From America's blog... theological student bloopers.

I really ought to keep track as well. One of the questions on my junior final this year was to briefly explain the meaning of ex opere operato. While many got it 100% correct, those that didn't know it put down some hilarious guesses. I'll find a few at some point and post them.

Almost missed this:

Pope Benedict has signed a record deal for an album of religious music and prayers for Christmas to be released under the Geffen label, which also distributes music for Lady GaGa and U2.

Benedict XVI, 82, and Vatican priests will record music and prayers for new label Geffen UK, expected to be a hit with millions of Catholics worldwide, according to the UK Daily Mirror.

Geffen is part of the US entertainment giant Universal Music Group. Other stars in the group's stables include Lady GaGa, Marilyn Manson, Eminem, U2 and Black Eyed Peas.

"Everyone thought it was a wind up when we got a call from the Vatican," a source at the London based label was quoted as saying. "But it was the Pope's representative inviting us to Rome."

"Two senior managers flew out. The Pope wasn't there in person, sadly. But we didn't hesitate to offer His Holiness a deal."

Will this happen to Father Cutie?

Pope Benedict XVI has granted the Congregation for Clergy new powers to dismiss from the priesthood and release from the obligation of celibacy priests who are living with women, who have abandoned their ministry for more than five years or who have engaged in seriously scandalous behavior.

The new powers do not apply to cases involving the sexual abuse of minors by a priest; those cases continue to be subject to special rules and procedures overseen by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The new faculties were announced by Cardinal Claudio Hummes, prefect of the clergy congregation, in an April 18 letter to the world's bishops. Catholic News Service obtained a copy of the letter in early June.

Cardinal Hummes told CNS June 3 that the new, quicker administrative procedure for dismissing priests was prompted by "many situations where canon law did not seem adequate for meeting new problems."

As an example, the cardinal said the 1983 Code of Canon Law made no provision for a bishop to initiate a process to laicize a priest who had abandoned his ministry.

Usually when a priest leaves the ministry of his own accord, he informs his bishop and sooner or later will request a formal dispensation from the obligation of celibacy, the cardinal said.

But others "leave, they marry (in a civil ceremony), they have children. In these cases, the bishops did not have a way to proceed because it was up to the person who left," he said.

"But if the one who left is not interested (in regularizing his situation), the good of the church and the good of the priest who left is that he be dispensed so that he would be in a correct situation, especially if he has children," the cardinal said.

Cardinal Hummes said a priest's "children have the right to have a father who is in a correct situation in the eyes of God and with his own conscience. So helping these people is one of the reasons there are new procedures. In these cases, the initiative begins with the bishop."

Source: CNS