A bleak, all-too-true, commentary on the sorry prospects for serious writers and journalists written by a good friend, Frank Wilkinson, in The Week, here.

The New York Times reports: “ROME — Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday addressed for the first time the uproar over his decision to rehabilitate a Holocaust-denying bishop, expressing solidarity with Jews and strongly condemning Holocaust denial.” The whole story is here.

UPDATE: Now this. Probably not going to make anything better. Couldn’t this whole thing have been avoided?

The Times reports today: “In a departure from previous elections, Democrats and liberal Catholic groups are waging a fight within the church, arguing that the Democratic Party better reflects the full spectrum of church teachings.” Read the whole story here. 

Nothing here about saints or miracles or things Italian. Just a powerful and thoughtful argument on race and politics posed by New York Times blogger Francis Wilkinson, a good friend.

Texas illustrator Marc Burkhardt, whose work has graced such publications as Rolling Stone, Time, the New York Times, the Atlantic and National Geographic, discusses the path his portrait of Padre Gaetano Catanoso took to the cover of My Cousin the Saint.