The need to worship is hardwired into the human psyche. Yet, as unfashionable as it’s become in the last century to worship the God of Creation, the same cannot be said of the worship of political heroes. The most notable — and horrific — examples that come to mind are found in the frenzied, almost religious zeal […]
Lately it seems that many of my friends are either returning from a pilgrimage to a holy site in Europe or planning one. I long to make a pilgrimage too, but since it’s not in the budget right now, I’ll have to settle for living vicariously. Fortunately, a new movie titled The Way, starring Martin […]
At age 16, my life was about rock ‘n roll. If my own band was not performing on Saturday night, I was out in the audience, watching another band. It would have never occurred to me to spend my Saturday nights at a Catholic conference or retreat. True, no matter how late I was out, […]
The college years used to be known as a time to explore new ideas, adopt new identities and embrace — and discard — new affiliations. You could arrive on campus a political conservative and leave a liberal; enter a staunch atheist and exit a devout believer; declare yourself a biology major, then switch to theater […]
Imagine for a minute you are the mayor of a small town. Your country, which has been occupied by a foreign power for many years, has been liberated by a second foreign power. But, your liberators have decided to stay. You have traded one occupier for another. The foreign government demands your allegiance and cooperation in […]
A number of saints have described the rosary as an effective weapon for helping Christians prevail in the spiritual battle that ever rages in our midst. In fact, so great is the rosary’s power that St. Pio of Pietrelcina even went so far as to say that it’s not simply a weapon; rather, “it is […]
I got a double shock Thursday morning when I turned on my radio. “Steve Jobs has passed away,” I heard a DJ remark. “That’s a shame.” Yes, it is a shame. I was saddened to hear that. I was equally shocked as I turned the dial and heard something even more deadly. It was a […]
Draw yourself an organization chart representing the Catholic Church. What you’ll get is a sketch of an ecclesiastical institution that on paper looks like a genuine world class internal communication machine. Those boxes and lines could lead the beholder to suppose that if the Pope says something on Monday morning, then by the following Sunday […]
We live in such turbulent stressful times. We hear of disaster after disaster, Hurricane Irene, earthquakes, the Japanese tsunami, a record number of tornadoes, disastrous floods in the North East, fires and drought across the South West. Economically, each day seems to bring bad news. We may yet tip back into a recession. Crime and […]
There are two devotions close to my heart and vital for the future of our Church and for the salvation of our souls — The Eucharist and the Rosary. May we rediscover each day a deeper and more abiding reverence and love for the Blessed Sacrament. May we also use this month — one which the Church […]
As an entrepreneurship educator, studying the co-founder and former CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, has been one of the great pleasures of the profession. At times, it even feels like an indulgence given the difficulty future technology leaders will surely have in replicating his contributions. In an industry where prices were continually being pushed down, […]
Acting as unofficial scorekeeper, Sojourners Founder and CEO Jim Wallis recently declared, “There really is a class war going on, and the upper class is winning.” However, many of the class warfare protesters who are taking to the streets to “occupy” Wall Street and American cities are the disgruntled children of well-to-do parents. A quick […]
I’m really not one to talk about voluntary sacrifices I make — the whole “do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing” thing. It’s something between me and God. But, I happened to casually mention to a friend that I was basically doing another Lent for 40 Days for Life, […]
Finding and connecting similar patterns of behavior throughout Islamic history is one of the most objective ways of determining whether something is or is not part of Muslim civilization. Consider the issue of forced conversion in Islam, a phenomenon that has a long history with ample precedents. Indeed, from its inception, most of those who […]
Christians in one corner of Iraq have tripled in number over the past 15 years according to a leading bishop who is grappling with an influx of people escaping persecution and oppression. Christians in Ankawa, a suburb of the Kurdish capital Erbil, have increased from more than 8,500 in the mid-1990s to more than 25,500 […]
The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary – celebrated by the Church on October 7 – is my favorite Marian feast day in the liturgical year. The reason for this has less to do with my love of the Rosary than my intrigue over the Battle of Lepanto. Perhaps you remember that the Battle […]
If you’ve been too busy holding down a job (or two), juggling the demands of a busy family, engaging in community service and occasionally taking the wife and children out for a pizza on a Saturday night, you may not have noticed that several thousand protesters have “occupied” Wall Street, the District and other locations […]
Mexico City lawmakers are currently considering a further redefinition of the meaning of marriage. They are proposing to implement a policy that would allow couples to decide on the length of their commitment. The minimum contract would be two years, after which a couple could “re-up” if they decide they are happy with one another […]
Today, U.S. Supreme Court Justices criticized the federal government’s argument that the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment do not apply to church decisions about hiring and firing ministers, calling the aggressive position “extraordinary” and “amazing.” The sentiment bridged the Court’s traditional ideological divisions, with Chief Justice Roberts, and Justices Kagan, Breyer, Scalia, and Alito […]
The bankruptcy of “green jobs” darling Solyndra is still in the news because it could cost U.S. taxpayers $535 million due to a federal “stimulus” program loan guarantee. The Silicon Valley solar-panel maker’s failure comes on the heels of another “green” corporate-welfare beneficiary going under, Evergreen Solar. These deals were big losers for Americans. Both […]
When a Washington Post reporter broke the news last week that the abortion mega-provider Planned Parenthood is under investigation by Rep. Cliff Stearns and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Americans United for Life was quickly at the center of the debate as a result of AUL’s ground-breaking report, “The Case for Investigating Planned […]
I am in a high state of agitation as I write this, because unless she is able to take off a year to work and then return to school with the same scholarship status, our daughter will have to leave a Catholic institution of higher learning after a straight-A freshman year. It was a calculated […]
There’s a brutal invasion sweeping across our country, attacking our decency and humanity from the inside out. While we enjoy eating fresh produce, consuming chocolate candy, staying at a clean hotel, or getting our nails done, human trafficking has often been crouching in the background as a ruthless supplier for these goods and services. Other […]
We are all on a journey — the journey of this life. It begins in the mystery of “not being” before we are conceived, and seems to end, humanly speaking, in the “not being” of death. From dust to dust. But faith — not precisely scientific, repeatable, experimentally verifiable knowledge, but a type of knowledge […]
