In my position with the Diocese of Toledo, I get to instruct people on the joys of Catholic marriage: The two become one flesh. Marriage is gift of self. My path to holiness is through my spouse. Marriage is free, total, faithful, and fruitful. As Christ died on the cross for his bride the Church, […]
In his 2007 book Boomsday, Christopher Buckley writes of a fictional future where an overwhelming number of elderly baby boomers are given tax incentives to end their lives early. With recent developments out of Switzerland, Buckley’s tongue-in-cheek novel may prove all-too-prescient. The Swiss canton of Vaud just passed a law mandating that doctors in hospitals and nursing homes provide […]
Wade Horn, Ph.D., President of the National Fatherhood Initiative, had an intriguing article entitled “Of Elephants and Men” in a recent issue of Fatherhood Today magazine. I found Dr. Horn’s story about young elephants to be simply fascinating, and you will too. Some years ago, officials at the Kruger National Park and game reserve in South Africa […]
Qualifications: Candidates must possess the desire to love unconditionally. Little or no training is required but willingness to learn on the job is a must. The initiation period is little or nonexistent, depending on the support staff you have in your extended family. You must have the ability to be aware of every departmental […]
Gentle Tapping Inspired by 1Kings19:11-13, Mt 26:44 I heard a gentle tapping But maybe I was wrong. Soon I was distracted By a melancholy song. I felt a gentle breeze Mild, warm and meek. But I chose to ignore it And turned the other cheek. I saw a gentle smile On a stranger whom I […]
Experts claim that Planned Parenthood has such a serious foothold on government policy and finances that it would literally take a jackhammer to pull them apart. In fact, some historians have even suggested that Planned Parenthood softened many of its early positions from the hard-line culture of death posture in order to garner respectability among […]
Click for: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4. The next eight years were spent in a spiritual wasteland. The only bright spots were that I married LaRee in 1973 and we had two more children we both adored. But even those bright spots were threatened by my alcoholism. I carried the emotional and […]
[Editor’s note: In June, Mark Discher, Professor of Philosophy and Theology at The College of St. Mary Magdalen was asked to give a speech to the Massachusetts Citizens for Life annual convention on the HHS mandate. In his address, Dr. Discher masterfully placed the mandate into the context of the wider problem we are facing, […]
The Fortnight for Freedom may be over but we must continue to stand against the Health and Human Services Mandate to force Catholics to pay for contraception and abortion. There are many reasons to oppose this. It makes a mockery of the First Amendment. It pushes on an unsuspecting public birth control pills which many […]
“For Egypt, the Christians are an indispensable force. They can contribute to opening up the country.” With these words, the Coptic Catholic Bishop of Assiut, Kyrillos William Samaan, affirmed the significance of Christians in the reshaping of Egypt. Since mid-February, Bishop Kyrillos has deputized for the seriously ill Patriarch of Alexandria (with headquarters in Cairo), […]
OK. Deep breath…. pray! Oh Father, Son, Spirit, Three-fold Family from Whom all families are founded… Help us this day to rejoice in the chaos that is our family. To enter intentionally into the endless mystery of the exhausting energy and tempestuous roller coaster ride of our children’s emotions, all raw and real; primordial mixtures […]
I read a fact the other day on the internet: Eight percent of all babies in the womb who test positive for Down syndrome or a genetic anomaly survive and are born. That means 92% of all babies who test positive are aborted. Ninety two percent never get a chance. Reading that fact shook me […]
This characterization of the many facets of being pro-life is so brilliant I wish I could say I thought of it. Scott Rae, in an interview with John Stonestreet at BreakPoint.org, brings the pro-life movement into the 21st century in an attempt to get us all to wake up to the perils we are facing. […]
Part I explained that almost half the world’s people are dependent for their food on industrially fixed nitrogen fertilizer, and that nitrogen fertilizer production is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Part II explored several plausible mechanisms by which forced suppression of CO2 would induce food shortages and starvation in the poorest nations. Among the key mechanisms discussed […]
Yesterday, I noted a sure sign that summer is nearly over: There were commercials on TV for ingredients to make school lunches. Already, the folks at Oscar Mayer are offering suggestions for how to make a lunch that kids will find nutritious and delicious, though they don’t offer any advice in the ads on how […]
It’s time! If you’re ready to conduct 40 Days for Life in your city this fall or if you’re just thinking about leading a local campaign in your community, please take the time to watch this 12-minute video to find out everything that’s involved in leading a local campaign: The next internationally coordinated 40 Days for Life campaign will be conducted […]
Times Go By Turns The lopped tree in time may grow again Most naked plants renew both fruit and flower The sorriest weight may find release of pain The driest soil suck in some moistening shower Times go by turns and chances change by course From foul to fair from better happ to worse The […]
THE early years of Camillus gave no sign of sanctity. At the age of nineteen he took service with his father, an Italian noble, against the Turks, and after four years’ hard campaigning found himself, through his violent temper, reckless habits, and inveterate passion for gambling, a discharged soldier, and in such straitened circumstances that […]
“Conversion requires convincing of sin, it includes the interior judgment of conscience, and this, being proof of the action of the Spirit of Truth in man’s inmost being, becomes at the same time the start of a new grant of grace and love” — Blessed John Paul II, DeV 31; CCC 1848 “I can’t believe […]
Part of the recently upheld Affordable Care Act that many in the disability community applaud is the elimination of policy exclusions for pre-existing conditions. I agree that our culture should not discriminate against and withhold heath care from an individual based on a physical or mental disability. Early Intervention services, exceptional educators, and medical advances […]
If you’re not familiar with “liberation theology,” chances are you’ll be hearing more about it in the weeks and months ahead as Archbishop Gerhard Mueller, the newly appointed Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), is said to be a student, friend and supporter of Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez, the “father” of […]
“Lake Superior is the biggest, deepest, cleanest, coldest and roughest of all the Great Lakes,” said the captain of the tour boat as we cruised out of Munising, Michigan, average snowfall 250 inches, to view the Pictured Rocks National Shoreline. Pictured Rocks is a spectacular display of multicolored sandstone cliffs and geologic formations, soaring to […]
Her son was a wild one. She had tried to impart solid virtues and a lively faith—but her atheist husband quashed that with his brusque way and bad example. So when her eldest son reached his teens, he broke away—rejecting Christianity for an occult religion, and preferring an easy life of casual relationships and carefree […]
