136 Catholic schools were closed nationwide in 2004, even as the Catholic population in the United States has been rising. Kevin Schmiesing writes that “the economic bind that religious schools and their students increasingly find themselves in highlights an injustice at the heart of American education.” Read the full text here. ...

Bob Woodson of National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise fame taught me a lot about strategic partnerships. In the interest of getting something important done for needy people, it’s ok to invite others with good contributions to make to join you, despite disagreements with them on other issues. Good advice. And on the 50th anniversary of Dr. Jonas Salk’s vaccine and Dr. Albert Sabin’s oral polio vaccine, Rotary International demonstrates an impressive strategic partnership with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, partnering...

For those concerned about the way corruption hinders development in Africa, a hopeful story in the Wall Street Journal today (subscription required). Here’s one paragraph: “Since taking charge of the new Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Ribadu has pursued oil mobsters, Internet fraudsters and corrupt politicians. The former street cop has 185 active fraud and corruption cases working their way through the courts, up from zero before mission started its work two years ago. Working in the capital of...

C.S. Lewis calls “Friendship” the “least natural of loves; the least instinctive, organic, biological, gregarious and necessary.” Head on over to Mere Comments to see my response to “Walking With Friendships.” ...

In the words of the Cornwall Declaration, “A clean environment is a costly good.” A round-up of recent stories attests to the truth of this statement. Wal-Mart pledged on Tuesday to provide $35 million for use to protect wildlife habitat. Wal-Mart can afford to use this money to “buy an amount of land equal to all the land its stores, parking lots and distribution centers use over the next 10 years” in part because of its economic success, topping the...

From Live Science, there are plans to create a pseudo-woolly mammoth from frozen DNA. The trick is to take the male sperm DNA from a woolly mammoth sample and the egg from its closest living relative, the elephant. “By repeating the procedure with offspring, a creature 88 percent mammoth could be produced within fifty years.” Such a creature is technically a chimera, “an organism or tissue created from two or more different genetic sources.” This usage is related to the...

Courtesy of Pulpit & es Factors Shaping Clergy Careers: A Wakeup Call for Protestant Denominations and Pastors (PDF), by Patricia M. Y. Chang (HT: Mere Comments). This study is based on surveys conducted primarily with mainline Protestant denominations. Perhaps most helpful are the observations of a minister whose denomination was not included. Here’s a brief excerpt from James A. Meek of the Presbyterian Church in America: The ministry is a calling, not just a career, as Chang notes at the...

1) According to the BBC, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, “The bulk of the money that Saddam [Hussein] made came out of smuggling outside the oil-for-food programme, and it was on the American and British watch”. This assertion is based on the contention that the $4 billion that Hussein was alleged to have received in the oil-for-food program is “dwarfed” by the $14 billion is said to e from “sanctions-busting,” illegally smuggling oil to neighboring states such as Jordan and...

On this date in 1955, Ray Kroc starts the McDonald’s chain of fast food restaurants in Illinois. On a related note, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is the latest political figure to float the idea of a “fast food tax,” the newest incarnation of the “sin” tax. The reasoning is that fast foods, which tend to be higher in fat and cholesterol than other types of food, are unhealthy, and therefore worthy of special government attention. The Detroit Free Press editorial...

After Pope John Paul II’s death on April 2, the European Parliament was torn over a “difficult” decision – whether to lower the flags of the European Institution to half-mast. It seems that some members thought it was inappropriate to honor one of the most pro-European statesmen who ever lived with such a simple gesture. Eventually, they came to their senses and agreed to do so. Now it seems that the Polish members of the Euro Parliament have bit off...

A defense of Pope John Paul II’s Centesimus Annus. For example, On Globalization The Claim: “John Paul II . . . thinks that capitalism goes way too far and results in oppression of people in the developing world. So economic redistribution would be a very radical position . . .” Lisa Sowle Cahill, professor of theology at Boston College. Centesimus Annus Says: “Today we are facing the so-called ‘globalization’ of the economy, a phenomenon which is not to be dismissed,...

The incongruence of a culture that insists on knowledge of every detail about charity donations and yet puts no value on a disabled woman’s life is frankly mind-boggling. But let’s move beyond value of human life and focus on the importance of telling the truth and being honest. Stanley Carlson-Thies, formerly of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, makes a superb point that like too much of any good thing, too much transparency just might “turn” on...