Thursday, October 13, 2011

Alive, alive, Oh



While this particular publication drives me nuts, I pick it up from time to time to check out what the opposition is up to.

In spite of it being a scurrilous rag, over which the Dominican order seems to have no control, it does pose challenging questions for the unbeliever, and it does expose its own mirror image in the secular community.

You might be interested in a few items in the current edition, available in most good RC churches and online. [Note: link was to Oct 2011 issiue in which material referred to below appeared. That issue is no longer online. Strikeout link above is now to the current current online edition. Current hardcopy edition may take some days after publication to appear online. Benny 6/3/2013]

P 10: reports an ad which testifies to the stupidity of many people in the production chain. The ad was on the website of a Liverpool NHS trust, inviting applications for the post of trainee anaesthetist. It contained the phrase "the usual rubbish about equal opportunities". Clearly an instruction to the ad's composer and not a final text.

P 11: reports a meta-study on the adverse effects of abortion on the women concerned. This appears a reasoned study and merits a serious reply from the "pro-choice" people.

P11: reports a South African couple who travelled to New Zealand to watch their team in the Rugby World Cup who discovered that the hotel they had booked online was actually in Eastbourne, England rather than New Zealand.

p 12 : asks why the Irish mainstream media (MSM) did not report the recent World Youth Day in Madrid. This was an RC gathering but in its scale and variety it was certainly newsworthy by any journalistic standards. MSM might like to take this one up.

P 16: reports increased demand in the Netherlands for euthanasia from elderly people who are diagnosed with such conditions as alzheimers. It points out that these people want to avail of this facility while they are still compus mentis.

P 16: also reports an ad that had to be withdrawn when found offensive to Roman Catholics. UK Bodyshop had planned a campaign for a new women's cosmetic named Immaculate Complexion, which featured a picture of the Virgin Mary.

So the message is that even a rag can be a good read for the discerning reader.



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