Going into the weekend

I went to the dentist yesterday. No cavities were found, though I was told that I'd probably have to have my wisdom teeth removed eventually. But I already knew that. I have to go back next week and make an appointment to get an old chipped tooth fixed since it's been bothering me lately. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

The news today
Sandro Magister examines the Holy Father's remarks to the bishops of Italy and Austria. The former were praised and the latter were told to try harder. I'm looking forward to seeing what Benedict XVI will have to say to the US bishops when the time comes. Also included is the interesting anecdote of how the trip to Brazil for the Latin American bishops' meeting was planned:

But Benedict XVI said to them all of a sudden: “It will be held in Brazil,” and immediately asked what the country’s most venerated Marian shrine is. “The Aparecida,” they replied. And the pope: “In Brazil, at the Aparecida, in May. I’ll be there.”

Catholic News Service reports on Nicholas Negroponte's stop at the Vatican to talk about his $100 laptop for children in the Third World. Negroponte is the founder of Wired magazine and a professor at MIT. I've been following Negroponte's efforts since he first announced the idea. The laptops are going to be running Linux and will have a lot of features for power efficiency, etc. They should sell them commercially in the First World with a healthy mark-up to raise money for the discounted units in the Third World. I'd probably buy one. Too bad that's not how they're doing it.

While some participants at the Vatican workshop praised the initiative, others expressed some ethical and practical concerns, such as how governments of poor countries would raise the money for what would cost, at a minimum, $100 million.

Negroponte said international loaning institutes like the World Bank are "fully prepared to finance" a project such as this interest-free.

"Kids in the United States and Italy," he added, "could help pay for a laptop for a kid in the Third World."

From AsiaNews.it:

Hong Kong (AsiaNews) – The forthcoming visit of Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran to Taiwan has created expectations and rumours that the Vatican is about to break its diplomatic relations with the island and resume relations with Beijing. There has, however, been no confirmation of this from the Vatican.
[...]
These hasty suppositions were denied, however, by a spokesperson of the Taipei government. Figures close to the Vatican told AsiaNews that “there is nothing new to signal,” in relations between China and the Vatican. A priest in Hong Kong stated that Beijing’s timid steps of overture following the death of John Paul II have been “betrayed” by the recent arrest of priests and bishops.

The Tidings out of Los Angeles discusses collegiality. It's a long, drawn-out piece. Read it all and draw your own conclusions. For my part, I am all for collegiality, as long as doctrine/dogma/tenets of the faith are not subject to a majority vote (cf. the mainstream churches in the United States undergoing serious upheaval).

That's it for the morning.