This version of The Weekly Benedict covers material released in the last week from 26 June – 1 July 2012 (subscribe here; get as an eBook version for your Kindle, iPod, iPad, Nook, or other eBook reader):
Angelus
General Audience
Speeches
Did You Know? Although the crash of *whatever* came down near Roswell, NM occurred “about three weeks” earlier, on July 8, 1947 the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) public information officer Walter Haut in Roswell, New Mexico, issued a press release stating that personnel from the field’s 509th Bomb Group had recovered a crashed “flying disk” from a ranch near Roswell, sparking intense media interest. The following day, the press reported that Commanding General of the Eighth Air Force (Roger M. Ramey) stated that, in fact, a radar-tracking balloon had been recovered by the RAAF personnel, not a “flying disc.” This was very shortly after aviator Kenneth Arnold’s June 24 sighting of objects that he said skipped in the air like “saucers” skipping on water (leading to the term “flying saucers,” though he did not describe saucer-like objects). Unlike the Arnold incident, the Roswell crash was forgotten for nearly 30 years until ufologists revived it in the 1970s. Since 1947 the U.S. government has acknowledged that *something* crashed at Roswell, but it denies that it was a flying saucer. LEARN MORE.
Sometimes today you encounter stories that are truly jaw-dropping, like this one being reported by the Washington Post.
Headlined, “The Crime of Circumcision,” it deals with a ruling issued by a judge in Germany that prohibits Jews from circumcizing their baby boys:
A district judge in Cologne, Germany, recently ruled that ritual circumcision is a crime, violating “the fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity,” which outweighs other parental and religious rights. “This change runs counter to the interests of the child,” the court concluded, “who can decide his religious affiliation himself later in life.”
Circumcision is a rite central to the Jewish faith and is, in fact, the rite by which a male becomes part of the Jewish community.
The circumcision of infants is also expressly commanded by Jewish law, which requires the circumcision of baby boys on the eighth day after birth.
Unsurprisingly, the decision is being condemened by religious folks:
German religious figures from all the Abrahamic faiths criticized the Cologne ruling, with particular outrage expressed by Jewish leaders. Dieter Graumann, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, called it “outrageous and insensitive” and warned that a general application of the decision would “coldbloodedly force Judaism into illegality.”
Did You Know? The Nauvoo Expositor published its first and only edition in Nauvoo, Illinois on July 7, 1844. The reason this was its only edition it was published by disaffected Mormons who criticized Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, in print. A few days later Smith and the Nauvoo city council ordered the destruction of the paper’s printing press. This initiated a series of events that led to the death of Joseph Smith on July 27. LEARN MORE.
Did You Know? St. Thomas More was put to death July 6, 1535 for refusing to acknowledge Henry VIII as the supreme head of the Church in England. There is too much to say about this guy, so click the link to LEARN MORE.
Did You Know? It is possible for a pope to resign his office or “abdicate.” The last pope to do this was Gregory XII, who resigned July 4, 1415 in order to end the Western Schism. LEARN MORE.
Did You Know? Sometimes katydids are pink! Behold! A pink katydid! LEARN MORE.
Did You Know? American aviatrix Amelia Earhart sent her last transmission on July 2, 1937 before vanishing during her approach to Howland Island in the Pacific. Though she almost completely certainly dead by now (she was born in 1897), her precise fate remains a mystery. My theory: She ran out of gas and crashed into the Pacific and perished that day. LEARN MORE.
This version of The Weekly Benedict covers material released in the last week from 20 June – 29 June 2012 (subscribe here; get as an eBook version for your Kindle, iPod, iPad, Nook, or other eBook reader):
Angelus
General Audience
Homilies
Did You Know? Charles Taze Russell published the first issue of the Jehovah’s Witness magazine The Watchtower on July 1,1879. Back then it was called “Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence.” The first edition ran 6,000 copies. Today the public (as opposed to study) edition runs 42,000,000 copies, giving it the largest magazine circulation in the world. LEARN MORE.
