So it's official: Obama picked a Catholic. Well, he picked a Senator that can burnish his foreign policy credentials, but Biden's Catholicism has to be considered a factor in the mix. Not only is Biden Catholic, he is a regular Sunday communicant at two parishes, despite his consistent pro-abortion voting record.

The 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae is getting some press in Catholic circles, the most prominent of which is John Allen's New York Times column on the subject. Allen argues that Humanae Vitae's survival is a sign of the unwillingness of the Catholic church--by which he means the Vatican, it seems--to change, a stubbornness that was underestimated by commentators at the time.

In what can only be described as a surprise, the U.S. bishops failed to pass the most recent revisions to the English translation of the liturgy. The proposed texts, meant to replace the English translation used since 1970, has been criticized for sounding foreign to modern ears, though its champions argue that more sacral language will "elevate" the liturgy to new heights.