I’ve been looking forward to reading this book about degrowth and Christianity for awhile. Glad it’s finally here! Thanks @deandettloff.bsky.social and @mattbernico.bsky.social !

Pope Leo XIV is making it impossible to reconcile MAGA politics with Catholic faith.

BREAKING: Pope Leo XIV declares the Iran War is “unjust” and “is not resolving anything.” After suggesting Trump is committing war crimes by targeting civilian infrastructure, he called on Americans to contact Congress to help end the war.

“They were going to come. It was going to be a big thing. We were going to go to the beach right after. All those plans had to go out the window because they said ICE would be here."

Pope Leo XIV carried the cross across all fourteen stations for over an hour. The prayers named children who had been “taken away and imprisoned during protests, deported by policies devoid of compassion, shipwrecked on desperate journeys of hope, killed in war zones, and wiped out in death camps.”

- The booted racket-tails are a small group of three species of hummingbirds in the genus Ocreatus (family Trochilidae), endemic to the Andean cloud forests of South America. - Photo courtesy of James Gan, Equador.

One of my favorite games to play as an adult is: Did I take Tylenol 30 minutes ago or did I just think about taking Tylenol 30 minutes ago...

This is (I think) a Greater Blue-Eared Starling (Lamprotornis chalybaeus) & the amazing chrome job is their super-power. They've evolved to manipulate light in VERY specific ways, attracting mates, intimidating rivals. Let's look at the nanostructures that bring this bling into being.

About 40 books that were written in Chinese by Jesuit missionaries centuries ago and were stolen from an archive in Rome sometime between 1999 and 2002 were finally returned to Italian officials this week.

The sun starts to rise towards mid-archway now as we head towards Summer. The first one I have had this year as it was so quiet up there this morning. Taken in St Michael's tower on Glastonbury Tor.

From a Maronite priest in Lebanon: "In the south, we are the only ones left in these few Christian villages. As long as we are here, this land will remain Lebanese land. We are resisting with our living flesh. We have nothing, we are helpless, our weapon is prayer." www.fides.org/en/news/7750...

There is no schadenfreude like that of Bishop Barron and Carrie Prejan Boller fighting

Flashback to postgraduate / academic life? #HigherEd #AcademicSky #PhdChat #research #religion

"The carelessness, cruelty, and incompetence that characterize everything this administration does are tragically on display in what Trump calls his 'little excursion' in Iran." NEW from the Editors:

"We need to [be]...transitioning away from a car-centric transportation system and toward more dense, walkable, affordable neighborhoods. Not only are vehicles one of the major contributors to our climate crisis, they're also dangerous & are killing our neighbors" @cmeddielin.bsky.social 🎯 as always

Happy St. Patrick's Day, New York.

Project 2025 is going global. Our new report shows how the far-right blueprint is spreading through international networks and alliances—targeting human rights, gender equality, migration, and democracy worldwide. Read our report:

The Onion, welcome to The War on Cars.

BOSTON NPM HAS ARRIVED. The inaugural meeting of Boston NPM will take place THIS Saturday (3/14) at 7pm at the home of fellow Personalists (DM for address). We will meet for prayer, dinner, and fellowship including collecting donations for Women’s Lunch Place and planning service.

A new report unveiled Thursday shows that the city’s tree coverage expanded by more than 150 acres between 2019 and 2024. trib.al/yBTjq0G

“Would you imagine what a world without wars would be like? “A world without the terror of approaching explosions, without rocket alarms shattering the silence of the night? “Please join me this month in prayer for disarmament and peace. Let's pray and share with others.” — Pope Leo XIV

Traffic Engineering: 2026 Edition 📖

Welp!

Saxon/Norman imagery on a slab at Wirksworth. Annunciation, Nativity, Massacre of the Innocents, Burial of the Virgin, Washing of the Apostles' feet, all grouped around a Greek cross on which we see a lamb.

