This incident, as well a others where Pope Francis acts so humbly (relatively), shows if you will a component of his Jesuit background.  As a Jesuit I recognize these little things, his paying his bill when he picked up his things from the priest hostile and  etc, as his natural sense that he is still Jorge while being asked through the Holy Spirit to exercise the authority of Peter as Pope Francis.  For him to make these small actions they are more for him than for us.  It reminds him that he is still a humble pilgrim  with his own race still to complete.  See these actions in light of his motto "miserando atque eligendo" literally by having mercy, by choosing him, but best expressed as LOWLY BUT CHOSEN.  May we all be open to our call amidst our own recognition of our lowliness in comparison to our Savior.

Interesting discussion partly because there is no clear answer.  As a Jesuit priest I see this creative spark from within the Spiritual Exercises of our founder Ignatius Loyola.  Through this month long retreat one engages God through scripture, in that one places oneself within the reality of the scripture and experience the Holy Spirit leading one's soul through the trials of life.  In the 17th century many facades of Jesuit churches in Europe were design so the front steps could be stage for plays.  God's revelation in the Old and New Testaments is an actual personal offer of God to each believer, in which we each engage in a drama with our God (see Hans Urs von Balthazar).

An aside, Alfred Hitchcock attributed his learning about terror when he was a student at St. Ignatius High School at Stamford Hill, London.  The manner that one waited for corporal punishment was far more terrifying than the actual punishment.  His movies always linger on the anticipation of the possible without focusing on the actual gore.

As a Catholic priest this is obviously an issue I personally had to become comfortable.  I am very comfortable on the tradition and the theology but am uncomfortable at times to express it publicly   I think in the end it is a component of the wider mystery that God invites us all to live out our personal vocation in service.  If it merely a competence issue I would be the first to strike down the ban.  But as a priest I know God does not necessarily choose the best, but uses a priest to help dispense grace at times despite the man.

I remember reading an article by a former female Lutheran priest who had become a Catholic.  She realized that what she had thought was her role as a priest in the Lutheran Church was supplied in her Catholic parish by women, either religious women or lay women. 

If one sees the role of priest as primarily within a power dynamic the all-male priesthood becomes unacceptable, but the wider role of service to the community, becoming the least so as top serve others alters the dynamic.  Then it is the specific ways of living out ones faith

I was lecturing at the London School of Economics at the time.  I was home avoiding work, not writing.  A gas reader or somebody mentioned a bombing in New York and I turned on the TV.  At the time I was living in Southall (just north of Heathrow Airport).  It was a very different place for an American to be.  Southall has the highest concentration of Sikhs outside Punjab, but the community also has a large number of Hindus and Muslims, many Urdu speakers.  Within the Muslim and Urdu communities there was a sense of suppressed elation and excitement that the Americans had finally got something back.  Even within the Pakistan Catholic community, with whom I was ministering to, there was this sense of tribal allegiance.  In the days that followed there were flyers supporting the attacks on the lamp posts.  That social tension will remain with me along with the desperate pain of the event and my separation from family and country at that time.

The NHS is the most sacred institution in all of Britain. If Social Security is the third rail in the US the NHS is that as well as apple pie and the American Dream. An indication of its status will be in the Olympic opening ceremony tomorrow. The NHS will have a very special place in the ceremony. One of my parishioners in Wimbledon is partaking in the ceremony as one of the NHS employees dancing in the ceremony. It is impossible to explain the most sacred space the NHS has within the vast British culture. Created out of the rumble of WWII, it encompassed the settlement of the class warfare that had taken place in the UK for the previous hundred years.

Incidentally other institutions sacred to the British are the National Trust and English Heritage. These charities preserve the physical heritage, especially country homes and gardens. Though they existed before the war it is interesting to note when a vast majority of their properties were donated to either institution. They just happen to be after the war into the early '50s. Why? The onerous inheritance taxes, which confiscated the inheritance, money supposedly used to pay for the NHS.

Living in Wimbledon, as you can see by watching the tennis, one would be lead to believe in the sunspot hypothesis concerning global cooling.  We had the wettest June on record and temperatures barely reaching 70.  July looks to continue.  Best sign is snails everywhere.

