A new homeschooler recently asked me, “How do you homeschool a preschooler?” Time was, keeping a child home for his or her preschool years was a perfectly normal thing to do. Children went to school when they were five (or even six!) and somehow still managed to learn to read and write and maintain friendships. […]
Youth attending a UN conference on women’s issues this week say UN security officers confiscated their backpacks after discovering pro-life literature. The confiscated materials were petitions to “Stop Sexualizing Children,” and were connected to a UN approved workshop led this week by Dr. Miriam Grossman, a child psychiatrist and author of “You’re Teaching My Child […]
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 […]
By reason of ineligibility, I had to decline a friend’s well meaning invitation to vote. I cannot participate in the GOP caucus this weekend because I’m not a Republican. In 2007 I left the GOP over the issue of torture and have been an independent ever since. At the time, I made a public resignation […]
Yesterday at a Congressional hearing, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made two outrageous claims: From CNSNews.com During the subcommittee hearing, Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) said that contraception provided by insurance companies to people employed by religious organizations under the future form of the rule Sebelius described would not be was not free. “Who pays for it? […]
Minorities are not generally high achievers so the government has a responsibility to reduce their population. (Stay with me, I have a point to make.) Singleton children from highly educated, successful parents tend to be self-centered, so the government needs to address that unpatriotic situation. Rich families breed kids with tendencies for depression, so they […]
In the English language, the special season before Easter is called “Lent.” The word comes from the “lengthening” of daylight hours as we progress from the darkness of winter to the new light of spring. But other languages, such as Spanish, have a name for this season that is derived from the word for forty. […]
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 […]
Last year it was a distinct privilege for my wife and I to grow close to an elderly lady in her last few months. We were not officially “family,” so we weren’t told any of the medical details. But two things were obvious to anyone (including those members of my Adult Sunday school class who […]
In honor of Women’s History Month, I’d like to make a request of America’s political and media elites on behalf of America’s women: Stop lumping us together. To be more specific: Stop telling us “what women want” in the next president, which political stands are sure-fire winners (or losers) of “the women’s vote” and what […]
The U.S. Senate this morning voted down an amendment that would allow employers to opt out of paying for health care coverage of procedures that violate their religious beliefs. The amendment, offered by Sen. Roy Blunt, R-MO, rolled back Barack Obama’s invasive Health and Human Services mandate that employers insure contraceptives, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs […]
Over the centuries, Christian artists have produced innumerable portrayals of the Lord’s crucifixion, but none so terrible as Matthias Grunewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece, a work at once transfixing and repulsive. The middle panel of the Isenheim triptych features Christ, pallid and emaciated and thorn-pierced, pinned to the tree. It is truly a garish scene, torn from […]
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit […]
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 […]
I have found that many Catholics are confused about genetic testing and the ethical issues that surround it. So I have decided to write a two part series on the ethics of genetic testing. Part 1: Genetic testing is not all bad. Many Catholics are wary of the Human Genome Project (HGP) and genetic testing, […]
My colleague, Paul Kengor, wrote a brilliant article this week saying that Team Obama will try to cast the presidential election either in terms of class warfare—if Romney is the Republican nominee—or a battle over social issues, if Santorum gets the nod. If it’s Romney, the president’s team will have home field advantage. If it’s […]
A quiet time in Rome, the end of February. A time of silence. This evening in a completely empty and silent Vatican, I had the rare experience of running into a little child inside the city. He was walking with his father near the back of the basilica. The child’s mother, a member of the […]
The full committee of the House Judiciary convened yesterday to discuss the ongoing religious liberty violation resulting from the HHS contraception mandate for all healthcare policies except for a very narrow exemption that, according to Congressman Trent Frank , “Jesus Christ himself and Mother Teresa would not qualify for.” Chairman Lamar Smith’s (R-TX) opening statement […]
If you get a text from your teenager in the middle of the school day, something’s wrong. It might be something minor, like a paper forgotten on the printer at home or gym clothes left sitting in the back hall, with a request to deliver them to the office if possible. It might be more […]
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 […]
Recently, the Obama administration declared that all employers, including Catholic institutions, will be required to offer free insurance coverage for birth control to their employees. In the weeks since the declaration, the controversy that it stirred up caused the administration to revise its decision, putting in place “accommodations” by which it hopes to quell the […]
The Obama administration’s attack on religious liberty is intensifying. It now claims the right, under the new HHS Mandate, to force hundreds of thousands of Catholics, working in thousands of Catholic organizations, to violate their conscience and the teachings of their faith on the Life issues. The new Mandate is particularly alarming to us at […]
This, of course, is not an exhaustive list of Lenten ideas. But it’s a start! Many of the resources mention here are available on our website at www.crossroadsinitiative.com or can be found by visiting our links page. 1 Take 30 minutes to pray, ask the Holy Spirit’s guidance, look over this list, and make a […]
Chicago’s Francis Cardinal George is warning the HHS contraception/abortifacient mandate will close Catholic hospitals and universities or force them to secularize, a process he calls “a form of theft.” If the regulation is not rescinded, the Catholic Church will be “despoiled of her institutions,” he said in a column printed on CatholicNewWorld, likening the proposed policies to the […]
