Points to Ponder:

So what if games-people turn away business. They add flavor. Chess and Go are assets to a coffeehouse. [Irv Cisski]

Considering trades, the Clowney inevitability & more

Briefly on the Newest Impeachment "Smoking Gun:

My view is summed up well in the following Twitter comment by Sean Davis...

Sean Davis
✔
@seanmdav

An undated note from a guy indicted on multiple federal charges of fraud and conspiracy who's already fabricated evidence in a desperate attempt to get an immunity deal from Schiff and Pelosi so he can avoid prison? That's the new smoking gun? LOL.

6:41 PM - Jan 14, 2020

Pelosi’s Blunder: How The House Destroyed Its Own Case For Impeachment

Warren Rejects Peace Pipe Offered By Sanders

Briefly...

As I take a brief detour from reviewing and revising the magisterium project, I have been perusing the drafts and notes folder from Facebook for materials either posted there or prepared for posting in the time period when this website was suspended. Some of those materials will be published here in the coming months at various intervals whenever I can be motivated to format them for doing so.

Points to Ponder:

[There was a] long, slow secularization of Western civilization, so that by the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, much had been drained away from the heart of the Christian life. Increasingly, this life consisted of a series of virtuous habits shored up not so much by interior conviction as by social expectations devoid of active spiritual judgment. Every period has its own problems; remember that I am talking here about pervasive cultural trends. A common approach to the spiritual life in those days has been famously captured in a stock question which really was often asked: "Just tell me what I need to do to get to purgatory." The first half of the twentieth century has been justly described as a period in which Catholicism tended to be lived "prescriptively", with little immersion in the mystery of God’s life within. [Fr. Joseph A. Komonchak (circa August 18, 2015)]

A Reiteration and Revision of My Correspondence Policy:

With the advent of social media and its increasing relevance, a reiteration and clarification of this site's correspondence policy is in order. Previous to involvement in social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, correspondence was limited to things like message boards, comments boxes at websites, and email. However, in the new environment, there are other potential mediums of communication to consider. So with that in mind, I first want to reiterate at this point the site correspondence policy as it was publicly posted to this website prior to the overhaul of the site template:

Any correspondence will be presumed eligible for blogging unless the sender otherwise specifies. This is referred to as the Welborn Protocol and is a policy that will be followed at Rerum Novarum. (Though name and email information will as a rule not be posted without explicit request to do so by the sender.) 

*Rerum Novarum is properly understood to be copyrighted in accordance with other writings of Shawn M. except with regards to Guest Editorials to the extent necessary for the authors of said pieces to thereby retain all rights to their work thereof. 

*My approval of a website, weblog, or essay is to be properly understood as approval of a macro nature and not necessarily a micro one and the macro approval pertains to the general theme so categorized not necessarily to micro elements not pertaining to said theme thereof.

While the precise formulation of the correspondence policy has undergone some additions, subtractions, and variations over the seventeen plus years since this website was first formed{1}; at the same time, the above parts were in some form or another in every iteration of the site's correspondence policy. So with a few tweaks, the above site policy will as of this posting be renewed as the current and future site policy here at Rerum Novarum in the following form:

Any correspondence will be presumed eligible for publication unless the sender otherwise specifies. This is referred to as the Welborn Protocol and is a policy that will be followed at Rerum Novarum. (Though name and email information will as a rule not be posted without explicit request to do so by the sender.) 

*Rerum Novarum is properly understood to be copyrighted in accordance with other writings of mine except with regards to Guest Editorials to the extent necessary for the authors of said pieces to thereby retain all rights to their work thereof. 

*My approval of a website, web link, essay, etc. from someone else is to be understood as only of a macro nature and not necessarily a micro one unless explicitly stated otherwise. 

I intend at this time to clarify for the record that the phrase any correspondence above includes correspondence on Facebook, Twitter, Instant Messenger, or any other social media format that I participate in with the exception of phone conversations or phone texting. So if you correspond with me in any of those mediums, the material could appear here at some point unless it is explicitly requested otherwise. That is not to say that it will appear here mind you, only that it could and this clarification is one made in perpetuity.

All things to the contrary notwithstanding.

Note:

{1} Including by the middle of the last decade being expanded into five rather ponderous paragraphs prior to later redactions.

Benedict and Sarah back Francis’s position on priestly celibacy. Media storm ensues

For the fifth time in recent months, I will post an update on the Democratic presidential field which has expanded as well as contracted since the last update of this nature. As of this writing, it is at 12 candidates.{1} Here is a brief list of those who have dropped in and dropped out so far:


In the Race -Listed By Declaration Date:

John Delaney (July 28, 2017)
Andrew Yang (November 6, 2017)
Tulsi Gabbard (January 11, 2019)
Elizabeth Warren (February 9, 2019)
Amy Klobuchar (February 10, 2019)
Bernie Sanders (February 19, 2019)
Pete Buttigieg (April 14, 2019)
Joe Biden (April 25, 2019)
Michael Bennett (May 2, 2019)
Tom Steyer (July 19, 2019)
Deval Patrick (November 14, 2019)
Michael Bloomberg (November 24, 2019)


Out of the Race -Listed By Suspension Date:

Richard Ojeda (January 25, 2019)
Eric Swalwell (July 8, 2019)
Mike Gravel (August 6, 2019)
John Hinckenlooper (August 15, 2019)
Jay Inslee (August 21, 2019)
Seth Moulton (August 23, 2019)
Kirsten Gillibrand (August 28, 2019)
Bill de Blasio (September 20, 2019)
Tim Ryan (October 24, 2019)
Beto O'Rourke (November 1, 2019)
Wayne Messam (November 19, 2019)
Joe Sestak (December 1, 2019)
Steve Bullock (December 2, 2019)
Kamala Harris (December 3, 2019)
Julian Castro (January 2, 2020)
Marianne Williamson (January 9, 2020)
Corey Booker (January 13, 2020)


Note:

{1} Well technically there are others but the above listed ones are the only ones with a snowballs chance in hell of being nominated.

"One From the Vault" Dept.

The following is a flashback to the archives of this website from 2004...

...When I exchange the sign, I envision those who have wronged me whom I struggle to forgive in my heart despite doing so in either words or in theory. (I also envision those I may have wronged.) The heart is deeper than we think and we can hold those grudges deep which we are supposed to rid ourselves of. Hence, at the apex of the mass, when the Lamb is to be consumed, we are to be pure of heart in order to be worthy of the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world (cf. Rev. xiii,8).

And this purity of intention can be symbolized in our exchanging of the sign with those around us -envisioning in them those who have wronged us or those we have perhaps wronged (either in reality or perhaps whom we believe this may apply to). Our Lord referred to this principle in the Gospels in the following words:

You have heard that it was said to the men of old, `You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, `You fool!' shall be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. [Matthew v,21-24]

That is the value of the kiss of peace as I have come to see it: it enables me not to have to leave mass to reconcile with those who have wronged me (or whom I may have wronged) before partaking of the sacrifice. Instead, I am able to see in those around me proxies if you will for such people and respectfully "reconcile" through exchanging the sign before receiving the gift from the altar... [Excerpt from Rerum Novarum (circa January 2, 2004)]