making a sound (7-19-26)." #PopeLeoXIV #LiveTheGospel #LoveEachOther

Very cool to see a portrayal of Thomas Aquinas looking like a mendicant instead of Smart Tony Soprano

Stop scrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness

CatholicGeekery@catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 3w ago

Stop scrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness

The Archdiocese of Chicago spearheaded surveys of OCIA participants (adults who became Catholic this spring) from 20 US arch/dioceses, and (as I've suspected based on our church's OCIA group), the data does not support any one particular theory.

Today I saw the University of British Columbia’s collection of indigenous art. The young Coast Salish student leading the tour said that every sacred object sings its own song, and I’m going to be thinking about that for a while.

If you would like to help indigenous communities in northern Ontario who have lost everything in the wild fires, you can donate with True North Aid. Miigwech. truenorthaid.ca

"We cannot adequately combat environmental degradation unless we attend to causes related to human and social degradation. In fact, the deterioration of the environment and of society affects the most vulnerable people on the planet." Pope Francis, Laudato Si' (2015)

Luke LeBrun@lukelebrun.ca · 3w ago

These images of First Nations community members evacuating Collins, Ontario on motorboats are absolutely surreal www.facebook.com/reel/1548244...

A propos of nothing: 2 years ago today, I heard a homily entirely dedicated to "there's never a reason for a Christian to avoid someone" from a priest who was preaching to less than ten people, did a psych undergrad, knew notable amounts of my abuse history in the Church, and was an episcopal vicar.

Bridget O’Brien@bridgetemob.bsky.social · 3w ago

Have there been times that I have been very conspicuously interested in the church art as a form of unobtrusive protest against what was being said in the homily? ...🤐

There’s no vintage filter on this photo. And no, this isn’t Mars. 🌫️🔴 This is Hamilton, ON today, with the sun dimmed by wildfire smoke from northern Ontario. A sobering reminder that climate extremes are no longer distant headlines - they’re part of our daily lives. Stay safe, everyone. 💙🍁

Feast day in the U.S. (really no idea why it's not on the actual day she died at Kahnawà꞉ke there)—but I'll celebrate any day!

Catholic Climate Covenant@catholicclimate.bsky.social · 3w ago

Happy Feast Day of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, the patron saint of ecology, Indigenous Peoples, and care for creation. Today we honor and pray to St. Kateri: guide our work to care for our common home, so desperately in need of our care. Learn more: www.kateri.org/our-patron-s... #EcoCatholic

Oh, hey, you're back 🙃

Ben CitM@contemplativeinthemud.com · 2mo ago

Sometimes I wish I could know exactly *what* a Vatican IP address is reading on my blog...

Ok, yes, thx, I did that part. Giáo sư đó tên là Văn. What I want from you, dear book, is to help me improve my Vietnamese.

Sam Neill truly was a legend. One of my favourite movie details is the patch on his sleeve in Event Horizon which he requested because he was a supporter of Aboriginal rights.

French-language book ordered on a France-located website offers me one tracking option: Australia Post

He's not my namesake, but 90% of Catholics I'm introduced to assume it, so I'm claiming his feast day

Aw, and the next Văn newsletter arrived in the mail today, right on time for the day.

Ben CitM@contemplativeinthemud.com · 4w ago

This is a very different kind of post. Let's talk—or rather, if you let me talk—about a couple of things on the anniversary of Marcel Văn's death in a prison camp.

This is a very different kind of post. Let's talk—or rather, if you let me talk—about a couple of things on the anniversary of Marcel Văn's death in a prison camp.

Dam Silence

Dam Silence. Pencil on sketchbook paper, 30 cm × 14 cm. Further reading Fricker, Miranda. Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing. Oxford and New York: Oxford Unive…

contemplativeinthemud.com

Me in 2007, still in RCIA: holy crap the Maritains were targeted in some way by some creepy abuser guy whom they'd been the first ones to sound an alarm against Rest of the world: crickets Me: huh that's weird this must've been news before and I'm just the new guy

Ben CitM@contemplativeinthemud.com · 4w ago

I don't have a whole lot to add after my contributions to the history on the previous thread, but I do want to reiterate how "down" I am with this line of interpretation (convergence of so many of my concerns/interests, of course). We've buried this part of the story of the abuse crisis.

My idea is that the relitigation of old debates inside the dominican order (Chenu vs Garrigou Lagrange for instance) in light of the current situation of the US Church, and intellectual production it generates could greatly benefit from this relatively new light.

"le mec à McCabe là", un truc comme ça@socfrimphmcc.bsky.social · last mo.

Anglophone friends : has "The Philippe Affair" as in Thomas and Marie-Dominique Philippe reached your shores? I think it throws a very interesting light on the debates around thomist thought and dominican life in the 30's and 40's.

Anglophone friends : has "The Philippe Affair" as in Thomas and Marie-Dominique Philippe reached your shores? I think it throws a very interesting light on the debates around thomist thought and dominican life in the 30's and 40's.

We leave Mass truly realising that we don't walk alone through life; a divine power goes with us and gives meaning to our suffering, our hopes, and our projects —St Oscar Romero, 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), 1978 #StOscarRomero