Wish she could have stayed longer! From Inside the Vatican:

Ambassador Glendon, your one year mandate as US Ambassador to the Holy See just expired and you have just returned to your home in the United States. What are your feelings now? A bit saddened?

Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon: It was an enormous privilege to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See during a period when relations between the United States and the Vatican were so close. And of course I will miss my friends in Rome. But it's also a great feeling to be returning to my vocation of teaching and scholarship with so many first-hand experiences to draw upon. For someone like me who works in the field of international studies, it was a dream come true to witness diplomacy in action as practiced by the outstanding members of the Holy See diplomatic corps.

How did you come to know that your mandate would not be confirmed or extended? Were you told so (and by whom, if I may ask) or was it your personal decision?

Ambassador Glendon: When a new U.S. President is elected, it is customary for all Ambassadors who were political appointees of the outgoing administration to be asked to submit their resignations prior to Inauguration Day. The notification that was sent to us after the November election specified a procedure to be followed by Ambassadors who wished to apply for an extension of their term. But I was satisfied with what I had been able to accomplish during my tenure, and I was eager to get back to my home, my library, and my writing projects. So I sent in my resignation to be effective in time to be on the premises for the spring semester at Harvard Law School.

Can you briefly mention some of the most notable highlights of your work in Rome?

Ambassador Glendon: There are so many images that will always be fixed in my mind-the liturgies in St. Peter's, so expressive of the universal nature of the Church, the Memorial Day services at Nettuno, where more than 7,000 American soldiers lie buried, and of course the exchange of visits between President Bush and Pope Benedict XVI. The first part of my term was much taken up with planning for the Pope's historic journey to the United States in April 2008. It was an unforgettable experience to be at the airport with the President as he welcomed the Pope, calling him "the greatest spiritual leader in the world."

Then, two months later, President Bush came to the Vatican where he was given an equally extraordinary welcome. Heads of state are usually received in the formal setting of the Apostolic Palace, but on this occasion the meeting between the Pope and the President took place in a picturesque tower overlooking the Vatican Gardens and was followed by a stroll to another idyllic spot where they were serenaded by the Sistine Chapel choir.

In your last "farewell" meeting with the Holy Father, what was the special message, if any, that he conveyed to you?

Ambassador Glendon: Well, it was really more of a "goodbye and welcome back" meeting, since I travel to Rome regularly in connection with my work for the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, a body that reports directly to the Pope. Perhaps it was only my imagination, but I had the impression when the Holy Father asked me about my future plans that he sometimes misses the tranquil life he enjoyed as a professor.

Snow day today... time to catch up and to enjoy a little humor:

A well-worn 1 dollar bill and a similarly distressed 20 dollar bill arrived at a Federal Reserve Bank to be retired.

As they moved along the conveyor belt to be burned, they struck up a conversation.

The 20 dollar bill reminisced about its travels all over the country. 'I've had a pretty good life,' the 20 proclaimed. 'Why I've been to Las Vegas and Atlantic City, the finest restaurants in New York, performances on Broadway, and even a cruise to the Caribbean.'

"Wow!' said the 1 dollar bill. 'You've really had an exciting life!'

'So tell me,' says the 20, 'where have you been throughout your lifetime?'

The 1 dollar bill replies, 'Oh, I've been to the Methodist Church, the Baptist Church, the Lutheran Church.'

The 20-dollar bill interrupts: 'What's a church?'

Our sister in Christ, aka Madame Speaker, can stop her justification for contraception as part of the economic stimulus since it doesn't seem like it's happening:

Ahead of a meeting this afternoon with Republicans opposed to his $825bn economic stimulus plan, Barack Obama has asked congressional Democrats to remove a measure funding family planning for poor women from the legislation.

"While [Obama] agrees that greater access to family planning is good policy, the president believes that the funding for it does not belong in the economic recovery and reinvestment plan," the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said.

The measure, which budget analysts estimate would cost an estimated $200m, provoked an outcry from Republicans who described it as wasteful spending.

"How can you spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives?" asked Republican congressional leader John Boehner of Ohio on Friday. "How does that stimulate the economy?"

The concession, aimed at winning Republican support, came as Obama heads today to the Capitol for private meetings with House and Senate Republicans, to seek advice on the fiscal stimulus legislation. This morning, Republican leaders in the House of Representatives asked their party members to vote against bill when it comes to the floor tomorrow.

I went to this obvious non-event. It was amazingly newsworthy. I can't wait to share this piece of news with the students who accompanied me to Washington. And we struggle on...

From illustrious #44:

For too long, international family planning assistance has been used as a political wedge issue, the subject of a back and forth debate that has served only to divide us. I have no desire to continue this stale and fruitless debate.

It is time that we end the politicization of this issue. In the coming weeks, my Administration will initiate a fresh conversation on family planning, working to find areas of common ground to best meet the needs of women and families at home and around the world.

I have directed my staff to reach out to those on all sides of this issue to achieve the goal of reducing unintended pregnancies. They will also work to promote safe motherhood, reduce maternal and infant mortality rates and increase educational and economic opportunities for women and girls.

So the debate is stale and fruitless... so let's end the dialogue and approve it. Problem solved. So ends the division! The easiest way to reduce unintended pregnancies is to pay for abortions. You can't argue with that logic. I like how he's reaching out to both sides by taking a side. Brilliant... change we can believe in! YES WE CAN!

Cardinal Dulles' article on Capital Punishment from a 2001 edition of First Things is required reading for my juniors. We often forget that the Church has not and does not believe that the death penalty should be totally abolished. Dulles examines Scripture, the Church Fathers, and the subsequent Magisterium to make his case. This article makes note of that quite clearly and summarizes several important points from the original Dulles. From the Weekly Standard:

Seemingly none of the recent obituaries of Avery Dulles, a renowned theologian and Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, has mentioned his crisp, theoretical defense of capital punishment. The Cardinal's careful explanation of his church's teaching responded to the popular impression of blanket Catholic opposition to the death penalty. Liberal Catholic politicians, even when opposing their church's stance on abortion, have sometimes boasted of their supposed conformity with Catholic teaching on capital punishment.

"Self-defense of society continues to justify the death penalty," Dulles told a symposium in 2002. "One could conceive of a situation where if justice were not done by executing an offender it would throw society into moral confusion," he said. "I don't know whether that requires any more than that it remain on the books, symbolically, that it be there for society to have recourse to."

Dulles emphasized that Pope John Paul II and the bishops in recent years have upheld the classical Catholic tradition about capital punishment, affirming its theoretical validity, while warning against its potential for "miscarriages of justice, the increase of vindictiveness, or disrespect for the value of innocent human life."

I wish I could do this... from ANSA:

The Vatican will no longer automatically adopt Italian laws as its own when a new statute comes into effect on Thursday, according to Vatican daily Osservatore Romano.

Jose' Maria Serrano Ruiz, president of the Commission for the Revision of the Code of Vatican Law, said the move was motivated by the ''exorbitant number'' of Italian laws, as well as their ''instability'' and frequent contrast with ''the irreversible principles of the Church''.

Although the Vatican is an independent city-state, its residents are largely recognised as Italian citizens.

Under the current statute signed by Pope Piux XI in 1929, Italian laws are accepted by the Holy See except in cases where there is ''radical incompatibility'' with the basic principles of canon law, Ruiz said.

But the new statute signed by Pope Benedict XVI will mean all Italian laws will have to be examined by Vatican authorities before they are adopted as part of the city-state's own legislation.