Take 2 ibuprofen & breathe deeply

Please pass the ibuprofen.

Cardinal J. Francis Stafford (formerly archbishop of Denver and now stationed at the Vatican) dissed President-elect Barack Obama in a recent lecture at Catholic University of America. Stafford said that Obama was ushering in a time of trial for America and that he is "aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic."

And one more Ibuprofen please.

Maryknoll Father Roy Bourgeois is a veteran of Vietnam, pastoral work in Bolivia and El Salvador, and 18 years organizing to close the notorious "School of the Americas" known as the "School of Assassins." (For details on the SOA, including long lists of murderous graduates, go to: http://www.soaw.org/) Now Roy has been threatened with excommunication. His crime? He has unflinchingly supported the ordination of women and took part last August in Kentucky in the ordination of Janice Sevre-Duszynska. His 30-day deadliine for retraction of support for women's ordination ended last weekend as he led this year's protest at the SOA. I have heard he is now going to the Vatican to appeal, but I can't find further news. (A Vatican spokesman, Rev. Federico Lombardi, has said that Roy's excommunication would likely be automatic, but that does not seem to be clear in canon law.)

Here is Roy's response: "As a Catholic priest for thirty-six years, in conscience I cannot remain silent about injustice in my Church. I and many have come to the conclusion that the exclusion of women in the Catholic Church is a grave injustice, and I simply must—I cannot, in conscience, accept the Vatican’s demand that I recant my belief and my public statements in support of women’s ordination. This is simply wrong."

Stay tuned. And don't lose that ibuprofen bottle.