It’s December already, and that means the dreaded J-word is just around the corner: January. For those who are new to homeschooling, January is the Month of Homeschooling Doom. A month or two of holiday craziness, followed by cold, dark, bleak weather, and a curriculum that had all the new and shiny worn off by […]
In recent decades, America has made many wonderful advances in protecting the rights of people with disabilities and including them in society. Gone are the days of forced sterilization and institutionalization. Now we have laws making disability discrimination illegal and most public places handicap accessible. Children with special needs are able to get an education in most public school […]
Religious freedom, persecution, and martyrdom in the age of Obama. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Vatican’s Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, is a well-traveled man, having served in Iraq, Kuwait, Great Britain, Strasbourg, Nigeria and, now, the United States. As a churchman and a diplomat, the Archbishop is in a unique position to analyze […]
“I have always depended on the kindness of strangers,” drawls Stella in Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire.” And it’s particularly true if you have a large family. Strangers as well as friends often provide our large family with their extras – a wonderful, win-win redistribution which helps level our budget shortfalls. But true giving […]
Children surviving abortions. Children surviving abortions and being left to die. Very seldom do many in our world think about these circumstances, because, frankly, it seems impossible and at the same time horrifying. And if these kinds of circumstances are considered, let’s be honest: most people think that failed abortions and children left to die […]
From an early age, my dad drilled into my head the lessons of compounding interest. It was quite simple: start investing in stocks early on in life, add just a little each month, wait a while, and watch as your savings grows by leaps and bounds! Numbers were touted about how the market had averaged […]
During the months leading up to the passage of Obamacare, Sarah Palin was mocked and excoriated for her use of the term “death panels” to describe the comparative effectiveness approach embraced by architects of the legislation. Granted, the phrase sounds a bit hyperbolic, and downright macabre. Who could possibly be in favor of faceless bureaucrats […]
This week, M expressed a very clear desire to commit suicide, including the method of ending life. Racked with pain, deteriorating health, loneliness and a lack of familial, spiritual and friendly support, M has had enough of living. Statistics in Canada estimate that the number of depressed, suicidal elderly people is 14%. (Canadian Mental Health […]
I have elsewhere argued that Savita Happlanavar’s tragic death cannot be pinned on either Irish law nor on Catholic teaching. It may be that Irish law concerning abortion, miscarriage, and care for women who are undergoing miscarriage and who are in danger of Septicemia (or other life-threatening situations) needs to be clarified, though as it currently stands we have: The decision […]
UN agency presses Peru to acknowledge the “sexual rights” of children and hands out free contraceptives to kids. The debate over a new Code on Childhood and Adolescence is raging in Peru. On the one side are UNICEF, UNFPA, Save the Children and a coalition of abortion-minded and radical feminist groups, many, if not most, […]
Judge Judy fascinates me. It’s true, my tastes are a bit odd. I’ll admit to that. In fact, there are only three television shows I watch regularly—The Journey Home on EWTN, in which Marcus Grodi interviews converts to the Catholic Faith; Phineas and Ferb, a Disney Channel cartoon and the only TV show in history to feature a secret agent […]
When I read this article, I couldn’t shake the chills that went up my spine. I’m sure there is plenty of evil out in the world that I’ll never know about, but it doesn’t cease to amaze or shock me at man’s capacity and almost downright ingenuity — for lack of a better word — and […]
A few years ago, I first wrote about Holy Love Ministries, the 83-acre site of Maranatha Spring in Ohio. People have been going to this place since the early 1990‘s, drawn by founder Maureen Sweeney-Kyle’s claim that Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary and a host of saints are appearing to her with messages. On the surface, […]
Any Internet sensation—even if it colorfully overinterprets what is taking place—that further clarifies how child-like the unborn child is will always be welcomed. Enter “Twins fighting in the womb,” actually better described as two babies, approximately 20 weeks old, attempting to stake out additional leg room in cramped quarters. Reuters put it nicely: “It’s a […]
This week Tripp Curtis, the recently bereaved husband of “Mommy Life” blogger and author Barbara Curtis, posted a short article about his wife that read in part: Barbara told how “seeing my children experience a happy childhood was the next best thing to having one myself.” She wished to “receive that kind of love.… Is […]
In the words of Billy Joel’s 1979 hit ballad, “Honesty,” “Honesty is such a lonely word; everyone is so untrue.” How much more true do those words ring today, some three decades later? To wit, I’d like to touch on three examples of rank dishonesty: one spiritual, one intellectual, and one liturgical. Spiritual Dishonesty In […]
Wednesday, November 21. I drove eleven hours through the Megalopolis of Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. It was the day before Thanksgiving, the busiest traveling day of the year in the U.S. Was I crazy? Maybe, but a daylong drive through stop-and-go traffic was what I wanted to help prepare for Advent. […]
This interview with Christopher Ferrara, Catholic author and founder of the American Catholic Lawyers Association, was conducted by Dr. John C. Rao, November 11, 2012. JR: Let’s begin, appropriately enough, with your title, [Liberty, the God That Failed: Policing the Sacred and Constructing the Myths of the Secular State, from Locke to Obama] and the […]
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual (LGBT) rights continue to divide UN member states, but LGBT groups are celebrating a minor victory at the United Nations General Assembly. Last Tuesday the GA adopted the term “gender identity” alongside “sexual orientation” for the first time in one of its resolutions. LGBT rights first gained a normative foothold […]
We can all remember reading predictions that at some point mankind will become immortal. Perhaps we have heard that there are techniques afoot that will eliminate disease and make the human being into something superior to himself, thus redefining us as transhuman. This is not science fiction and it is no longer in the realm […]
Before my feet touched the floor on January 1st, 2012, I offered a simple prayer: Please Lord, before the year is over, find me where you want me to be. Up to that point, I had been suffering from a decades-long chronic condition and although I imagined health in my future, that morning I offered every […]
Today, we celebrate a New Year’s Day in the Catholic Church. Not unlike the secular New Year’s Day we celebrate in the secular world, the First Sunday of Advent marks the beginning of the new liturgical year. It also marks our time of longing and anticipation for the coming of the Christ Child on Christmas […]
I don’t know how many times I have heard it. Well-meaning Catholics who say, “As a Catholic, I believe life begins at conception.” I have decided that my mission in life is to correct this miscommunication because it is that very line that lets everyone who is not Catholic dismiss everything we have to say […]
In a surprise move, Pope Benedict XVI this morning issued a formal legislative document instructing Catholic charitable organisations that they must act in complete compliance with Catholic teaching. The Vatican rumour mill failed to predict the appearance today of the pope’s Motu Proprio, a special letter written and promulgated on Pope Benedict’s personal initiative, that lays out […]
