New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan addresses the 64th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York, Thursday, Oct., 15, 2009. (AP Photo/Stuart Ramson)

St. Louis native, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York started his own blog recently. And he’s wasted no time attracting readers.

On Saturday, he teed off on the New York Times while equating the great American pastime of baseball with “another national pastime” - anti-Catholicism.

“It is not hyperbole to call prejudice against the Catholic Church a national pastime,” Dolan wrote.

Dolan was miffed about several recent stories in the Times. Mostly, he believes, the journalism is biased against Catholics, especially on the sensitive issue of clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic church, a problem he blamed on “a tiny minority of priests.”

Commenting on a Times story about a priest who fathered a child (and that we blogged about here at Civil Religion), Dolan wondered what all the fuss was about,…

Courtesy of Pat Bond The Rev. Henry Willenborg, a Roman Catholic priest in Quincy, Ill., in 1987 performing the baptism of his son, Nathan. Courtesy of Pat Bond via The New York Times.

The New York Times ran a fascinating story on its front page today about a woman who now lives in O’Fallon, Mo. and who had a son with a Roman Catholic priest when both were living in Quincy, Ill.

That son, Nathan - now 22 - has brain cancer. And the woman, Pat Bond, has decided to come forward, according to Times religion reporter Laurie Goodstein, because she too has cancer.

Despite a confidentiality agreement Bond signed with the Franciscans, she and her son felt they had “little to lose,” and were “eager to tell their stories.”

Their story is a sad one, and, Goodstein says, not particularly uncommon. She writes:

The relationship between Ms. Bond and the priest is hardly unique.…

www.time.com

Some years ago, when FIRST THINGS was new, I met Diane, a young Episcopalian woman affiliated with the Institute on Religion and Democracy. We got to talking about FIRST THINGS, our favorite monthly magazine.

Diane was in the habit of reading the longer articles first, then rewarding herself with Fr. Richard John Neuhaus’ various commentaries in his While We’re At It section.

I jumped immediately to Fr. Neuhaus’ pages. It was like sitting down with an old friend.  He saw right through sham and he consistently skewered woolly-headed thinking with wit and grace.

AP reporter Rachel Zoll, writing for The New York Times tries to get it right today by describing Fr. Neuhaus’ life as moving from left to right:

A native of Canada and the son of a Lutheran pastor, Neuhaus began his own work as a Lutheran minister at St. John the Evangelist Lutheran Church in a predominantly African-American Brooklyn neighborhood. He was active in…

Since a majority of Californians passed Proposition 8, Latter-day Saints (Mormons), who make up 2% of the California’s population, have been attacked by some who are upset with the outcome.  I have Latter-day Saint family and friends in California. All can share a story of the intimidation they have experienced as a result of their support for Proposition 8.

When the attacks first occurred, Latter-day Saints were stunned as some saw their employment threatened and their places of worship vandalized. Many Latter-day Saints wondered, “where is the outrage? Will no one defend us?”

The rhetoric of anti-religious bigotry surprised many on both sides of the issue.

Some community and religious leaders are now responding.

This week, The Becket Fund, a non-profit interfaith organization that defends religious liberties, posted an ad, signed by community leaders, in the New York Times to defend the right of religious people to speak out on issues with out the fear of retribution.

See ad: click here.

Learn more at the Becket Fund website: click here.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day…

A story in the New York Times sports section Sunday about the women’s golf phenom, Lorena Ochoa delved into the rarely-coincidental worlds of sports wagering and religion.

Despite it’s headline, “Keeping Faith, Ochoa Takes Magical Tour,” and a mention in the fifth paragraph that the 26-year-old Mexican golfer is Roman Catholic, the story was a sports piece - about a golf pro whom everyone seems to like.

However, reporter Karen Crouse hooks onto an interesting anecdote toward the end of the story.

After telling us that Ochoa gives herself incentives, which “always involves candy,” we learn that during a round in Mexico City last March:

…Ochoa told Brooker, who does not belong to any organized religion, that she was worried his daughters would be shut out of heaven. How many tournaments would she have to win, she asked, for him to have his children, Hadley, 3, and Madelaine, 2, baptized?

Brooker, taken aback by the question,…