My favorite piece of historical context for this argument is that conservative Christians (particularly, but not exclusively, evangelicals) have made almost this exact argument — verbatim — for more than a century* and it just never lands outside their own circles.

China is testing a train that will go 280mph, making it the fastest conventional train in the world. The US can't get its shit together to build a single new line.

EXCLUSIVE: At more than 30 installations, U.S. commanders told troops the war on Iran is a Christian war. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has been “inundated” with more than 110 complaints. One NCO said they were told the U.S. war is to bring about Armageddon and the return of Jesus…

Pete Hegseth is the nephew of Marty Haugen, the composer of well known Catholic hymns including “Gather Us In,” “All Are Welcome,” “Eye Has Not Seen,” and “Shepherd Me, O God.” 🤯

Stop this immoral and illegal war.

Although I’ve been involved with homelessness policy for decades, I’m NOT an expert at it. Very few city planners are. @nerd4cities.bsky.social admits it’s out of his wheelhouse too, but I appreciate his data-driven approach here. Spoilers: rent rates are key & housing SAVES public money. Comments?

The theologian and historian Gary Dorrien has made it his mission to chronicle and revive the tradition of Christian democratic socialism. His work reminds the American left of our project’s spiritual dimensions.

Fr. Paul Keller: "The body [of Christ] is broken and it's hurting. I feel as if in a certain sense, representing a society with dirty hands actually asking for the forgiveness of those who are being detained, as opposed to encouraging them to repent of their sins."

One of the priests who went into the Beoadview facility, Fr. Paul Keller (speaking here), said he felt "a society with dirty hands actually asking for the forgiveness of those who are being detained, as opposed to encouraging them to repent of their sins."

"Clergy remain unsure if ICE will follow the judge’s injunction. Its terms also require that government authorities confer with Chicago clergy to establish safety protocol for Ash Wednesday and negotiate future ministry ... As of Tuesday, Feb. 17, CSPL said they had not heard from ICE officials."

Really amazing that they've recovered the body of Camilo Torres, Colombia's guerrilla priest. www.reuters.com/world/americ...

Great convo with Eugene McCarraher, DBH, and Richard Seymour. open.substack.com/pub/genemcca...

This was such a special interview to conduct: the first in two episodes with historian Peter Linebaugh on the long histories of commons and commoning, connections between enclosures in Europe and imperial conquest abroad, and writing history from below. www.thedigradio.com/podcast/the-...

This kind of smart, walkable, mixed-use urbanism is illegal to build in most American cities.

I converted to Catholicism a couple weeks ago. Here’s what I think Jesus got wrong.

Today the NYU Catholic Center asked “Is it Ethical to be Rich?”. NPM was there with the answer. Fr. NYU, O.P. said: “You may have been handed two flyers upon entrance to this event. The flyer with the charts and graphs is ours, the other was handed out by rogue elements."

BREAKING: The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.

A detail from St. Wilfrid & St. John Berchmans, a 1927 stained glass window by the inimitable Harry Clarke. Originally in the Convent of Notre Dame, Glasgow, and now in the Stained Glass Museum, Ely.

“Children were in the crowd screaming.”

If public transit and cycling had even 10% of the subsidies we give to car culture, our cities would look completely different.

I’m sure this fellow just ran into the wall and broke his face. I’m sure there’s no chance that ICE agents guided his face into the wall.

Wiltshire does Italy. The 'Italian' church, St Mary and St Nicholas in Wilton. Much of the church is imported in ideas and materials from Italy and France. The mosaic work in the Apse ceiling in the picture is early C20 and by Gertrude Martin. She also worked on St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast.

Bishop Seitz: "Sometimes it's hard for me to recognize my country." www.ncronline.org/news/qa-bish...

Amid soaring domestic and global tensions, the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has called for a Holy Hour for peace as "a moment of renewal for our hearts and for our nation."

What a profoundly beautiful and moving essay on mercy and forgiveness by @catholicclod.bsky.social. It will stay with me.