Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

Media Appearance

FYI, I’m about to be on Hugh Hewitt. (Imminently.)Was just on Hugh Hewitt. Talked about the Lefebvrists and whether they’re in schism. The following is supporting documentation:

LINK TO ECCLESIA DEI.

EXCERPTS (John Paul II writing):

  • "Hence such disobedience [i.e., that committed by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre]- which implies in practice the rejection of the Roman primacy – constitutes a schismatic act" (section 3).

  • "To all those Catholic faithful who feel attached to some previous liturgical and disciplinary forms of the Latin tradition I wish to manifest my will to facilitate their ecclesial communion by means of the necessary measures to guarantee respect for their rightful aspirations. In this matter I ask for the support of the bishops and of all those engaged in the pastoral ministry in the Church" (section 5c).

What Are The Odds?

An Irish betting firm called "Paddy Power" is offering odds on both who will be the next pope will be and what name he will choose.

Among the odds offered on different candidates:

  • Tettamanzi (Italy) . . . 11-4.
  • Arinze (Nigeria) . . . 11-4.
  • Ratzinger (Germany) . . . 7-1.
  • Hummes (Brazil) . . . 9-1.
  • Schoenborn (Austria) . . . 14-1.

GET THE FULL LIST.

Among the odds on names:

  • John Paul . . . 2-1.
  • John . . . 3-1.
  • Paul . . . 5-1.
  • Pius . . . 10-1.
  • Peter . . . 50-1.

GET THE FULL LIST.

(Cowboy hat tip to the reader who e-mailed!)

Embalming & The Pope

I’m getting a number of requests for information regarding whether or not the pope is embalmed after his death.

Fortunately, a kindly reader provides the following:

Here is an interesting article stating that John Paul II was not embalmed — don’t know if you’ve read this yet.


http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm3603_20050405.htm

And here is another article that was in the same paper earlier in the day about the same subject, but a different angle.


http://www.freep.com/news/religion/embalm5e_20050405.htm

Embalming & The Pope

I’m getting a number of requests for information regarding whether or not the pope is embalmed after his death.

Fortunately, a kindly reader provides the following:

Here is an interesting article stating that John Paul II was not embalmed — don’t know if you’ve read this yet.

http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm3603_20050405.htm

And here is another article that was in the same paper earlier in the day about the same subject, but a different angle.

http://www.freep.com/news/religion/embalm5e_20050405.htm

Canadian Episcopal Spine Alert!

CalstampdSo, Calgary is where they have this really big rodeo called the Calgary Stampede (left).

See! There’s something good about Canada!

In fact, there’s more than one thing, because some of that cowboy spirit is apparently present in episcopal corridors in Calgary as well.

Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary has been saying things like:

Since homosexuality, adultery, prostitution, and pornography undermine the foundations of the family, the basis of society, then the State must use its coercive power to proscribe or curtail them in the interests of the common good.

Cool, huh!

Well, the good biship has been the recipient of criticism, "human rights complaints," and death threats.

Despite that, the bishop has responded:

I stand by the letter, I wouldn’t change one comma, one iota of that letter.

His disheartened by the fact that the Canadian Free Speech Denial CommissionHuman Rights Commission has not dismissed the complaints against him out of hand, but he says:

Freedom of religion and freedom of speech are foundational, and if we’re to have an honest debate in society, all the voices have to be heard, including that of the churches. I think I’m owed an apology for putting me through this rigmarole of harassment and intimidation and attempt to silence me.

GET THE (HEARTENING!) STORY.

X-Treme Dieting Not So Popular After All

Y’know those polls the were citing a while back saying that a huge percentage of the American populace approved of Terri being starved to death and even would like to be starved to death if they were in Terri Schiavo’s situation.

Well, as Mark Twain said, there are three kinds of lies: "Lies, damned lies, and statistics." The latter are so, so easy to skew by asking the wrong questions and spinning the public’s perception of what is going on (e.g., describing someone as "on life support" or "comatose" when you ask the question).

Well, guess what!

Zogby has come out with a poll showing that people aren’t so keen on starving themselves or others to death. And Zogby is a highly-Democrat-skewing pollster, making this one all the more significant.

Kudos to Zogby for producing a better-than-average poll on this issue!

EXCERPT:

"If a disabled person is not terminally ill, not in a coma, and not being
kept alive on life support, and they have no written directive, should or should
they not be denied food and water," the poll asked.

A whopping 79 percent said the patient should not have food and water taken
away while just 9 percent said yes.

GET THE STORY.

Attention X-M Listeners!

Thus far only Sirius listeners have had access to good, 24-hour Catholic sattelite radio. But now

XM SATELLITE RADIO BROADCASTS LIVE
REPORTS FROM VATICAN CITY AND SPECIAL PROGRAMS ABOUT POPE JOHN PAUL II
ON XM LIVE (XM CHANNEL 200)

Excerpt:

Washington D.C.,
April 05, 2005
—
XM Satellite Radio, the nation’s leading provider of satellite radio
with more than 3.77 million subscribers, is carrying live reports from
Vatican City and special programs about Pope John Paul II from the
Eternal Word Television Network/Global Catholic Network and Ave Maria
Radio on XM Live (XM Channel 200).

This is another limited time thing, but those of y’all who are X-M listeners might want to take the occasion to talk to X-M and tell them that you’d like more of the same in the future after the new pope is elected.

GET THE STORY.

An Experiment

Occasionally I’ll get e-mail  that is almost a blog post. From time to time, I’ve posted some of these.

Well, I’d like to try an experiment in group-blogging.

For a limited time only (to see if this works), I’d like to open the doors on this an invite folks to send in e-mail specifically intended to serve as blog posts.

A few stipulations:

  1. This is a temporary experiment. I don’t know how many such e-mails may be usable, and I don’t want folks to write a bunch of stuff that doesn’t get end up getting used (thus frustrating them), so let’s try a quick test and see how it goes.
  2. I’d encourage folks to submit posts that aren’t heavy into theology, canon law, or biblical studies. There’s a stronger chance I might disagree on those and find them not-usable. For now, I’m more looking for posts on the other kind of material we have on the blog (which is today, on everything else of interest).
  3. Please let me know if you’d like me to credit you by name or not.
  4. Please include the words "BLOG POST" in the title of the e-mail so I’m clear that’s what it’s for (I can be dense sometimes).

Thanks much, folks! I look forward to seeing what y’all have on your minds!