Archive for May, 2011

Spring Contrasts: Madison, Wisconsin vs. Tuscaloosa, Joplin, and the Mighty Mississippi
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Spring Contrasts: Madison, Wisconsin vs. Tuscaloosa, Joplin, and the Mighty Mississippi

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by on May 26, 2011 in Featured, The Economy
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Madison, Wisconsin’s winter follies relinquished their national attention to Tuscaloosa’s tornado in April, events along the Mississippi in May, and finally to the most recent twister in Joplin, Missouri, where genuine suffering puts into perspective tenured teachers who are learning that they must actually pay a fraction of their healthcare costs. Fitting substitutions, these last […]

Nutritional Support and Human Dignity within the End-of-Life Context
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Nutritional Support and Human Dignity within the End-of-Life Context

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by on May 26, 2011 in Catholic Bioethics, Featured
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The Problem “Quality of life” and “death with dignity” have more than a few folks erroneously asserting that the range of legally-acceptable end-of-life options should include “voluntary euthanasia,” and/or “physician-assisted suicide” also known as “physician aid in dying.” [1]  In a recent commentary entitled Human Dignity and the End of Life, Cardinal Rigali and Bishop […]

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May Blossoms, Part III, The Visitation

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by on May 25, 2011 in Columnists, Featured, Live in Christ
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Just when I thought I was home free, it hit. I caught one of those nasty Spring viruses that come racing around the corner while you’re looking in the other direction. Because the buds are beginning to swell on the trees and the first warm breezes are beginning to blow, you forget about watching out […]

Saints Alive! Padre Pio and the Stigmata: Sanctity on Trial
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Saints Alive! Padre Pio and the Stigmata: Sanctity on Trial

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by on May 25, 2011 in Featured, Live in Christ
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Today,  May 25, is Saint Padre Pio’s birthday. Francesco Forgione, who became the modern world’s most beloved Saint Padre Pio, was born 124 years ago today on 25 May 1887 to Mario Forgione and Maria Giuseppa de Nunzio Forgione in Pietrelcina, Italy. On the next day, 26 May 1887, he was baptized. Padre Pio was proclaimed […]

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France Considers Codifying Eugenics

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by on May 25, 2011 in Featured, Life Issues & Bioethics
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Today the French government holds the fate of thousands of innocent lives in their hands. The French Parliament is considering a bill mandating that health care professionals offer universal pre-natal testing for Down syndrome. When a diagnosis of Down syndrome is given to a pregnant woman in France, there is a 96% abortion rate. Most […]

Introspection and Smoking Steering Wheels
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Introspection and Smoking Steering Wheels

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by on May 25, 2011 in Columnists, Featured, Live in Christ
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Our youngest son has a job walking a Weimaraner dog on weekdays. Sometimes, I go along with him, with our Lhasa-poo in tow because the dog’s home is near Lake Michigan and there are lots of beautiful places to wander and sights to see. Yesterday was one of those days, and I almost wish it […]

Uganda – Bishop Warns of Growing Islamic Influence
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Uganda – Bishop Warns of Growing Islamic Influence

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by on May 25, 2011 in Featured, Those in Need
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Bishop Matthias Ssekamanya of Lugazi warned of a rapid growth in Islamic influence in Uganda during a visit to the headquarters of the international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). According to Bishop Ssekamanya, Arab states like Libya are investing increasingly in Uganda, and Muslims have gained key positions in a […]

Monarchy and the American Constitution
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Monarchy and the American Constitution

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by on May 25, 2011 in Featured, Government & Politics
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No matter how good a system is “on paper,” it must arise from a people’s own experience and tradition. We do not preserve the idea of tradition by destroying it — no matter how flawed it might be — and imposing an alien system. On the other hand, tradition is neither something fixed for all […]

The Easter Season, A Time to Experience More Fully the Promises of God
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The Easter Season, A Time to Experience More Fully the Promises of God

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by on May 24, 2011 in Men
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I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my […]

John Jay Study: A $2 Million Exercise in Political Correctness
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John Jay Study: A $2 Million Exercise in Political Correctness

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by on May 24, 2011 in Columnists, Featured, Vocations
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On May 18, researchers from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice released their long-awaited final report, Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010. The research team, led by Karen Terry, Ph.D., gathered an impressive amount of information from which they drew a number of conclusions; […]

The Global Energy Superpower
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The Global Energy Superpower

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by on May 24, 2011 in Featured, The Economy
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Saudi Arabia has long been the dominant producer of petroleum on the planet. Nature endowed the Arabian Peninsula with gigantic deposits of this vital source of energy. Many of us have lamented the quirk of nature that placed much-needed oil in the most geopolitically unstable region in the world. Although Saudi Arabia is the king […]

Baby Joseph Back Home
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Baby Joseph Back Home

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by on May 24, 2011 in Columnists, Featured, Life Issues & Bioethics
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In the early hours of Holy Thursday, 2011, as Churches were preparing – and in some parts of the world already celebrating – the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and the washing of the feet, “Baby Joseph” was flown from St Louis, where he has been treated since I brought him there in mid-March, to […]

