I reinvented Thanksgiving dinner 3 years ago, and not by choice. Thanksgiving dinner is one of my favorite dinners to fix for my family. Three years ago, things changed. I was recovering from major surgery, forbidden from driving, forbidden from lifting more than 5 pounds, and needed to sit more than stand. My husband and our […]
It’s busy season for debates over the role of women in Christianity. First, there was the so-called “war on nuns,” the high-profile skirmish between the Vatican and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. Then followed Harvard divinity professor Karen King’s revelation of a now widely discredited papyrus suggesting that Jesus had a wife. Now comes […]
Timing is everything in politics. For four years, I angered conservatives by insisting Barack Obama would get reelected. I figured that an electorate willing to elect a man with ideas and a record that far to the left in 2008 would do so again. I began changing my view, however, after the first presidential debate. […]
Someone should take a poll asking Americans how they feel about polling. I’m pretty sure our shared distaste for it is one thing about which nearly all of us would agree. Of all the polling data released in the week leading up to Tuesday’s election, the one that struck me as most revealing came from […]
When Election Day arrives, so do the traps that come with it. In my previous column I examined four of them, and here I present five more. Be sure you avoid these pitfalls, and help others avoid them, too! 5. I’ll show them! — using the election to vent our anger. Sometimes individuals or groups […]
Like most women in my post-feminist generation, I grew up knowing exactly what I did not want when it came to love and work. I did not want to sacrifice my personal life at the altar of the all-consuming career. Nor did I want to surrender professional success in a fit of passion or panic […]
As the 2012 campaign passes into history, it’s not too soon to note some of the genuine horrors of this increasingly strange way of choosing a president. First, though, let me repeat a quote from Alexis de Tocqueville’s classic Democracy in America that I cited many months ago when the campaign was heating up. The […]
I’ll never forget that bleak January day when my father died. It was very hard to believe in the resurrection as I watched the undertakers carry away his lifeless corpse in a body bag. But imagine this scene. You are an unborn child who has lived in cozy but cramped quarters with your twin for […]
About the new video from a group that calls itself the Future Children Project, which promotes its pro-Obama message in a song performed by a children’s choir: You people must be joking. Really. This agitprop is so bad I thought it was political satire. It didn’t seem possible that anyone would seriously expect American voters […]
Scanning the various media outlets, it seems as though the bad news outnumbers the good! So, I decided that we all could use a proverbial shot in the arm to lift our spirits and get us thinking, feeling, and acting positively again. I’ve chosen ten quotes about hope (real, Christian hope, not political jargon hope) […]
When Election Day arrives, so do the traps that come with it. Be sure you avoid these pitfalls, and help others avoid them, too! 1. I’m a nobody — I only have one vote, and my vote doesn’t count! This trap overlooks the lessons of history that show how elections can be decided by a […]
I don’t watch The View. I tried a few times, many moons ago; but found that even with the presence of conservative Elisabeth Hasslebeck, I couldn’t stomach the show. I’m also a huge fan of Ann Romney. Huge. But even her guest spot on The View couldn’t entice me to tune in. Appearing the same […]
You would think that, with Louisiana State University’s 7-1 overall record and 3-1 Southeastern Conference record, fans of the No. 6-ranked college football team would focus all their attention on the upcoming game against No. 1-ranked Alabama. Face it, this will be a big game. But seriously, folks. An interesting issue has risen out of […]
I only wear mascara for special occasions: Easter, Christmas, Sunday Mass, an evening out with hubby, lunch with friends. It isn’t a daily, automatic thing for me. So when I was getting ready to attend the Paul Ryan rally in our area this past week, I thought it odd that my instinct was to put […]
In response to the Holy Father’s wishes for this Year of Faith, plans are being made in parishes and dioceses all over the world to “celebrate” Vatican II in light of the 50th anniversary of the Council’s opening. But how many Catholics have an appropriate understanding of what it means in this case to celebrate? […]
If it weren’t so obvious, it might be ironic. On Monday, a USA Today/Gallup poll among likely voters in the top 12 battleground states revealed a startling demographic shift: Women are moving toward Republican Mitt Romney, thanks in large measure to the candidates’ respective performances in the first presidential debate earlier this month in Denver. […]
Joe Biden’s antics against Paul Ryan have taken a few days to sink in, and should take longer still. For starters, try to imagine being Paul Ryan last Thursday [Oct. 11th]: a young politician in the hot seat, the eyes of the world pressing upon him, as he tries to make succinct statements in a […]
Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who had been slapped was hurt but without saying anything, wrote in the sand: Today my best friend slapped me in the face. They kept on […]
The last few weeks have produced many intriguing political moments, but none as shocking as the revelation that President Obama has been absent from the vast majority of his daily intelligence briefings. According to a study by the Government Accountability Institute, Obama failed to attend a single Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) in the week leading up […]
This month is a momentous one for saints in the Catholic Church. After naming two new doctors of the church this past Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI will canonize seven new saints on Oct. 21. Among them are Marianne Cope, a Franciscan sister who founded hospitals in New York before nursing lepers in Hawaii, and Kateri […]
In 1958, a congenial old man, Angelo Roncalli, was elected to the chair of Peter. He was to be a caretaker pope, someone to keep the ship steady while the cardinals identified a more long-term leader. That smiling old man soon stunned the world by calling the first ecumenical council in nearly a hundred years. […]
The mission statement of Philadelphia’s Charles Carroll High School, displayed prominently on its website, offers a hopeful vision of an educational institution: “Providing all students with the academic, technological & social skills needed to be productive & contributing citizens in our society.” This week, the specific mention of “social skills” and citizenship likely sounds like […]
Sunday, October 7, 2012 was “Pulpit Freedom Sunday.” It is based on a simple question: May the government filter, edit, or veto the contents of a sermon? No court has ever heard a case regarding whether the Internal Revenue Service can do so. Yet every day – and especially in these weeks prior to an […]
With his Apostolic Letter of October 11, 2011, Porta Fidei, Pope Benedict XVI declared that a Year of Faith would begin on October 11, 2012, and conclude on November 24, 2013. The first day of the Year of Faith marks the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council and the twentieth anniversary of the publication […]
