For those wondering if Joe Biden was going to be able to receive Communion in his own diocese anymore, Catholic News Service has his bishop's comments on the question: "I look forward to the opportunity to enter into a dialogue on a number of issues with Sen.

Chicken Little rules on Wall Street and Washington this week, but while Bernanke, Paulson, Bush et alia,  try a "sky is falling" bumrush to an unregulated bailout of the world's richest financial institutions, cooler heads are asking what eggzackly would help calm these troubled market waters.

Doug Kmiec has made much having of being denied Communion some months ago for his support of Barack Obama, most recently in his book, Can a Catholic Support Him--"him" being Obama. Beliefnet has an excerpt that's worth the read.

Raffella Fico, 20, is a good Catholic who prays to Padre Pio every night, her brother says.  She's also a show girl, model, an aspiring actress who appeared on Italian Big Brother, and a virgin--at least until somebody buys her virginity for 1 million Euros, the U.K. Telegraph reports. She plans to spend the money on a home in Rome and acting classes.

Are we witnessing the end of neoliberalism in America or the birth of neo-neoliberalism (in which slavish devotees of deregulation will argue that what's most wrong with U.S. capital markets is not that we have too gutted regulatory structures but in fact that we have not completely obliterated them)?

Both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are running stories on the Catholic vote today. NYT is focusing on how abortion is again becoming the deciding issue in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Pope Benedict XVI sent some mixed messages on his trip to France, encouraging a warm welcome for those who reject the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council but dismissing proposals for admitting divorced and remarried Catholics to Communion.  "Everyone has a place in the church.