All the Devils Are Here, by Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, is a fascinating look at the principle players who brought about the financial crisis of 2008. It reveals the motives and mistakes made over the course of a decade by those who were entrusted with running the largest financial corporations of the world as […]
You know, when a book has endorsements from Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Scott Hahn, Kevin Vost, Marcus Grodi, and Mike Aquilina (to name a few!!), a thumbs-up from Shane Kapler is obviously superfluous. But in the spirit of “when has that ever stopped me before?” I have to share my deep appreciation of this book. The […]
The Hunger Games trilogy penned by Suzanne Collins has proven to be hugely successful, and deservedly so. The tale of post-apocalyptic love, poverty, war, and oppression poignantly captures the fundamental injustice of tyranny. As the film premiere of the first book dominated the box office this past weekend, it’s worth reflecting on what can be […]
Archbishop Charles Chaput has written one of the most insightful pieces of our time on modern journalism and the role, or should I say, “non-role” of religion in today’s public square. His searing piece, A Heart on Fire: Catholic Witness and the Next America, is a must read for all those who seek to live […]
Dr. Vincent Fortanasce knows the field of medicine as well as anyone. He has studied psychiatry at Yale, neurology at the University of Southern California and orthopedic rehabilitation at Rancho Los Amigos Hospital, one of the top rehab centers in the country. He has spent decades treating thousands of patients, including world-class athletes and celebrities. Many […]
I was mourning my third miscarriage and seeking a book that would offer me comforting words from a Catholic mother who had also lost a child. I found Letters to Gabriel by Karen Garver Santorum. In the pages of this book I got to know Karen as she spoke to her son Gabriel, who is […]
If you’ve been on the internet in the past month, you’ve heard the accusation: Only men are opposed to contraception. No woman in her right mind would reject this blessing of modern technology, therefore, the only people against it must be men with nefarious motives. AlterNet editor Sara Robinson did an excellent job of articulating […]
In Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (2005), researchers Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton argue that for many young adults in America, the spiritual life is understood in moralistic terms. But where orthodox (and Orthodox) Christianity focus on the necessity of “repentance from sin, of keeping the Sabbath, of living as a servant of a sovereign divine, […]
Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle recently interviewed Catholic Lane columnist, Marge Fenelon about her new book, Strengthening Your Family. DONNA-MARIE: Marge, your new book Strengthening Your Family is lovely! It seems a lot different than the others of yours I am familiar with. Can you please tell us why you decided to write this book? MARGE: Yes, Donna, Strengthening Your […]
We have thus far seen (part 1, part 2, part 3) how Mr. Lyons’ vision for Christianity is not a centering vision but a centrifugal one. By removing Christ’s visible Church and replacing it with an amorphous one, Mr. Lyons’ ‘next Christians’ are not going toward the Promised Land but away from it. He has […]
Thus far, in evaluating Mr. Lyons’ ‘Next Christian’ vision (part 1, part 2) we have seen how his vision fails to include the Church that Christ established. His vision precludes the Mystical Body of Christ, and supplants it with ecclesiastical amateurism: a weakly-structured, free-floating Christianity that lives and dies on spontaneity. His low-churchmanship does not […]
While there’s very little value in the daytime soaps, the more sophisticated versions that we find on PBS are most entertaining, the latest being Downton Abbey —and I readily admit to being a fan. We can pretend that we’re interested in the history, the décor or the period costumes, but really, it’s the turbulent plot […]
At the Heart of the Gospel, the new book by Christopher West, is the fruit of West’s sabbatical from speaking after controversy broke following a television interview. West’s new book is primarily two things. First, it’s a summary of the main points of West’s lectures and writings over the years. West takes a deep breath, […]
EWTN TV host and Catholic author, Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle recently interviewed Dorothy Pilarski about her new book Motherhood Matters. Donna-Marie: Dorothy, the book you’ve seemed to put your heart into has finally been released. What are your thoughts? Dorothy: There is a part of me that still doesn’t believe it’s true. There are moments where […]
Among America’s amazing pantheon of founders, Patrick Henry stands out for his stirring speeches and fervent commitment to liberty, virtue, and small government. The Virginia planter, lawyer, and politician strongly denounced Great Britain’s political and economic control of the American colonies and played a leading role in the movement for independence. More controversially, Henry’s love […]
Gabe Lyons has constructed a new vision for Christians, a vision that is sustained by the desire to restore God’s Kingdom on earth. However, as we have seen, his vision is not a complete vision, but rather it is a half-vision inflated and masquerading as a whole one. It is as if a man took a […]
The medieval times of 13th century Christendom present a world so different from our own, jam-packed with unique and intriguing characters whose stories are so little known, yet so well worth knowing. I’d recently written a biography of a man from that time called “great” in his own day, Albert the Great, a man who […]
The great G.K. Chesterton once quipped: “When you break the big laws, you do not get liberty; you do not even get anarchy. You get the small laws.” Dr. Arthur Hippler’s Citizens of the Heavenly City : A Catechism of Catholic Social Teaching is a book about the big laws. One of the beauties of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is […]
There is much merit in Gabe Lyons’ book, The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America. In fact, in the second chapter of this book, Mr. Lyons offers his readers a lucid and accessible account of the cultural state wherein Christians find themselves today (23). Although he attributes the beginning of […]
I chose to review The Catholic Briefcase for three reasons. It is written by a convert, like I am. It is written by a man who successfully integrates his faith in every aspect of his life, like my husband does. When I once carried a briefcase as a career professional, but not yet a Catholic, it […]
Economics” is the name which people have come to give to the study of wealth. It is the study by which we learn how wealth is produced, how it is consumed, how it is distributed among people, and so on. It is a very important kind of study, because it often depends upon our being […]
If you do an Internet search for “Catholic Fatherhood” how much data would you find in comparison to Panda Bears, Applied Linear Algebra, and Welding Theory? According to John Clark, author of Who’s Got You, Catholic Fatherhood comes in last. The results respectively were 1,914, 1,706, and 284. Catholic Fatherhood netted 270 results. Clark surmised […]
In 1954, Father M. Raymond, O.S.C.O., a Cistercian priest, observed that the world was as pagan then as when Christ was born, that Catholics were suffering from amnesia, that they had forgotten the purpose of their lives and much of what it meant to be Catholic. More than fifty-seven years later, some argue that many […]
Book Review: Strengthening Your Family: A Catholic Approach to Holiness at Home, by Elena Maria Vidal Through our baptism, we’re called to be royal, priestly parents to our children, exercising our God-given authority with kindness and benevolence. When we truly understand the essence of our authority, we can be leaders and nurturers of our children […]
