A big SHOUT OUT and welcome to Commonweal's newest blogger, Anthony Annett, who was a parishioner with me at St. Matthew's for years before decamping for New York City. Anthony is one of the best informed Catholics on economic issues, and deeply committed to the Church's social doctrine. Here is a link to his maiden post on papal economics.
An interesting story about the way two neighboring bishops are dealing differently with their state's anti-discrimination proposals. Of course, each state has different legislative proposals, and a (slightly) different political culture, although neither Utah nor Wyoming is going to qualify as liberal anytime soon. What this divergence should show, however, is that when the USCCB brings its re-draft of "Faithful Citizenship" up this year, they need to recognize that the concept of "intrinsic evil" never belonged in a document on politics, and that they need to re-work the section on conscience formation accordingly. The other thing the story shows? Bishop John Wester is the best!
And on a sad, slightly scary note, this story and video shows that college students at Texas Tech do not know much about U.S. history or politics. One quibble though. When the questioner asks "who did we gain our independence from?" she should have spelled out the "we." In 1776, Texas was a part of Mexico so, in a sense, Texans could rightly claim that they won their independence from Mexico not Great Britain. Still, when more students can name Brad Pitt's first wife than can tell you who won the Civil War, you can better grasp how Ted Cruz won election to the Senate from Texas so handily.
