According to something on Yahoo called “Shine,”

Last week, Nadine Schweigert married herself in a symbolic wedding ceremony. The 36-year-old divorced mom of three wore blue satin and clutched a bouquet of white roses as she walked down the aisle before a gathering of 45 friends and family members in Fargo, North Dakota.

She vowed to “to enjoy inhabiting my own life and to relish a lifelong love affair with my beautiful self,” reports Fargo’s InForum newspaper . After the ring was exchanged with the bride and her inner-groom, guests were encouraged to “blow kisses at the world,” and later, eat cake.

Schweigert, who followed the ceremony with a solo honeymoon in New Orleans, claims the...READ MORE

From the National Catholic *Reporter* (not Register):

Taking a conciliatory tone and asking for a wide range of public comment, the Obama administration announced this afternoon new accommodations on a controversial mandate requiring contraceptive coverage in health care plans.

Coming after a month of continued opposition from the U.S. bishops to the mandate, which was first revised in early February to exempt certain religious organizations, today’s announced changes from the Department of Health and Human Services make a number of concessions, including allowing religious organizations that self-insure to be made exempt.

Also raised is the possibility that the definition given for...READ MORE

A high school theology teacher writes:

I had a student ask me quite blunty “was Jesus ugly?” He cited some early Fathers quoting Isaiah 53:2, and gave me several other sources that expanded on this topic as well. From what I understand and have read, the verse from Isaiah seems to (me anyways) point towards Jesus at his Passion and Death - the Suffering Servant. Am I on the right track or have you heard anything on this?

Let’s start by looking at the text in question. It is part of the fourth “Servant Song” in Isaiah, which runs from 52:13-53:12. Here’s the verse in context:

Isaiah 52:13–53:12

13 Behold, my servant shall prosper, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high....READ MORE

A reader writes:

As a practicing Catholic, can I be buried in a non-Catholic cemetery.  No one in my family is Catholic except me and I would like to be buried with my family.

It’s a logical question, and an understandable desire.

It’s a logical question because many Catholic parishes and dioceses have cemeteries, and it would seem natural—as a Catholic—to be buried in one of these.

It’s an understandable desire to want to be buried with one’s family, where after your death your loved ones may still visit your grave, take care of it, and remember you. It’s a way of maintaining a connection with those you have left behind.

I could imagine someone saying, “Well, if your family isn’t...READ MORE

A FB friend writes:

Totally serious with this question. With all the Dustup going on with HHS etc. and living in a “Liberal” diocese with it’s own collections of “Liberals” (or Insert Loons if you’d Like), We’ve gotten the Bishop’s Response, but where does one find the Highest Ranking HUMAN Female of the Church? I do realize who our Highest Ranking Female is, and I have prayed to her for helping me in my unbelief and confusion, but this is one of those questions when I heard it Really made me go Hmmmmmmm.

Unless someone has been baptizing female aliens, all females who are members of the Church are human females.

The highest ranking female is thus the highest ranking human female, who...READ MORE