YOU! for the New Millennium

The Los Angeles Times profiled the Catholic youth magazine YOU! and its editor, Paul Lauer, Feb. 21.

The report noted Lauerís two years in a ìmice-infestedî desert warehouse with friends after his conversion, and the apostolate that emerged from it. Lauer started the teen-oriented magazine Veritas that grew from a small-budget Los Angeles publication to the renamed YOU! magazine with 40,000 U.S. and 25,000 international subscribers. The magazine retained its trademark mix of ìtheologically traditionalî Catholicism and a celebrity-heavy teen-style format.

One thing has changed about the magazine, however, the newspaper reported. Its subtitle once was ìAlternative Youth Magazine.î Now itís ìYouth for the New Millennium.î

Lauer told the paper that he wants to persuade more Catholic youths to see themselves as cultural leaders in the new millennium, which he expects to be heralded with signs of divine mercy, quoting Pope John Paul IIís call for ìa new springtimeî for the Church.

Congressional Candidates as ëChess Pieces In a National Warí

Illinoisís 17th congressional district election in November will pit Rep. Lane Evans (D) against challenger Mark Baker (R).

However, a Feb. 27 story in The Washington Post says ìissue adsî placed by various independent groups could turn the candidates into ìchess pieces in a national war.î Baker is quoted saying he has the sense he may not be in control of his own campaign.

According to the article, hundreds of thousands of dollars will be spent on issue ads by various organizations: labor unions, a coalition of business groups, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Sierra Club, and Campaign for Working Families, which is a pro-life political action committee.

Campaign for Working Families is already ìcredited with tipping the balance in a Republican House primary in California in January,î according to the story.

Counting Commandments

On Feb. 5, Mary McGrory of The Washington Post wrote about the reaction to the presidentís alleged adultery by asking, ìAre God-fearing Americans tired of the Ten Commandments, especially the sixth?î

The Washington Post Magazine examined the same crime in a series of stories called ìWashington and the Seventh Commandment.î

On Feb. 21, the day the magazine was published, the newspaper tried to explain the discrepancy: while Catholics, Jews, and Protestants use the same content for the Decalogue, they number the items differently.

The two sources for the commandments are Exodus 20: 1-17 and Deuteronomy 5: 6-21, neither of which numbers them.

Catholics and Lutherans depend on the Deuteronomy account for their formulation, according to the newspaper. They number three commandments about manís relations with God, and then seven about manís relations with man. That includes separate commandments prohibiting coveting of a neighborís spouse and coveting his property, the article points out.

Protestants and Jews follow the Exodus account, and number four commandments about God. To get four, Protestants separately number the commandment not to worship graven images while the Jewish version quoted by the newspaper separates ìI am the Lord your Godî and ìYou shall have no Gods before meî into two commandments, rather than one.