I don’t live anywhere near the beach, but if I did, I think I’d be headed there right now.

I’ve spent most of the day looking at the news, trying to pick out the most important stories so I can share them with you.

I thought about writing more about Cardinal Paglia, who has been making excuses for himself and defending his homoerotic mural, but I really didn’t want to talk about that.

I considered a followup on our profile of the Venezuelan crisis earlier this week, with additional details from yesterday’s meeting between Pope Francis and the Venezuelan bishops, but it sounded like the upshot of that was pretty much a big nothing…although Francis did recommend the bishops work with Caritas Internationalis, the Church’s umbrella group for a “confederation of Catholic social justice and charitable organizations around the world” that also happens to have a seat “on the governing board of the World Social Forum – an organization whose members and events promote pro-communist, pro-homosexuality, and pro-abortion ideas and action.”

Sigh.

So let’s see, there was the story about the thieves that stole either the entire brain or a relic of the brain (it’s not entirely clear) of St. John Bosco earlier this week, with speculation that they might want to use it in a Satanic ritual.

There was also the one about the priest who was suspended from Facebook for a week for a historically accurate post about Islam. I’ve been waiting for that to happen to me, actually. Because:

Pretty much everywhere I look, there are stories that just make we want to throw my hands up.

We had some good news this week, too — like the Polish bishops standing up for the Church’s traditional teaching on marriage, but even that story had me wondering, Why in the world are we celebrating when our shepherds are doing their minimum duty? Has it really come to this? 

Maybe I just need more sleep. Maybe I need a glass of good whiskey. Maybe I need to go find a beach. All I know is that if I’m being honest, my cynicism reserves are hitting toxic levels, and I think it’s time to start the weekend early.

I’m guessing you feel pretty much the same way, so thanks for sticking with us this week — and every week. Here’s to a better one starting on Monday.

Oh, and one more thing: we’re getting close to mid-month now, and the June fundraiser is looking pretty anemic. If you’d like the help us fight the good fight — we’re putting our backs into it as hard as we can — please consider a contribution to the cause.

See you next week.