The Dispatch: More from CWR...

Extra, extra! News and tidings for April 13, 2022

Here are some articles that caught our attention this past week or so.*

(Image: Bruno Martins/Unsplash.com)

An unexpected controversy: If the book “Ask Your Husband” were pulled from publication, you might have thought it would be after the publisher faced pushback from scholars taking issue with its provocative reading of the Catholic intellectual tradition. ‘Ask Your Husband,’ or his brother? Controversial book pulled after plagiarism charge (Pillar Catholic)

Catholic modernisms: “The Christian life and the Church’s evangelizing mission are not administrative programs but a culture and way of life.” Synodality, Sociologism, and the Judgement of History (Communio)

Puberty blockers: The kids in this study who accessed puberty blockers or hormones had better mental health outcomes at the end of the study than they did at its beginning? Researchers Found Puberty Blockers And Hormones Didn’t Improve Trans Kids’ Mental Health At Their Clinic. Then They Published A Study Claiming The Opposite. (Updated) (Jesse Singal)

Something happened: In my early twenties, approaching Lent, I opened my first Walker Percy novel. It was Love in the Ruins. Watching, Waiting, and Lent-ing with Walker Percy (Church Life Journal)

Vatican’s “trial of the century”: The Italian press hints that there is something strange, possibly even salacious, in the Becciu-Marogna relationship. As focus in Vatican trial shifts to ex-watchdog, is it legal or personal? (Crux Now)

New standards in New Jersey: In June 2020, New Jersey’s Board of Education approved student learning standards for “Comprehensive Health and Physical Education” with an 8-4 vote. The curriculum is set to go into effect by September of this year. New Jersey to require second-graders to learn about gender identity and climate change. (The Blaze)

‘Gender-critical’ views: Three years ago, Dominic Lawson wrote a column on how women’s access to exclusive private spaces was being eroded in the name of ‘trans rights’. Why are women attacked by the trans lobby while we men get far less abuse?

“This is not who I am”: It is commonplace to hear such statements as mere evasions of responsibility, and often they are. Something Happened By Us: A Demonology (The New Atlantis)

Secular totalitarianism: Catholics, in fact everyone, should be concerned about ‘The Great Reset.’  It is not a conspiracy theory.  It is very real.  And its aim really is a new world order. Archbishop Viganò is Right About ‘The Great Reset’ (Catholic Stand)

Christ in art: An illustration by fourth-century church father Athanasius of Alexandria came to mind as I read Russ Ramsey’s Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art Through the Eyes of Faith. Christ’s Beauty in Our Brokenness: How to Love Art Through the Eyes of Faith

A lack of Catholic voices: Is this also an important religion story? It certainly is. News Media Quiet As A Mouse Regarding Catholic Angles In Disney-DeSantis Dispute (Religion Unplugged)

Flannery O’Connor’s fiction: Re-reading Flannery O’Connor’s Mystery and Manners,  I have been reminded how insightful and stimulating are Flannery’s insights into the nature of fiction. The Power of O’Connor’s Fiction and Her Faith (The Tablet)

It’s not just a phase: The story of Babel is the best metaphor I have found for what happened to America in the 2010s, and for the fractured country we now inhabit. Why The Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid (The Atlantic)

(*The posting of any particular news item or essay is not an endorsement of the content and perspective of said news item or essay.)


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3 Comments

  1. Puberty Blockers and statistical machinations of surveys made at Washington Seattle Children’s Hospital involve the creation of statistical models that forecast improvement based on theory not fact. Investigative researchers found the heavily advertised statistical outcomes of high success in improving children’s health is followed by a disclaimer.
    What it identifies by any rationale are discredited attempts to promote transgender ideology rather than promote good health. And of course the media doesn’t explore and report these falsehoods meant to convince the public.
    An example is the media’s complete reversal of Pres Biden’s policies which the media originally lauded 24 7. Now that those policies have utterly failed the media casts all blame on Biden’s policies. False ideology and hypocrisy are a given.

  2. At the end of the article critiquing (and outing) the Seattle Children’s Hospital research on puberty blockers, the reviewer reiterates that from the Hospital’s own writing the puberty blockers and hormones do NOT lead to improved mental health in lab-rat children. Similarly…

    The authors of a 2019 study which claimed so-called gender-transition surgery may improve the long-term mental health of recipients actually issued a CORRECTION (as should Seattle Children’s Hospital), nearly a year after publication. The authors of the study—Richard Bränström, Ph.D., and John E. Pachankis, Ph.D.—now report that: “the results demonstrated no advantage of surgery in relation to subsequent mood or anxiety disorder-related health care.” https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/08/04/researchers-reverse-gender-surgery-offers-no-advantage-to-mental-health/

    Mimicking statistical jargon, however, we do see a high positive correlation (!) between the publication of politicized and falsified research findings and access to favorable peer reviews and continued eligibility for federal grant funds.

  3. After the robust debate on these CWR pages about the merits of Stephanie Gordon and her recently published book, ‘Ask Your Husband,’ it’s quite surprising to see her accused of plagiarism. And by a close relative.

    This is a sad outcome.

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