Robert J. Gieb has practiced probate law in Ft. Worth, Texas for thirty years. He is local counsel for Catholics United For Life of North Texas.
Hope springs eternal, and sometimes our hope is rewarded. In the case of the murder trial of the abortionist Kermit Gosnell, the hope was not only that he be tried and convicted for his heinous crimes, but that the national media would rise above its prejudices and actually report on his murder trial. As to […]
After losing to the abortion promoting Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential elections, one hears the same rumble and mumble amongst Republicans that was heard after the 2008 election: The loss was a direct result of the party’s pro life stand. If the party would just give in on this, women and young voters will […]
It was an astounding event. Truly remarkable, and clearly historical. Truth be told, I had never seen or experienced anything quite like it. It happened in one of the wealthiest and most powerful cities in the United States. Indeed, in the world. The setting was most fitting. A magnificent cathedral with giant stained glass windows […]
On a November morning before dawn my wife and I, and three other people on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, followed a Franciscan priest into the small edicule that surrounds Jesus’ tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. The priest was going to say Mass, and he was pleased that we could […]
In the 16th Chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke there is the parable of Lazarus who, hungry and covered with sores, begged for food at the gate of the house of a rich man. Lazarus “longed to eat the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table,” and “even the dogs came and licked […]
The continuing dissent of the Catholic left from the fundamental tenets of the Catholic Church is not a news flash, and to be clear, the dissent did not start with the campaign leading up to the 2012 election. But the campaign and election did produce a clarification as many Catholic politicians, Catholic university professors, prominent […]
The 2012 national election is over, and the winners are those who support the legalized killing of innocent human beings, the destruction of traditional marriage, and the gross limitation of religious freedom. The victors include atheists and believers, and sadly among those believers are many who claim to be Catholics. It is not even possible […]
It has been an entire year since the new changes in the English translation of the language used in the Sacred Liturgy which were introduced to the Church in America on the First Sunday of Advent in 2011. By most accounts it has been a success, but not without some criticism. One example was a […]
I watched as the manager of the commercial abortuary came walking up the sidewalk by the side of the building, her arm around her next “patient.” They were followed by a man and a woman. The “patient” was no more than fifteen years old, probably fourteen. The man and the woman following her into the […]
In a recent article in The National Catholic Reporter Michael Sean Winters criticized vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan for failing to present a plan to help the poor, and purported to criticize Vice President Joe Biden for not presenting a way to protect the unborn. I found the usual obfuscation of Catholic moral teaching that […]
There is a saying about the Liturgy: “Say the black and do the red,” as written in the missal. Recently the Adoremus Society, which publishes the Adoremus Bulletin, sent out a survey asking for responses about the way the Liturgy is celebrated in parishes around the country, especially after the changes made in 2011. The […]
JI attended a Protestant church a while ago for a worship service. A friend and colleague had died, and I was there to pray for him and his family. The church was beautiful. High ceilings, with stained glass windows on the back wall of the sanctuary. A pulpit made of beautiful wood, raised high in […]
The readings for the Sunday Liturgy recently included passages from Ezekiel, St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians, and the Gospel of St. Mark. Ezekiel is sent by God to proclaim to the “impudent and stubborn” Israelites that he is their faithful God, and to repent and return to Him. Say to them God tells […]
In one of his homilies, Fr. Mitch Pacwa of EWTN told the story of a group of seminarians who visited a silversmith to see how silver is refined so that they could understand better the references in Scripture about the necessity that we be refined like silver refined by a silversmith. The seminarians watched as […]
The latest attack on constitutional rights by Obama administration is a requirement that forces employers to purchase health insurance coverage for their employees that includes contraceptive drugs and abortifiacients. As a finger in the eye of the Catholic Church and other religious groups opposed to contraception and abortion, and with a least a figurative smirk […]
On January 10, 2012, the United States 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas Medical Providers Performing Abortion Services, et al. v. David Lakey, et al. vacated the preliminary injunction order of the federal district court in Austin, Texas that prohibited the enforcement of parts of the Texas Woman’s Right to Know Act (H.B. 15), […]
It is a constant chant from those who would like the defenders of unborn life to disappear, and leave them undisturbed in their killing. “Your concern for life does not go any further than the uterus.” “All you want is to stop the abortion, and then you abandon the mother.” “You don’t care about the […]
During the season of Advent the readings at Mass include passages about John the Baptist, the humble inhabitant of the Judean desert who possessed nothing but the truth and owed no one but the God who created him. He was fearless in his preaching. He discomfited all in their complacency, but to all he gave […]
Last Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent, the new English translation of the prayers we pray in the Mass started being used in the United States. Interestingly, the prayers on which the translation is based are not new. They are essentially the same official prayers of the Latin Rite which we have had for decades. Go to the […]
Protecting immigrants from oppression is a centuries old duty of both Jews and Christians. “You shall not oppress or afflict a resident alien, for you were once aliens residing in the land of Egypt. Exodus 22: 20.” Most, if not all, of the people with whom I work in the pro life apostolate take that […]
On its website the Catholic News Service identifies itself as “an editorially independent and financially self-sustaining division of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.” Why it can be a division of the USCCB, and still be editorially independent is not clear. Nevertheless, it is the voice of the national bishop’s conference in this country, […]
In the Gospel of St. Matthew there is Jesus’ parable of the merciful master and the merciless servant. The master holds one of his servants accountable for a debt owed to the master, and is ready to order the servant and his family sold into bondage, and all of his property sold as well, for […]
If you are a citizen of North Korea and a Christian, you are a criminal and will be imprisoned, and probably tortured as well. If you are Christian in Saudi Arabia you will be arrested for a public display of your faith. In China and Vietnam you will be imprisoned and persecuted by the state if […]
Even those to whom the truth of the Resurrection has been revealed and claim to believe in that truth still struggle in a world broken and corrupted, where might makes right, and where sometimes the immensity of evil tempts us to doubt the divine presence. We live in a world where we see through the […]
