Notre Dame's weekly Tridentine Mass will be starting up again this weekend (for more information, see the Campus Ministry website). Note the later Mass time which, while still far from ideal, will hopefully make it easier for both the die-hards and the curious to attend.
Why yes, that is my poster design. Thanks for noticing. (the image is, I believe, from the St. Andrew's Missal)

Happy feast of Saint Monica! Call your mother!

Here's a story that will probably go largely unnoticed due to the fact that it's summer: A man needed a kidney transplant; his uncle was a match. Meanwhile, a woman's son prepared to donate his kidney to her. It was then discovered that the son was a better match for the nephew, and coincidentally, the uncle happened to match the mother.

It would be a strange enough, Reader's Digest-worthy story in any case, but is all the more noteworthy because it involves a former president of Notre Dame.

Notre Dame’s president from 1987 to 2005, Father Malloy volunteered earlier this year to donate a kidney to Rorapaugh, 41. The son of Father Malloy’s sister Joanne, Rorapaugh learned two years ago that he has severe kidney dysfunction, and he has been on dialysis three times weekly ever since.

After no match was found among several of Rorapaugh’s immediate family members, Father Malloy – who goes by the nickname “Monk” – began to consider becoming a donor. He thought that at age 67 he would be considered too old, but after going through a wide array of tests, it was determined that he is in excellent health, and he learned on April 11 that he was approved to go forward as a donor for his nephew.

In recent weeks, however, the transplantation took on a new twist when doctors realized that a man who had hoped to donate a kidney to his mother was a better match for Rorapaugh, and, fortuitously, that Father Malloy was a match for the man’s mother.

(read the whole story here)

QB Messes With ND's Chances of Not Sucking

Notre Dame will investigate possible school code violations after the Web site The Big Lead posted photos Monday that appear to depict Clausen, teammates Brian Smith and James Aldridge and one other individual attending what the site labeled “Beer Olympics.”

The pictures are not dated, and while there is beer on the table in front of the players, the photos do not show the players actively consuming alcohol.

No matter the date of the photos, at least two of the players would not be of legal drinking age: Clausen, who does not turn 21 until Sept. 21, and Smith, who does not reach 21 until 2010. Aldridge turned 21 on July 6.

(Article here)

Allow me to make a few comments about our football team. Compared to most programs, ours is pretty academically advanced (earning a GPA of 3.0 last semester). However, I just spent the last 6 weeks in class with a few dozen incoming freshman football and hockey players, and seriously, they're not the coldest beers in the fridge (oh. I suppose that's kind of an ironic comparison.). The first time we got math homework back, one of them said, "Um, professor? Mine says '10 over 10'; is that good?" Argh. One school/practice night, a bunch of them drove to Fort Wayne (2 hours) to go to a club, which apparently turned out to be attended mostly by 16-year-old girls. Don't see that ending well...

I'd hate to paint the whole team with a broad brush, but based on what I've seen first-hand, I have to say that much as I would like to be, I'm less than psyched about this season.

Summer Literature

Believe it or not, this whole Vacation Bible School/500 kids/taking lots and lots of pictures/occasionally holding babies thing is a little tiring, so I may not be around a lot this week, but in the interest of maintaining the high cultural standards of this blog (stop laughing), I now present a couple modern adaptations of classic literature (both tragic tales of royals, incidentally):

• Hamlet, according to the Facebook news feed
• Oedipus Rex, according to California license plates

And if you're looking for a slightly lengthier diversion (~40 minutes), I'd recommend Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, which, now that I think about it, is also a tragedy (huh - I seem to be working on a theme here...). Quite hilarious all the same, though I should warn that it's decidedly PG-13 in places.

What I'm Doing This Week