The sun rose today.

The President came & spoke, & the world didn't end.
...
Still, we can't say that nothing has changed, can we? There is much fall-out yet to come. It will be interesting to see what the bishops do from here. They have certainly made their voices heard with a clarity & unity that is rarely ever seen. Yet, both the media & many voices within the Church (are they within the Church?) have dismissed them as hopelessly irrelevant & painted them as cranks. Which brings me to...
...
There is a theory circulating that Obama has played a masterful hand in this matter by using the occasion of his speaking at Notre Dame to capitalize on the ongoing strife within American Catholicism itself by driving a wedge between the smaller group of so-called orthodox Catholics & the masses of liberal-leaning Catholics. Of course those sorts of categories are ultimately not very accurate or helpful to clarifying the issues involved. Still, there are definitely 2 sorts of minds in the Church, & this occassion has polarized them even further.
...
Consider these images: one priest was being dragged off by police with hands tied behind his back singing Immaculate Mary, Thy Praises We Sing (as we sang at our May Crowning), & another priest on stage in scholarly regalia, chumming it up with the President amidst waves of applause.
...
I remember reading this somewhere: Beware when the world applauds you!
. . .
...
In other matters...
...
If anyone has lost their 20' tall, metal chicken-peacock-bird windmill thingy, it's in Rockford, Tennessee. Just so you know.