In recent years social critics like Robert Putnam (Bowling Alone) and Charles Murray (Coming Apart) have documented and deplored a decline of community among Americans. It’s a development that affects churches along with other institutions of civil society. But “decline of community” is an abstraction and hardly self-explanatory. A story told by a man I […]
The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, today announced it has filed an emergency motion asking that Federal District Judge Robert H. Cleland of the Eastern District of Michigan stop the HHS Mandate which goes into effect on August 1, 2012. The motion was filed late […]
As Planned Parenthood faces national scrutiny over the gruesome death of 24-year old Tonya Reaves in an Illinois clinic last week, the abortion giant has issued a statement expressing condolences to the family. “While legal abortion services in the United States have a very high safety record, a tragedy such as this is devastating to loved ones and we […]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 The air of centuries ago is healthful to inhale, especially when it blows balmy and pristine. Wafting from the past, the great Christian revolution of the 4th century has the capacity to ennoble modern hearts and uplift minds that have sunk like stones into what is seen […]
When we perform an act of faith, hope, or love in God, we are in direct contact with Him, and this is especially true at Mass. God is no longer remote, He is as close to us as any two persons can be because Christ is not only present in the Eucharist, He dwells in […]
Every parent worth his or her salt at one time or another has done what the NCAA did this week when sanctioning Penn State University. Confronted with the misdeeds of our children, we parents often are forced to act in a manner that quickly and emphatically sends a message: Your actions have consequences, not only […]
Leah Libresco was raised in an atheist household on Long Island. She gained notoriety as an atheist blogger who focused on such diverse topics as math and morality. She often wrestled with Catholic ideas: the blog, mischievously titled “Unequally Yoked,” initially started as a place where she could interrogate and consider arguments raised by her […]
Most Catholics are familiar with the three vows taken by most religious of poverty, chastity and obedience. To these three, St. Benedict (whose feast we celebrated July 11), added a fourth for the Benedictine order, the vow of stability. Our summer seminarian who had considered joining the Benedictines at one time spoke to us today […]
Dear Anthony, I’ve recently started dating a girl who everyone says is wrong for me. They don’t like that I broke up with a girl who seemed perfect for me in order to date this girl I’m seeing now. I keep telling people opposites attract just to get them off my back. But honestly, I […]
We are now in the midst of National NFP Awareness Week (Jul 22-28), during which the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is asking American Catholics to “celebrate God’s design for married love and the gift of life” by learning more about natural family planning (NFP). Catholic teaching on contraception has roots in the natural […]
There in the desert [the whole Israelite community] complained to Moses and Aaron and said to them, “We wish that the Lord had killed us in Egypt…you have brought us out into this desert to starve us all to death.” …in the morning there was dew all around the camp. When the dew evaporated, there […]
Newsweek ran a very interesting article recently: Is the Onslaught Making Us Crazy? Tony Dokoupil examines the growing body of evidence that the internet is changing the way we think and feel. He writes, The current incarnation of the Internet – portable, social, accelerated, and all-pervasive – may be making us not just dumber or […]
Unbeknownst to many, July 21, 2012 marks the 45th anniversary of an event that has severely and negatively impacted the life of every single Catholic on the planet; namely, the issuance of a decree by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) suppressing the requirements outlined in the Oath Against Modernism. Together with […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion Saying Yes to God’s Call and Promptings “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish.” (John 6:9) Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you bring your gifts to Jesus as this young boy did, nothing much seems to happen? They just […]
Many people still put two spaces after a period. “That’s what my English teacher taught me,” they say. The practice is a holdover from the era of the typewriter when characters all took up the same amount of space. For example, an “i” took exactly the same amount of space as an “m.” So the […]
In December 1828, South Carolina had 5,000 copies of John C. Calhoun’s “Exposition and Protest” printed and distributed throughout the state. A defiant document, Calhoun’s “Exposition” outlined a theory of constitutional interpretation first adumbrated in the infamous Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which asseverated the right of states to declare “null and void” acts of the […]
Pro-life protesters at the Family Planning Summit in London last week signaled that opposition to the multi-billion dollar campaign is not going away. Held on the 100th anniversary of the first eugenics conference in London, the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation harnessed the seats of power – governments, […]
Some studies show that, on average, men say about 6,000 words a day, and women close to 9,000 (it may come as no surprise to many of you that the tally is higher for us ladies). Too many? Too few? Just about right? Every spring (this year it was Sunday May 20th) we mark World […]
Science is worthwhile for its own sake — even if normal people don’t understand it. “Yes,” the reporter said, “But what can it do? What difference does the? Higgs boson make in the day-to-day lives of ordinary people?” The physicist on the radio stumbled over his words. He had already explained this once, but she […]
First he heard the bells. Sunday afternoon, mid-1920s, Blessed Sacrament Parish, the Bronx. The altar boy rang them during Benediction and young Jerry Ryan, then age four, thought the beautiful sound was coming from the monstrance. Now a monsignor, Father Ryan has been a priest for sixty-seven years. At age seventy-five, he retired, as required […]
Clearly, what our nation needs is more “separation of church and state.” If those obnoxious, right-wing Bible thumpers would simply quit bellowing about the need for revival – a return to the deeply held Judeo-Christian principles embraced by our Founding Fathers – America would be a much better place. Secular-humanism – that’s the ticket! We […]
In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” -Acts 20:35 (NIV) Government provision of food stamps has become the second-largest welfare program in the country and is […]
Magic Mike will be the first time I am reviewing a movie that I have not seen. I am reviewing the concept of the film (male strippers), I have seen the trailer, and have read several reviews and “making of” articles. I read in Entertainment Weekly that when Channing Tatum (who plays “Magic Mike”) was […]
What is being dubbed as Egypt’s “first sex-slave marriage” took place mere days after the Muslim Brotherhood’s Muhammad Morsi was made president. Last Monday, on the Egyptian TV show Al Haqiqa (“the Truth”), journalist Wael al-Ibrashi began the program by airing a video-clip of a man, Abd al-Rauf Awn, “marrying” his “slave.” Before making the […]
