Yes, it's been a whole week

Some of it was spent being pushier than I've ever (with a few semi-regrettable exceptions) been in my life, telling strangers, in so many words, that what I wanted from them was more important than whatever else they were doing just then.

A lot of time was spent recovering -- physically -- from the effects of my own pushiness.

A few seconds were even spent talking with an A-list blogger who has a hard time believing anyone reads his blog.

"Nobody told me there'd be weeks like these . . . " Well, they probably did, only I didn't believe them. Still, strange weeks indeed.

Ad lib exorcism?

I'm ignoring the scare quotes, because that's not what I want to talk about:

The Catholic Church's leading 'exorcist' is calling for all priests to be allowed to conduct the ritual after Pope Francis apparently performed one in St Peter's Square last week.

On one festive occasion, someone asked our former parish priest if he went in for exorcisms, and he said he'd never attempt one himself, because an exorcist has to spend so much time in front of the Blessed Sacrament, just for protection, that he doesn't really have time for anything else.

Let's take it that Pope Francis knew the risk he was taking -- and let's leave the impromptu demon expulsions to him. 

Good news, at last, from Oklahoma

Not quite so many people dead as they thought at first.

As always, the disaster has brought people's religious beliefs to the surface -- and for some people, that's Global Warming/Climate Change. In the hard copy of today's Sun, the last word in this headline was not "debate" but "denial" -- "Tornadoes strike at the heart of climate change denial".  

And what about the snow in Newfoundland last weekend --  did that strike at the heart of anything? Nah, just a freak storm.

Holy Father does exorcism on the fly?

There's video here -- it doesn't show much if any of the actual deliverance, which is why I haven't bothered embedding it. Still. "Lord, in your name, even the demons were subject to us."

Three bits

• Say prayers of courage, says Pope Francis, “Not prayers of courtesy: 'Ah, I will pray for you,' I say an Our Father, a Hail Mary and then I forget.”
•  And in South Africa: "The Catholic Church says charging people to use existing roads is not acceptable."
• No, this time the priest was not really asking for money: "Some Springfield residents received an e-mail plea for help that appears to have come from their former pastor . . . KY3 News looked up that address in London, and it appears to be a Laundromat."

Worst of both worlds

Selley on the government's mistake in keeping abortion off the order paper by any means necessary:

All the muzzling and machinations haven’t stopped the hysterics from accusing Mr. Harper of a theocratic agenda to keep Canadian women barefoot and pregnant; meanwhile, they have quite rightly bolstered his reputation as an abuser of democracy. Surely this government’s thuggish reputation is a bigger problem at this point than the “social-conservative conspiracy” burden it has always successfully shouldered.

Not exactly astute, and I say that as one who usually votes Tory for lack of any better choice (uh-oh, that word again).

Murder, the Feds say

From RTV6:

According to a federal arrest affidavit, Weldon swapped out his girlfriend's antibiotics with abortion pills . . .

He's charged with first degree murder.

Of course, his ex, poor woman, has made it clear she very much wanted this baby, and that's what's supposed to make all the difference. Still, we have an agency of the U.S. government saying it's possible that killing an unborn child is murder.