I am far from a lawyer, but in stating it is a tax allows it to go through.  But did it state that it was a constitutional tax.  That may need for the tax to be paid and then taken back to the court?  Full employment for lawyers.

When I was at university I also flirted with Ayn Rand, where Anthem had the most powerful effect.  Even though I would reject her Objectivism, I can accept her as a fellow traveler.   When seeking individual liberty one needs to find many allies.

As an American living permanently in England, this reality obviously hit home.  I have lived in London since 1989.  In 2005 I took my final vows as a Jesuit at which time I permanently became a member of the British Province of the Jesuits.  One of my conscious thoughts in making this commitment was that I would probably die before my identical twin brother who remains in the US.

Years before one instance of another Jesuit shocked me.  This older priest was found in his room one day obviously having suffered a stroke.  They called his doctor.  They asked if it had just happened.  They said they did not know but it probably happened during the night.  The office said there was nothing they could do right now because they would only act with haste if it just happened.  So he was left in his room until six hours later an ambulance arrived to leasurely take him to the hospital.  He died less than two weeks later.  

Now that may have happened any way, but the cold calculating decisions of the state could not have been more stark. In agreeing to remain in Britain I was consciously reducing my lifespan.  

Unless Ridge has changed his domicile, the Santorum-Ridge ticket is impossible constitutionally, since they are from the same state.  However, I think the strategy for a more senior heavy hitter rather than someone from the strong but yet very young bench may be the better one for both Romney and Santorum. 

As a resident of England I would have hope if Peter was correct.  However, after 23 years in this country there is not a discourse where Peter's hopes are able to be discussed.  I would fear a realignment of the parties to the muddled middle, Socialism with a capitalist engine, which is doomed for failure.  The National Health Service (NHS) is as close to a national religion as you can get.  When I venture the proposition that it is an immoral system which kills its citizens through planned incompetence one gets a look of utter incomprehension and I am discounted as a typical evil hard hearted right wing American.  When civilization is defined as the NHS, Peter's hopes will never come true.

Regarding anti-Catholic attitudes I am not complacent.  It may not be 1830 but there is a new attack on Catholic thought and presence in the public square.  I have experience of Catholic school in the Midwest who could only find state schools that would play them in football only when they were legally required as part of the playoff system.  The result was to finds schools in four neighboring states to play.  The attack on adoption in Illinois parallels the move in Britain where Catholic adoption agencies had to cease due to conscience issues imposed by the state.  The conflicts regarding Obamacare and abortion will soon reach a critical point.

Regarding politicians I present to you Ruth Kelly a young, up and coming Labour minster near the end of Tony Blair's and Gordon Brown's governments who in the end was forced out of government by her Labour peers primarily because as a publically practicing Catholic she held unacceptable and weird views.

My purpose of the post was not to necessarily defend Santorum's actions or say they were Catholic actions.  Rather it was to note that the left were attributing his actions as indicative of his Catholic actions which by definition they view as weird or crazy.  Leading on from that, they imply one must be crazy and weird to even listen to him; so don't. 

It is normal practice.  A midwife friend here in Britain tells me it is.  Mrs. Santorum, a neo-natal nurse, would have expereinced the situation professionally.  Briefly, I have found the following: Science Daily   and at this site.

His actions are not explicitly a 'Catholic' action but both Colmes and Robinson attributed the 'weird' action to his faith.  Regarding their handling of the body of their child it is a recommended practice to help the whole family deal with such a tragedy.  The headline description of their actions intends to see it as weird but in neo-natal practice it is normal both in Britain and the US..

Here in England we have been using the new translation since September, except for the particular prayers for each week which we started to use this past Sunday.  As a priest it is much more challenging.  After three months I still make a few mistakes.  Yet, I am only now getting to the point of praying the mass versus just saying the mass.  The more I can pray the mass the easier for the congregation to pray it.  I have some particular bits I can criticize, but overall it is a richer presenation of our Catholic heritage and the scriptural basis of the mass.  For you all Catholics, let the time and the Spirit lead to to receive this new gift.