Month: March 2013

March 12, 2013

Rev. Sirico on the First Day of Papal Conclave

The conclave to elect a new pope began today in Rome.  Guy Dinmore and Giulia Segreti from the Financial Times describe the first day: Cardinals sequestered in the Sistine chapel held their first vote to choose the 266th pope to lead the Roman Catholic church but black smoke emerging from their burnt ballot papers on Tuesday night signalled no one had secured the two-thirds majority needed for election. Continue Reading...
March 12, 2013

Byzantium Wasn’t Particularly Byzantine

Writing in The Guardian, historian Peter Frankopan looks at how the Byzantine Empire, which had “the distinction of being one of the very few realms to survive for more than a millennium,” might offer clues to a way out of the current Eurozone crisis. Continue Reading...
March 12, 2013

Is Homeschooling a Universal Human Right?

Last month I wrote about the Romeike family, a German family of homeschoolers that was given the choice to abandon their religious convictions or lose custody of their children. Although the family is seeking asylum in the U.S., Continue Reading...
March 12, 2013

Who Will Be Pope #266?

Michael Severance, operations manager of Acton’s Rome office, is asking the question on everyone’s mind, “Who will be pope #266?” In The Catholic World Report, Severance makes note of the “amateur assessments” first: By now we have heard every hypothesis from scores of budget-pinching and rookie mass media stumbling on Piazza San Pietro’s uneven cobblestones. Continue Reading...
March 11, 2013

A Guide to the Conclave

The conclave to elect the new pope is scheduled to begin tomorrow afternoon after the public Missa pro Eligendo Pontifice (Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff) which is scheduled at 10am Rome time.   Continue Reading...
March 11, 2013

Vatican Smoke Signals

Here’s a curious tidbit regarding the fumata, the white or black smoke that will rise from the Sistine Chapel’’s chimney signaling whether a pope has been elected or not. “It is sometimes hard to distinguish the actual color of the smoke, such as in 2005”. Continue Reading...
March 11, 2013

Guns and Ammo as a Taxable ‘Sin’

Need to justify a new sin tax or raise an existing one? Adam J. Hoffer,William F. Shughart II, and Michael D. Thomas recently explained in U.S. News and World Report how it’s done: Claim that consuming some good or engaging in some activity contributes to ill health or harms the environment. Continue Reading...