I got back late last night (early this morning) from Italy, so I will make this post brief in terms of my own comments.

Here is the chef-d’oeuvre of my photographic career:

This would have been it, had I focused quick enough.

That was taken at the Holy Father’s Wednesday audience, last week, where his address concerned, appropriately, spiritual combat.  The link will take you only to a partial translation; currently the full text is only in Italian.

I had the privilege of meeting Professor Roberto Mattei, founder of Lepanto Foundation and spoke to him at length about the Knights of Lepanto and what we are trying to accomplish.  He is a friend of our community in Italy and was very encouraging.  I hope we can collaborate on projects in the future.  Here is an excellent article of his that is completely in accord with what we are trying to accomplish:  Lepanto: A Category of the Spirit.  He has written a great deal on subjects near and dear to us.  In one particular book, Holy War, Just War: Islam and Christendom at War, his final chapter is on the idea of Crusade as a category of the spirit.

I have taken note of the Miss California debacle, and while I am not an advocate of beauty pageants, I have to give Carrie Prejean credit.  Our good friend Brian Brown from the National organization for Marriage has gotten some of the same-sex marriage advocates in a tither for having compared Miss Prejean to Queen Esther.  I have to link to a crazy blog for his text as it went out in an e-blast.

God bless her for not cowering to the same-sex marriage bullies.  It is so typical of the finger pointers to ask a question and then get angry for getting a straight answer.  Perez Hilton provides us with further proof that the same-sex marriage movment is not about rights or marriage, but about thought and speach control, about crushing all dissent against the “ethics” of sodomy.

Here are several videos from NOM.  The first is a gay marriage debate between Joe Solmonese vs. Maggie Gallagher.  The second includes an interview with Brian Brown.  Hat tip to NOM.