Links: McElroy and Cordileone; guns in Australia; the Lincoln Memorial

In light of the wonderful news about Bishop Robert McElroy being named a cardinal, I was reminded of a symposium conducted by Commonweal entitled "Forming a Catholic Political Imagination." McElroy presented ideas to which Cathleen Kaveny, John McGreevy and Matthew Sitman responded. An excellent discussion of important ideas.

The Washington Times is not a reputable paper, but every once in awhile it publishes something that is so hilariously bad you can't take your eyes of it. They ran an op-ed praising the decision by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone to bar Speaker Nancy Pelosi from receiving Holy Communion. Originally, they misidentified Cordileone as a cardinal which was especially funny because the same day the editorial was published, a priest of San Francisco, McElroy, was named a cardinal. The editors have corrected that mistake. But this whopper still remains: "The bishop of Rome (the pope, if you prefer) has no say in that question outside the diocese of Rome." Actually, the pope's authority is universal and ordinary throughout the Catholic Church.

Last week, I wrote about the report on sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention and how that report discredited some of the more popular theories about why the Catholic Church experienced significant levels of abuse also. In The New York Times, David Brooks looks at the hypocrisy and betrayal such abuse, and especially the cover-up that followed, created.

With all the ideological slogans about guns, it is good to remember that there are some evidence-based arguments to be made. At Vox, Zack Beauchamp writes about Australia's mandatory buyback program for automatic and semi-automatic weapons in 1996 & 1997. Six hundred and fifty thousand guns were confiscated. The firearm suicide rate declined by 57% within 7 years and the firearm homicide rate declined by 42%. Other crime rates declined as well.

At Politico, Adam Wren writes that political attitudes about guns are firm in both urban and rural America, so it is the suburbs where this debate will be decided. There is some truth in that, but I hope gun control advocates approach their efforts with a less targeted mentality and do not write off efforts to convince people in rural America that assault weapons should be banned. They will not convince a majority, but one of the ways to overcome polarization and solidify a political achievement is to make sure people are making the argument for gun control even in rural America.

Elwood P. Dowd had his Harvey and Religion News Service's Mark Silk has his own imaginary friend, the Court Evangelical. Silk had not heard from his friend since Donald Trump left town but between COVID-19, the report on sexual abuse within the Southern Baptist Convention, and now Uvalde, Texas he reached out again and the two find themselves discussing "Total Depravity." Who knew?

Memorial Day was the 100th anniversary of the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial, one of the most sublime buildings in Washington. National Geographic has a photo spread of the great building throughout its history.