Thursday, January 30, 2014

CAPTION THIS: When Francis Met François

François: "Oh, Your Holiness! La Presidency, she is not all she is cracked up to be!"
Francis: "You're one to complain! At least when people call you a socialist, it's true!" (Full story here. Picture c/o: AFP)
Mille fois merci for all of your submissions to our last caption contest! This one was a tough call, but in the end, Wyatt bribed his way to victory took home the gold:
"Joey, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
By now, you all should know the drill. Leave your humorous entries in the comments below! (But please, watch your French.)

Monday, January 27, 2014

A Holy Family Affair


Praised Be Jesus!

So, it has begun: In the Ordinary Form, our priests are back to wearing green, but for those of you who are more oriented towards the Extraordinary Form, congrats! Christmas ends for you on February 2 (but I digress). As I noted in my last post, two weeks ago, in the Ordinary Form, the Church celebrated the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, but those of us who have attended the Extraordinary Form will know that past Sunday also coincided with the Feast of the Holy Family, which is celebrated the Sunday after Christmas Day in the Ordinary Form, unless that Sunday is January 1, in which case it is celebrated December 30. (And yes, juggling liturgical calendars gets very confusing.)

Monday, January 20, 2014

Pro-Life and Atheist: The Secular Case for the Unborn

It should come as no surprise that the official editorial position of Unpleasant Accents is a Catholic one. Our contributors are all pro-life and all Catholic (Yours Truly, as an Anglo-Catholic, filling our heretic quota). The Roman Catholic Church's opposition to abortion is well-known. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person — among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being of life." Indeed, as early as the last first century, we have evidence of Christian opposition to abortion in the Didache, one of the earliest extant extrabiblical texts, which lists abortion amongst sins such as theft, murder and adultery.

The Church's witness for life has been both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing in that her advocacy for the protection of all life, from conception until natural death, is unrivalled by any other organisation — religious or secular — in terms of the sheer amount of investment she has placed in hospitals, orphanages and other social services. It is a curse, however, in that in our increasingly irreligious age, it is more difficult for faith-based groups to argue for their values without being dismissed by their opponents as merely regurgitating dogma, rather than contributing a legitimate point of view. This is where the subjects of our post come in.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

The Not-So-Great Divorce

Marriage has been in the news lately. Everyone’s talking about what the word means. Heck, a lot of people wonder if it’s still even relevant. More and more, people just live together, cohabitating, instead of getting married. In light of this, a movie I just saw is strangely prescient. 

Monday, January 13, 2014

Welcome, Outsider!

O God, who by the star this day revealed Your only-begotten Son to all nations, grant that we, who know You now by faith, may be brought one day before the vision of Your majesty. Through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord. —Collect of the Feast of the Epiphany

Monday, January 6, 2014

CAPTION THIS: When Pope Met... Pope

Benedict: "Jorge! You old so-and-so! How are ya?!"
Francis: "Joe! You scoundrel! Oh, you know, the usual: kissing babies, hugging lepers, sneaking out at night to feed the homeless and fight crime. No biggie." (Full story here.) 
Happy New Year and Happy Epiphany, everyone! Mega-thanks to all of you who participated in our last caption contest. Congratulations to Sue for her brilliant entry:
Not many people know that before Punky Brewster settled down to a boring life with an old curmudgeon in Chicago, she was a well-traveled international spy. Here she is selling US intelligence secrets to two attentive Swiss guards.
But that was then, and this is now. If you think you're funny or at least mildly amusing, leave your captions in the comments below!