DOING THE RIGHT THING AT LAST:
Cardinal Law Resigns His Post

Apparently Boston Archbishop Bernard Law finally woke up and smelled the cappuccino. In the wake of the on-going sex abuse and cover-up scandal plaguing his watch, and worsening each day as more previously hidden facts come to light, Cardinal Law tendered his resignation at the Vatican yesterday.

Also, the fact that Pope John Paul II accepted Cardinal Law's resignation may have meant that for him enough was finally enough. It may also mean, as blogger Mark Shea pointed out today, that the Pontiff's refusal to boot the former Archbishop last Spring was far less of a gesture of support for Law (as too many in the media and in the laity, this writer included, had assumed) than a means of making Law face the music back home at the hands of the press, the civil government, and the critics within his own flock.

With heat comes purification, and forcing Bernard Law to remain in the fire all these months may very well have been the Pope's strategy for fixing the mess in Boston and --by sending a message, via Law as example, to other prelates-- in the rest of the Catholic Church in the USA as well. In other words, asking for the Cardinal's resignation back in April would've been giving Law an easier way out. After all, not only has John Paul accepted Law's resignation, he is sending the former Archbishop back into the fire instead of sheltering him from it in the Vatican. Thus, far from being lenient with the Cardinal last Spring, the wise old Pontiff from Krakow was actually quite shrewd.

Additionally, the Pope's acceptance of Law's resignation may mean that some in the Curia and elsewhere in the Church's hierarchy will finally divest themselves of the lame notion that the American media (generally, no friend of religion) --rather than decades of incompetence, moral laxity, and misdeeds within the American clergy and hierarchy-- has been the source of Holy Mother Church's problems and the chief cause of damage to both her reputation and her moral voice in the world, a voice needed in these troubled times more than ever before.

Cardinal Law's resignation and the Pope's acceptance of it were the right things to do for all concerned and, we hope, will be the first of many steps in some badly needed reform and renewal for shepherds and flocks alike, and in all branches of Christendom.

FAITH ON THE FRONT BURNER:
Bush Expands His Faith-Based Initiative

In a move apparently designed to drive the ACLU and the liberal establishment in general into a state of apoplexy, President Bush has decided to give his "faith-based initiative" a big boost via Executive Order. Associated Press reports that,

Hoping to involve churches and religious organizations more deeply in government efforts to address social ills, Bush on Thursday was signing executive orders aimed at giving those groups a leg up in the competition for federal money, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said. He was announcing the changes in a speech to religious and charitable leaders meeting here.

The president began pushing the issue on Capitol Hill in his second week in office but ran into a fierce debate over how religious groups could get government money without running afoul of the constitutional separation of church and state.

He was successful in the House but the Senate wouldn't give him even a watered-down version that mainly increased tax breaks for charitable giving.

Though he faces a more friendly Republican-controlled Congress next year, Bush decided to forge ahead on his own.

Thankfully, the President went unilateral on this one, and did not consult the U.N. first.

To read more, go HERE: Bush Moves Ahead With 'Faith-Based' Plan (AP: White House)

"THIS SCUD'S FOR YOU":
The Bush Administration Lets Yemen Keep Its Covert Missiles

This week Spanish and American naval vessels stopped and boarded an unflagged freighter bound from North Korea for Yemen --an ally of Saddam Hussein's Irag, and the sole Arab nation which supported Iraq during the Gulf War. The reason for the boarding? The intel community had received tips that Pyongpang secretly sold Scud missiles to that Middle Eastern Muslim nation, which had bought them in secret. The boarding parties discovered the missiles, all fifteen concealed in blocks of cement.

The Yemenis' "explanation" for this? Well, they're just trying to beef up their defense capabilities --against whom? Oman? Kuwait? Oz?-- and needed the missiles to do so. But never mind that Scuds are not defensive systems to begin with, especially because they are highly inaccurate and indiscriminate when it comes to targetting. The Scud is an offensive system whose chief purpose and function is to terrorize, not defend. And never mind that systems such as the Patriot were designed from the ground up to defend against attacks, and thus would fill the Yemenis' defense bill much more effectively. And why the secrecy? Why not just buy the Scuds openly instead of covertly? Yemen, it seems, has no answer to that.

In light of such factors, Yemen's "explanation" rings hollow. But what rings even more hollow is the Bush administration's decision to accept Yemen's "explanation" and return the Scuds to them. Is the Bush administration's war on terrorism serious or not?

MEMO TO BOSTON: HOW TO KEEP FROM GOING BELLY-UP:
Refinancing Archbishop Bernard Law's Bankrupt Leadership

Apparently, in an effort to prevent the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston from having to shell out millions in monetary damages and restitution to the victims of the pedophile priests he shuffled from parish to parish, Archbishop Bernard Law may be taking the same route Enron and other mismanaged or corrupt corporations have taken in order to avoid the financial consequences of their bad judgment calls or unethical actions: File for Chapter 11 to keep what you have, and to Hell with the victims your incompetence or malfeasance created. (For more details on this newest wrinkle in Clerical Weaselism, go here: Boston Archdiocese moves closer to possible bankruptcy (CNN) and here: Law goes to Vatican for advice (The Boston Globe)

But we have a much better idea for solving the Boston Archdiocese's financial woes: Instead of resorting to bankruptcy, raise funds for any upcoming victim compensations by selling buttons, banners, bumper stickers, and other items emblazoned with the Cardinal's new slogan,

"WWJLD" ("What Would Jesus' Lawyer Do?")

No doubt they'd rake in millions.