I was pleasantly surprised this morning to hear (on the New York Times Audio Digest) this story about the Pope’s speech to the US Bishops on Wednesday.

It was an excellent assessment of the lives we tend to live in America where we’ve gotten comfortable compartmentalizing our faiths or belief systems away from the realities of our lives at work and in other settings in the world. Said the Bishop of Rome:

“Is it consistent to profess our beliefs in church on Sunday and then during the week to promote business practices or medical procedures contrary to those beliefs?” he asked in a lengthy address to the bishops. “Is it consistent for practicing Catholics to ignore or exploit the poor and the marginalized, to promote

…

I’ve got just one little point that I haven’t seen any comment as yet which I noticed while listening to a rebroadcast of last night’s debate between Clinton and Obama in Austin.

There was a question regarding having 2 languages spoken in the US (English and Spanish presumably). Here’s a transcript (courtesy of the Chicago Sun Times) of the question and the first part of Clinton’s answer (bold emphasis is mine):

RAMOS: (SPEAKING SPANISH) Right now, there are more than 30 million people in this country who speak Spanish.
(APPLAUSE)
Many of them are right here. By the year 2050, there will be 120 million Hispanics in the United States. (SPEAKING ENGLISH) Now, is there any downside, Senator Clinton, to the United States becoming, becoming

…