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I post for you a paper I have recently written for my Catholic Morality class:

“My friend gets drunk every weekend. I know it’s wrong, but what can I do about it? You know, if he’s going to do that, then that’s his problem—I shouldn’t have to do anything about it.” Sadly, statements such as this are heard all over our country today. In our culture, ‘diversity’ is praised and ‘tolerance’ is a popular buzzword. According to popular culture, to be ‘intolerant’ of anything someone else does, even if it opposes Natural Law, is a heinous crime against an individual’s freedom. According to popular culture, you should accommodate everyone else’s belief systems, even if they are opposed to Catholic morality, lest you be labeled intolerant and closed-minded.

Today I will be attending and helping run the first-ever Priesty Boys concert at St. Margaret Mary Alacoque parish in South St. Louis County. If you read this entry before 1:00 p.m., please pray that the Priesty Boys and I have a great show (I'll be the sound dude!); if you read this entry after 1:30 p.m., know that we have finished, for better or for worse.

The Priesty Boys is a great three-man-band from Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, and they have been together for a year or two now, but they finally 'got a gig' performing for the gradeschool of one of the band's members during the "Catholic Schools Week." I will have pictures (and, hopefully, a video) of the concert soon -- I promise!

UPDATE: I just returned from the concert, and it was AWESOME! Pictures and audio soon to come; video will have to wait a short amount of time (due to other obligations).

It seems to have been a big week in terms of prayer requests. And it's not over yet. A friendly and outstanding blogger in the blogosphere has been completely and misguidingly smeared by Women's Wear Daily. You may read the story in full: "Dawn of the Desk".

The article states:

"Dawn Eden, apparently embellished a Jan. 18 editorial about stem-cell research during the editing process. Her version of the story — which slammed New York Senate Minority Leader David Paterson’s plan for a state-sponsored stem-cell institute as a “harebrained scheme” — made it into print."

And Dawn replies:

From Catholic Online (via CNS):

"Pope John Paul II was taken to a Rome hospital late Feb. 1 with severe breathing problems caused by an inflammation in his throat, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters in a statement issued at midnight.

The pope, 84, came down with the flu Jan. 30.

About 10:50 p.m. Feb. 1 he was rushed to the Gemelli hospital for what Navarro-Valls called "acute laryngeal tracheitis and a crisis of laryngeal spasms."

When he arrived there he did not need intensive care treatment and was admitted to his 10th-floor room where he has stayed on previous hospital visits, Navarro-Valls said.

Because of advancing Parkinson's disease, Pope John Paul has chronic difficulty breathing, complicating the possible effects of the flu and the inflammation of his throat. Laryngeal spasms make breathing more difficult.

One of my brother seminarians has requested that I pray for and end to the strife and problems currently in his home country, Belize. Right now there are many riots and protests over the country's newly proposed budget, which includes new taxes. Also, the 'People's United Party' has allegedly had some corrupt officials waste billions of dollars, causing much unrest.

The Catholic Church in Belize is having some of its own troubles, as some of the government officials and those who would like to run for office are opposed to the Catholics and would like to hurt the Catholic Church. A great many prayers are needed - not only for Belize, but for much of Central and South America, where certain problems such as these exist today.

From The San Francisco Bay View: