Callista Gingrich heading to the Vatican

The New York Times reports that Callista Gingrich, Newt Gingrich’s wife, is Donald Trump’s pick to be the next U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.

Ms. Gingrich is a cradle Catholic who attended college at Luther College here in Iowa. She and her husband co-produced a wonderful documentary on Pope John Paul II called, “9 days that changed the world.”

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A call for an injection of creativity in the arts

The most basic interval in music is a perfect third.

If you listen to much popular music, and I admit I don’t, you’ll be clubbed over the head with the sound, as the video above demonstrates.

A good friend of mine taught music theory at a local university. He is an outstanding musician in his own right, with a Phd in music. He explained what the public appreciates the most in song writing: predictability.

Their minds expect a certain, predictable ‘next note’ to occur following a series of (usually predictable) notes that precede it. It is almost as if God had hard-wired man to appreciate certain tones, and the progression of these tones, more than others…

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The oddity of Fatima

The day was May 13th.

The time was 5PM.

The year was 1981.

Pope John Paul II made his way through St. Peter Square in an open air vehicle. A man approached the pontiff, raised a gun and fired at point blank range…

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Begin again

Pope Benedict found himself positioned between two “rock stars” in his papacy. The media was particularly tough on him. And yet he has been such a gift to the world.

His quote above is an example of his gentle wisdom…

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The high drama of June 2nd

American relations with Poland soared with the election of Lech Walesa in 1990. It took the Obama administration to bring them to a grinding halt. They issued a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jan Karski a few years ago. In an act of raw courage, Mr. Karski, a member of the Polish underground, sneaked into a Warsaw Ghetto in 1942 and managed to escape with horrific news: the Nazis were exterminating Jews.

He pleaded for the world to listen, but they ignored him as millions of Jews were executed.

Kudos to the Obama administration for recognizing Mr. Karski’s extraordinary heroism.

But then Team Obama made a bad move: they wouldn’t let Lech Walesa accept the award in place of the late Mr. Karski.

Why? Mr. Walesa was deemed too “political.”

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