13min @thecrashcourse clip - #Catholic #Counter-Reformation: Crash Course European History #9

text from youtube "When the Protestant Reformation broke out in Western Europe, the Catholic Church got the message, at least a little bit. Pope Paul III called a council to look into reforming some aspects of the Catholic Church and try to stem the tide of competing Christian sects popping up all over the place. The Council of Trent changed some aspects of the organization, but doubled down on a lot of the practices that Martin Luther and other reformers had a problem with. Today you'll learn about the Council of Trent, the rise of the Jesuits, and Saint Teresa of Avila."

#Catholics Today

found via Beth Anne's Best

#10 things you may not know about #Voting & #Values & #Religion in #Britain

ht microsoft clipart for the image

This excellent @theosthinktank report - Voting & Values in Britain - Does Religion Count? by Ben Spender and Nick Clements has just come out and an Executive Summary is online to download on their research page 

In summary what it says is:



1) Self-identifying Anglicans are more likely to vote Conservative;

2) Self-identifying Catholics prefer to vote Labour;

3) Self-identifying Non-Conformists have a marginally stronger association with the 3rd party;

4) The Muslim vote favoured Labour;

5) The Jewish vote was more Conservative;

6) The Hindu vote tended to Labour but in 2010 was more balanced;

7) The Sikh vote was evenly split between the 2 main parties;

8) The Buddhist vote was disproportionately for the Liberal Democrats;

9) Values voting issues like sexuality, abortion or family were mentioned by few respondents;

10) Public opinion is: firmly against more tax and spend; more authoritarian than libertarian; moving away from welfarism to individualism.



For the various caveats and nuances around these statements please see the Executive Summary

guarding against blogging's terrible temptation to our egos

i came across this 3/5/11 post by austin ivereigh on the vaticans' blogger meeting - via a retweet by the churchmouse of a tweet by austeni 


my summary of the post using (mostly) his words is below.








- the catholic (indeed i'd suggest most christian denomination's) blogosphere can be a little self-obsessed and sectarian;


- the freedom of the medium, according to the the anchoress "is both a gift and a terrible temptation to our egos, a force for disorientation and therefore a true battleground for souls."  


- according to Vatican spokesman fr federico lombardi SJ t the ego was "a significant but problematic element in the life of bloggers".  he then suggests using the notion of service as a way of acting against it.  


the post had 2 conclusions


1) recognition of the blogosphere's growing importance to the church;


2) a need for a sense of responsibility that goes along with power. 


(picture by Bindalfrodo)