Made in the Shade
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Made in the Shade

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by on May 24, 2011 in Columnists, Featured, Live in Christ
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Ralph McInerny was an interesting guy.  (I use the past tense merely to conform to convention since he died January 29, 2010, even though it is incorrect, as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the God of the living.  Mt 22, 32.) Perhaps McInerny’s widest popular notoriety came as creator of the Father […]

Reflections for Sunday, May 29, 2011
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Reflections for Sunday, May 29, 2011

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by on May 23, 2011 in Sunday Reflections
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Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion    (Acts 8:5-8,14-17; Psalm 66:1-7,16,20; 1 Peter 3:15-18; John 14:15-21) Setting Jesus Apart as Your Lord and Savior Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. (1 Peter 3:15) Wait — how can we sanctify Christ? Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? Isn’t he supposed […]

<em>Sympathy for Delicious</em>: Healing and Suffering in a Fallen World
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Sympathy for Delicious: Healing and Suffering in a Fallen World

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by on May 23, 2011 in Featured, On TV and Movies
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Have you ever considered what might have happened if Jesus had come to earth not as God, but merely as a man, whose sole purpose was to heal suffering people from their infirmities?  If so, you might be intrigued by Sympathy for Delicious.  Its premise is simple: a young musician, who has lost his career […]

The Density of Prayer
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The Density of Prayer

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by on May 23, 2011 in Featured, Live in Christ
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Prayer is the intimate communication between God and His creation.  It is the language of heaven gifted to the kingdom of man.  It is the word made flesh for our minds and hearts.  It is our calling.  It is our passion.  It is our pain. While in the kingdom of man, the true believer innately […]

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The Role of Conscience — Vocation of Catholic Health Care Professionals? (Part 2)

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by on May 23, 2011 in Catholic Bioethics, Featured
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How are Catholic health care professional to act, morally and professionally, in a culture where legislative mandates diminish the exercise of the moral conscience of the clinician and threaten human dignity and freedom?  The following principles are offered to guide moral action of health care professionals when confronted with a decision to disregard mandated unethical […]

Bad Apps and Bad Tags in Facebook
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Bad Apps and Bad Tags in Facebook

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by on May 23, 2011 in Columnists, Featured, Tips, Tools, Tech
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Two different types of spam attacks are increasing right now on Facebook. All users need to know how to spot and prevent them – and to fix them if they happen. Bad Apps A bad app will appear in your newsfeed as a story that someone “likes” something that looks like a video or a […]

St. Yvo, Confessor
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St. Yvo, Confessor

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by on May 22, 2011 in Saint of the Day - Ex Form
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ST. YVO HELORI, descended from a noble and virtuous family near Treguier, in Brittany, was born in 1253. At fourteen years of age he went to Paris, and afterwards to Orleans, to pursue his studies. His mother was won frequently to say to him that he ought so to live as became a Saint, to […]

Ongoing Killing of Christians in Iraq
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Ongoing Killing of Christians in Iraq

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by on May 21, 2011 in Featured, Those in Need
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The recent murder of a Christian in the north-Iraqi town of Kirkuk has again instilled terror in the small community. Ashur lssa Yaqub, a 29 year old working class citizen, was found dead by the police on Monday morning after being kidnapped Friday night. His body was badly mutilated and his ear severed after his […]

Obama's Middle East Speech: So Balanced It Goes Nowhere
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Obama’s Middle East Speech: So Balanced It Goes Nowhere

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by on May 21, 2011 in Featured, Government & Politics
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One of the problems with Obama’s Middle East speech was that parts of it were so deliberately balanced — so meant to appease all sides — that they go nowhere. For example, look at the portions where he discusses democracy in the Middle East versus the alternative — Islamist rule, which he does not name. […]

The Kaleidoscopic GOP Primary
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The Kaleidoscopic GOP Primary

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by on May 21, 2011 in Government & Politics
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I faithfully listen to audiobooks as a means of coping with northern Virginia traffic. Recently, I have been engrossed by Edmund Morris’s  Colonel Roosevelt (2010), which, like the first volume of his biographical trilogy, could very well earn him another Pulitzer Prize. At one point in the book, Theodore Roosevelt describes the workings of politics […]

The DSK Saga is Emblematic of Many Things
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The DSK Saga is Emblematic of Many Things

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by on May 21, 2011 in Featured, Women
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While much of the world has been alternately stunned and entertained by the saga surrounding the former head of the International Monetary Fund, let’s revisit a few basic facts. Dominique Strauss-Kahn was also the leading Socialist candidate poised to run against French President Nicolas Sarkozy. At the heart of socialism is its antagonism towards two […]

May 21, 2011: The All Too Familiar “Cleverly Invented Story”
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May 21, 2011: The All Too Familiar “Cleverly Invented Story”

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by on May 20, 2011 in Apologetics, Featured
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You may have seen them in your community too.  What I am talking about are these very large billboards announcing the end of the world on May 21, 2011.  These billboards are promoting the teachings of Mr. Harold Camping, a radio preacher who believes that Jesus will “rapture” Christ’s true believers into heaven and resurrect […]