The Washington Post: Pope Francis urged mercy toward divorced Catholics. Now bishops are deciding what that really means

Last week, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia quietly issued guidelines “for implementing Amoris Laetitia,” which did not make any changes to existing practice in the prominent, historic archdiocese. The guidelines remind that people who live outside of the church’s explicit teachings — primarily people who divorce and remarry outside the church, but Chaput also included people who live together unmarried and same-sex couples — are eligible for Communion only if they don’t have sex. [...]

In May, San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy took a very different approach, calling for a special meeting in his diocese in the fall to discuss the papal document. Every parish will have a representative there, he said.

In the diocese’s May paper, McElroy wrote that Francis’s document “unceasingly points to the reality that the beauty of married love is not confined to an ideal world or exceptional relationships, but is realistic and attainable for most men and women. … The declining number of Catholics who marry in the church is an enormous pastoral problem in the Diocese of San Diego and throughout the nation. Thus it is essential for our parishes to reflect a deep culture of invitation and hospitality toward all couples who have not yet celebrated Catholic marriage.” [...]

Lisa Cahill, a Boston College theologian, said in an e-mail that “a lot of bishops around the world are not comfortable (to say the least) with increasing flexibility around divorce, gay couples, nontraditional family structures, and the many other contentious items that were on the table at the synods. What Francis has done in effect is give local bishops permission and space to try innovations that are more flexible, merciful, and pastoral — but he is not mandating this. Hence individual bishops or dioceses can come up with their own policies. This is not enough according to many progressives — but is preferable to not advancing flexibility at all.”

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The Guardian: A country boy's story about coming out: self-harm, suicide and Safe Schools

 Roy Morgan poll from 2012 indicated that one in five Australians believe homosexuality is immoral – a sin against God! Another of their studies revealed something unsurprising given my own experiences: teenage men have the highest rate of homophobic prejudice, and it’s higher still in rural areas. This is despite growing support of the LGBTI community. About 68% of Australians support same-sex marriage, and diverse sexuality increasingly appears in mainstream culture – earlier this year, for example, St Kilda football club marched at Midsumma, months ahead of the club’s “pride match”. The LGBTI rights movement has had a number of wins in Australia: homosexuality’s decriminalisation, certain adoption allowances, LGBTI people being out while in the military. But legally recognised same-sex marriage is still not permitted and men cannot donate blood for a year after having sex with other men. So why, in a liberal society, does homosexuality still pose such a threat? [...]

One example of how such groups are instrumental in spreading homophobia was the public and organised campaign against the Safe Schools Coalition program Safe Schools, led by the Tea Party–like Cory Bernardi and the ACL, which led to the anti-bullying program being defunded and restructured. Perhaps the program offended so many conservatives because so many adults still fear a contagion of homosexuality, or of children expressing any kind of sexual identity. Despite its origin as an Abbott government–funded anti-bullying program, the Liberal National party now depicts Safe Schools as controversial and an attempt “to de-normalise heterosexuality”, as Gary Johns wrote in a column in the Australian. The flames of homophobia have been further fuelled by LNP MPs such as George Christensen, who used “grooming” to describe the program, a word that is most often used in conjunction with paedophilia. [...]

I suggested to Adam that young men’s homophobic views could come from seeing, and being a part of, traditions within Australia that are steeped in conservative, often religious ideology: family, clearly defined gender roles, procreation. He agreed. “But a lot of people worry about what people will think of them,” he says. “Many straight young people honestly believe nobody deserves to be discriminated against, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to defend you if they hear someone call you a faggot – they’re still worried about being seen to be gay themselves.”

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The Atlantic: The Story of Ernestor

You might argue about the direction of the causal arrows: Are immigrants drawn to areas that already have strong economies? Or do they make economies stronger by their presence? Probably some of both is true. But the result is unmistakable. Across much of the plains and rural midwestern region of the United States, what has kept communities alive is new arrivals, mainly from countries to the south. The graphic below, from Pew, looks complex but is very informative. Its message is: areas that have attracted immigrants have continued to grow, and others have plateaued or shrunk. [...]

In southwestern Kansas, it’s easy to see the demographic age-pyramid typical of areas undergoing rapid and ongoing immigration. That is, the younger the age bracket, the larger its Latino proportion. The school-age population of Dodge City is 70 to 80 percent foreign-born, mainly Latino. The town’s population as a whole is more than half Latino. But the business and political leadership, mainly older members of longer-established families, is mainly white. Nothing about this is surprising: Through the long history of U.S. immigration, the first-generation arrivals concentrate on economic survival, leaving broader civic engagement to their children and grandchildren. I asked De La Rosa whether he consciously thought of himself as part of a transition in the Latino community’s local role.

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The New York Times: Obama Rebukes Poland’s Right-Wing Government

President Obama chided Poland’s new right-wing leaders on Friday over moves that have effectively hobbled the country’s top constitutional court, the chief check on the government’s power, and urged them to do more to nurture democratic values and institutions.

The unusual public rebuke of a close American ally came after a private meeting between Mr. Obama and Andrzej Duda, Poland’s president, on the opening day of the NATO summit meeting in Warsaw. [...]

Poland had already come under fire over the issue. Last month, the European Commission ruled that Poland had violated the European Union’s standards regarding the rule of law, a move that might eventually result in sanctions. [...]

Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council and a former Polish prime minister under the center-right Civic Platform party, compared Poland’s rightward drift to similar movements around the world that have “different values and different strategic aims” from the liberal democracies that have dominated the West in recent decades.

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The Guardian: Russian and Ukrainian women's sexual abuse stories go viral

Hundreds of Russian and Ukrainian women have been sharing stories of sexual harassment, violence and rape on social media, after a post by a Ukrainian journalist went viral earlier this week.

The trend began with a post on Facebook by Ukrainian journalist Nastya Melnychenko. She recounted a number of incidents of sexual harassment and violence, starting when she was six years old and continuing into adulthood. [...]

It is a new departure for Russia and Ukraine, where domestic violence and sexual abuse are often taboo topics, or treated as part of life. Taken together, the stories weave a disturbing tapestry of violence, intimidation and abuse, from uncomfortable situations and verbal insults to physical assaults and rape. [...]

However, not everyone agreed with the message. The popular news agency Life News ran an interview with a “sex expert” from the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis, who said many of the stories could be made up and should not be shared online as they could arouse potential rapists. Blogger Anton Nossik wrote a post in which he said he felt sorry for victims of violence, but believed that “in our emancipated times, women have no fewer ways of forcing men into relations than vice versa” and accused women of inventing many stories.

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Business Insider: You can't explain the Iraq War without talking about oil

But reducing the war in Iraq to this motive alone would be too simplistic, and as the Chilcot Report makes plain, the explanations for the war are highly complex. Still, some factors are more significant than others. [...]

Above all, oil is part of a general strategy to maintain and exercise global power, and it’s a central part of the US-centered global system. Middle Eastern oil has played a central role in the rise and continuation of the supremacy of the US and its close allies, arguably the central geopolitical story of our times. [...]

As for Britain, which enthusiastically supported the US-led war in Iraq in sharp contrast to most of the US’s European allies, the partnership with the US wasn’t simply a maneuver for influence on the global stage, and nor was it the fruit of imperial delusion. Britain also had a clear material interest in being awarded a share of the spoils in the form of trade, contracts, and access to markets and natural resources.

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