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 […]
It is the topic no Hollywood film maker would touch with a ten foot pole. It is the topic no abortion advocate will discuss let alone admit. It is the topic many pro-lifers do not even know exists: survivors of failed abortions. It is the topic that Jon and Andy Erwin chose for their first […]
I read once that when a neurosurgeon touches a spot on the human brain with a probe, he elicits memories. All kinds of memories: a moment in childhood, a school day, a family vacation from years past. Sights, sounds, tastes, smells, feelings. Pain and pleasure, fear and fury and fun. Whatever is stored on that particular […]
Saul Alinsky is alive and well in the political maneuverings of the secular left. The problem is, we all have the play book now. As most know, Rush Limbaugh has been under fire of late for comments he made about 30 year-old “reproductive justice” radical Sandra Fluke. Ms. Fluke recently gained national attention while testifying […]
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 […]
Even if you don’t agree with him, you have to admire George Weigel’s moxie. It can’t be easy serving as the spokesperson for a “conservative” Catholic movement that labors so mightily against the preponderance of evidence to reconcile every last scintilla of conciliar innovation with the Faith handed down from the Apostles. Yet, he does […]
I read with interest Andrea Tornielli’s article on Medjugorje dated February 28, 2012.[i] At the end, I was shocked to find that Tornielli provided a Latin-Italian translation of the Vatican document “Normae S. Congregationis.” My shock was rooted in the fact that the Latin text of this document has escaped the public eye for 34 […]
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, […]
The Church is a sign of contradiction. On the issue of contraception, in which the Catholic Church is seen as the most inveterate of socially conservative reactionaries, the Church loses not only libertine opponents, but also many conservative friends. In the present debate about the government’s attempt to compel religious institutions to fund the use […]
Do you know what it means to receive a consolation from the Lord? In the work of prayer for example, it is when you feel a deep sense of His presence. But even in our day-to-day lives we can receive consolations from the Lord. These come in the form of a perk, or a little […]
What does it take to be included, to feel a part of something bigger than yourself? In the past two weeks, two films, made for two generations, have sought to answer that question. Both are comedies, both rated R, and both come to the most dismal answers imaginable. I think it was Francis Schaeffer who […]
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 […]
In case you didn’t notice…. With George W. Bush out of office and a Democrat in the White House, the secular media stopped its handwringing over the president mentioning God. With Rick Santorum’s surge, the hysteria has started again. Every religious utterance by Santorum will be a cause for apoplexy by the liberal press. It […]
The Bible is a war manual. You don’t have to read very far before you discover that there are, as Chuck Colson once noted, “kingdoms in conflict.” The spiritual life is referred to as a battle, and (as descriptions of Armageddon clarify) Jesus is not just Lord of your life, He is a Lord of […]
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 […]
Reading James Drane’s article (and corresponding cartoon) today in Erie’s Times News (“Catholic Church should change its policies on birth control”) made us want to cancel the paper… again. Of course, it demands a reply, but why bother? What good does it do? Where is the Church’s official reply? But then I’m haunted by the awareness that if […]
After quitting my job as a school teacher in 2010 to become a full-time organic farmer, I was left with a dilemma. I was quite certain that I could grow high quality produce, but what was I going to do with it? I had heard about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs from various other small-scale […]
Rich Donnelly has a baseball story that is out of this world. Donnelly’s daughter Amy had passed away four years before his trip to the World Series in 1997 with the Florida Marlins, but her presence was felt keenly at the end of the seventh game. The coach has recounted the story to thousands of […]
If I had to name the most important topics in science during our time, they would probably be evolutionary biology, cosmology, particle physics, and psychology to understand the human person better. However, if I had to name the most important issue in science today, it would be something more over-arching. It would be the general issue of […]
A very conscientious Catholic, Harold Baumeister, saw this cartoon in his hometown paper and had the conviction and gumption to do something about it! He wrote to the editor (letter follows) to let him know that he was deeply offended by this crass cartoon and that the pope and all Catholics will fight to defend our freedoms. […]
In Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Nicholas Cage returns as Johnny Blaze, the man who once made a deal with the devil to save his father’s life, and became the devil’s bounty hunter. In the original Ghost Rider film, when he is in the presence of evil, Blaze turns into the Ghost Rider, a flaming […]
Why is The Artist being showered with so many international awards (and most likely a few Oscars)? It’s all about bringing back the movie magic, which The Artist does. This black-and-white film focuses on visual storytelling, which is precisely what film is supposed to be. Anyone who has gone to film school will appreciate the […]
