So much ink has been spilled over Sarah Palin in the last couple of days — 64 links alone in today’s Morning Edition we sent to Catholic leaders — one could be forgiven for imagining Democrats Obama, Biden and Pelosi heaving a sigh of relief that the reporters are shining the abortion pro-life spotlight on someone else for once.

We now know Sarah Palin is a member of Feminists for Life  and thanks to Mollie over at GetReligion we learn that the Barracuda is a Believer.

Mollie also has complaints — surprise — about reporters being quick to attack Ms. Palin and getting their stories wrong.

And also getting it wrong, lefty bloggers are going after Palin’s daughter….

Ever the gentleman, Joe Biden reacts to his V.P. counterpart by making a sexist remark…. Biden reminds me once again that perhaps the reason leftist women think men are sexists is that the only ones they…

Fox News is devoting two hours tonight, 7:00PM,  Central Standard Time, Saturday, August 30, 2008 to an encore of the Saddleback Church Civic Forum which first aired earlier this month.

Why watch?

(1) Rick Warren’s questions are inspired and far-reaching;

(2) The answers from both candidates are quick and telling;

(3) There is no Nurse Ratched looking at a stop watch;

(4) “Above my pay grade” is a phrase that will go down in history.

Nancy Pelosi has gotten into hot water for misrepresenting Catholic Church teaching against abortion. Appearing on Meet the Press last Sunday, she said:

“I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time,” she said.

“And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition.

And Senator - St. Augustine said at three months. We don’t know,” she said…..

In a release issued Monday night, Washington, D.C.,  Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl said Pelosi’s comments on “Meet the Press” on Sunday “were incorrect.”

“We respect the right of elected officials such as Speaker Pelosi to address matters of public policy that are before them, but the interpretation of Catholic faith has rightfully been entrusted to the Catholic bishops. Given this responsibility to teach, it is important to make this correction for…

While most eyes were on the Democratic convention getting into full swing Monday evening, the uninvited Denver archbishop joined a large group of peaceful protesters witnessing outside a local abortion clinic.

According to Christianity Today, 2,000+ accompanied Archbishop Chaput and Martin Luther King niece Alveda King at Denver’s Planned Parenthood facility:

Alveda King, a niece of the late Martin Luther King Jr., and Archbishop of Denver Charles Chaput spoke to the crowd before they lit candles and circled the gated clinic.

Alveda King’s mother conceived her daughter when she was a freshman in college. She had wanted to get an abortion, but Martin Luther King Sr. told her mother she could not abort her baby.
“This little baby human girl was allowed to live,” she said to the cheering crowd.

King later aborted two of her children.

“People say, ‘Aren’t you embarrassed and ashamed to stand up and say you had…

If you didn’t have a chance to watch the two-hour Saddleback Church/Rick Warren questioning of presidential candidates Obama and McCain, you can find the transcript here.

The chattering class had plenty to say about the evening, including the following:

McCain and Obama Face Questions About Faith - Associated Press

McCain Shines at Saddleback Forum - Michael Gerson, Washington Post

The Importance of Saddleback Church - Alan Wolfe, The New Republic

McCain, Obama at Saddleback Church - Carrie Budoff Brown, The Politico

John McCain, Barack Obama Display Abortion Divide at Evangelical Forum : LifeSite News

Are We Now Officially a Christian Nation? - Joan Walsh, Salon

McCain’s Back in the Saddleback - Chuck Todd, NBC News

McCain’s Depth & Experience Stood Out - Byron York, National Review

Obama’s Purpose-Driven Gamble - Mike Madden, Salon

Kristol: Showdown at Saddleback

Sullivan: McCain’s ‘Cross’ Story 

Podhoretz: Obama on Thomas 

Of special note are a couple of claims:

The New York Times reports that McCain was…

(1) The Olympics:The Wall Street Journal reports on China and religious repression:

Religious repression rears its ugly head again:

President Bush attended church in Beijing on Sunday, worshipping with Chinese Christians and singing “Amazing Grace.”

But what happened outside the church says more about the state of religion in China.

Earlier that morning, Hua Huiqi, the pastor of an illegal underground Christian church, was detained by police as he was biking to the service that Mr. Bush was to attend. His whereabouts are still unknown. Mr. Hua’s brother, who was briefly detained, said Mr. Hua only wanted to worship at the church where he was baptized.

China’s constitution allows freedom of religion, but in practice religion is tolerated only insofar as it is controlled by the state.

The only legal churches are those run by the State Administration of Religious Affairs.

Those who choose to attend “house” churches — roughly half of China’s…

Tuesday afternoon I walked into a small business establishment that employees a handful of Russian-American women. When I entered and asked if everyone were talking about Solzhenitsyn, I was told bemusedly, “No, the Russians are too busy working and the young don’t know who he is.”

And then back to work they went.

For the rest of us — and for those women and the young most especially — here is a list of recent remembrances, Solzhenitsyn links from the last three days:

Moscow Times: Solzhenitsyn, chronicler of  labor camps dies at 89

New York Times/Michael Kaufman: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn dies at 89

Russians Mourn Dissident Writer Solzhenitsyn:

A funeral service will take place at the medieval Donskoi monastery in Moscow on Wednesday and Solzhenitsyn will be buried there later that day in accordance with his will, said a Russian Orthodox church spokesman……

Solzhenitsyn was a great and important man: National Review

Remembering…

Earlier in June, two dozen Roman Catholic and Muslim scholars met in Rome to discuss the theme “Christians and Muslims as witnesses of the God of Justice, of Peace and of Compassion in a World suffering from Violence.” Pope Benedict XVI personally visited the meeting to highlight its significance. While such interreligious dialogues seem groundbreaking these days, this meeting was actually the 14th annual meeting between the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the The Islamic-Catholic liaison Committee.

Rev. Dr. Frederic Ntedika Mvumbi, OP, one of my Dominican brothers from the Congo who teaches Islam in a Catholic seminary in Nairobi, Kenya, was fortunate enough to be one of the participants, and sent a personal report. In it he said that “a common understanding of these issues was found, though with difficulty, and an appeal was made to commit ourselves to it:”

1. The inherent dignity of each human being, from…

A very odd story in the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch Friday committed the journalistic sin of “burying the lede.”

The story was - ostensibly - about the investigation of John Freshwater, a public school teacher who was teaching creationism and disparaging evolution in the classroom.

But in the seventh - yes seventh - paragraph, the reader comes across this:

The report confirmed that Freshwater burned crosses onto students’ arms, using an electrostatic device, in December.