I homeschooled my six children from kindergarten through 12th grade. In the beginning, we were very structured. I enrolled my children with a homeschool program that had once been a school. I spent my life monitoring them doing their “schoolwork”. Watching them produce this much schoolwork ( some of it ‘busy work’) every quarter, every […]
Recently, I’ve had opportunity to talk with several moms who have sons nearing or at young adult age. (Let’s say around the ages of 17-22) The mothers have asked me how we have handled influencing our late teen and young adult sons and how to do so that the sons will listen. In one instance, […]
As a teen, I thought the clergy were supposed to do everything. We laity were just called to pray, pay, and obey. Oh yes, and keep the commandments, of course. The original 10 seemed overwhelming enough. Then I discovered the Sermon on the Mount and nearly passed out. Perhaps this is why many inactive Catholics […]
The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that children conceived posthumously with IVF are not entitled to Social Security survivor benefits. In 1939, the Social Security Administration put in a provision that allowed dependent children to collect their parent’s benefits as survivors. In 1939 they did not have a crazy fertility industry willing […]
Throughout the ongoing debate over President Barack Obama’s contraceptive mandate, and again on Monday, when Catholic leaders here in St. Louis and nationwide announced anti-mandate lawsuits, one question has surfaced repeatedly among Obama’s critics and allies alike: Why choose an election year to pick a fight with the Catholic Church? The mandate controversy is, after […]
I celebrated my birthday recently. My biggest wish was to celebrate with my five sons ages 13-24. A few of them are no longer living at home so I was thrilled that they were all able to be with me. Never far from my thoughts, however, were those seven precious babies I never got to […]
If you read most press accounts, the public in general, women in particular, are recoiling from the many initiatives “anti-abortion activists” have undertaken. But the latest polling data from Gallup demolishes that myth, noting in the process that there has been a huge turnaround in the self-identification of Independents Gallup’s Lydia Saad reported yesterday that […]
I have joked for years that MTV is destroying civilization as we know it. Then, the network gave us “Jersey Shore,” and proved my joke wasn’t funny, it was true. Now, I’m convinced the people at MTV actually sit around a conference table and ponder the question: How can we exploit and corrupt the innocence […]
In a coordinated defense of religious liberty, at 11 a.m. yesterday 43 Roman Catholic organizations filed a dozen lawsuits nationwide to strike down the HHS mandate. The plaintiffs include some of the most significant organs of the U.S. church, including the Archdioceses of New York, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis; the Dioceses of Dallas, Fort […]
And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. (Luke 1:35) When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled […]
The way Willie Bloomquist sees it, he’s living an impossible dream. Of all the players who try to make it to the major leagues, only a relative few actually get there. Bloomquist is one of those few, but he doesn’t attribute this to his own skills. The 34-year-old Port Orchard, Wash., native says he’s not […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion (Acts 2:1-11; Psalm 104:1,24,29-31,34; 1 Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13; John 20:19-23) Pentecost, A Time to Say Yes to the Work of the Holy Spirit in Our Lives Scholars tell us that the first Pentecost took place during the Jewish Feast of Weeks. This was a festival at which the […]
“Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” — Gospel of St. John, 15:13 There are some men who sum up the character of a nation. One such man was Vincent Robert Capodanno. Capodanno represented what was best about America, and now those who remember him would […]
Like the Hulk, The Avengers, directed by the imaginative Joss Whedon, has smashed all previous weekend box-office records, hauling in over $200M in just three days. So what is it about these kinds of films that draws people to see them over and over? Part of it is the sheer spectacle of it all, some […]
As busy people with spouses, kids, jobs, responsibilities, we’re all bound to fall into a funk from time-to-time — a phase when we feel dejected, overwhelmed, ungrateful, unappreciated or just plain blah, sometimes for no good reason. So what can we do about it? Ride it out? Throw up our hands? Yell at our kids? […]
Newsweek magazine is so proud of Obama’s self-described “evolution” on the issue of same-sex marriage that it has anointed him “America’s First Gay President.” America’s voters, at least those in key swing states, seem much less impressed. As I told friends at the Canadian March for Life, which took place in Ottawa last week, Barry’s […]
The Church has the charge for the “cura animarum” (the care of souls). Jesus commands His Apostles to go and preach unto all nations (Matthew 28:16-18). In the sixth century, Pope St. Gregory the Great wrote his much celebrated “Regula Pastoralis” (Rule for Pastors) that spoke about caring for souls in various states or conditions. […]
I gave them your word and the world hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world (John 17:14). Today we observe World Communications Day, because communication is important to the life of the Church. In fact, we ARE in the business of communications: evangelization is the […]
Chen Guangcheng landed with his wife and two small children in Newark, New Jersey on Saturday evening, marking the end of the forced-abortion opponent’s long fight for freedom from Chinese oppression. In remarks at New York University, where a fellowship had been offered to Chen as a means of leaving China, the self-taught lawyer expressed […]
Dear Anthony, My girlfriend and I are very serious and talk about marriage. But I’m a little concerned about how she accuses me of being too friendly with other women. I guess I should be happy that she cares so much for me that she would be jealous of other women. But I wish she […]
There is a dichotomy in this question or quest, if you will. “Fitting in” calls for a person to make a choice of accepting a set of ideals that belong to a certain group of people in the community. These set of ideals should match those of oneself to truly fit in. These ideals should […]
In 1960, the combined oral contraceptive pill was first approved for use in the United States. Seven years later, “the Pill” was featured on the cover of Time Magazine, illustrating its enormous societal impact[1]. Roughly two generations later, statistics from the United Nations show that, within more developed nations worldwide, just under 16% of “partnered” women […]
The Vatican called it a reform but it’s actually a “war against nuns,” an unprovoked “crackdown” on the dwindling ranks of America’s 55,000-plus religious sisters by a power-hungry pope and his ungrateful bishops. Rather than thanking the aging sisters for their years of service to the oppressed, the patriarchal Catholic power structure is punishing them […]
For as well as I know my only son, I never really understood him until I read John L. Parker Jr.’s Once a Runner. Often called the “definitive running story,” Once a Runner, published in 1978, remains a cult classic for those whose identities are defined by the sport of running. Through the tale of […]
