Up until 1991, I worked for the Canadian federal Commission promoting employment equity in the workplace for Canadians with disabilities. One of the worst of offenders of disability employment discrimination was the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Every year the federal human rights commission filed its annual report in the Canadian parliament showing the CBC failed BOMBED […]
By Marta Petrosillo NEW YORK—“The situation is a complicated and we are hearing many contradictory stories. The only truth we do know is that the people here are suffering and dying.” The words are those of Sister Anne-Françoise, a French religious of the Enclosed and Apostolic Discalced Carmelite Sisters of Aleppo, Syria. She spoke by […]
Lianna Rebolledo was 12 years old when two men kidnapped her while she was walking to a local shopping mall. Nine months later she gave birth to a baby girl. Today she travels to shelters all over Latin America giving hope to girls pregnant from rape by sharing her story. I sat down with Lianna […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion Mass Readings: 1st Reading: Wisdom 18:6-9 2nd Reading: Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19 Responsorial: Psalm 33:1, 12, 18-22 Gospel: Luke 12:32-48 Growing in Faith and “the realization of what is hoped for” Faith is the realization of what is hoped for. (Hebrews 11:1) Famous people who excel in their […]
Scientists love to give themselves “ethical guidelines” — only to “reevaluate” and revise those guidelines when they are no longer convenient. A perfect recent example of this came this May when scientists in two separate studies reported keeping embryos alive, healthy and developing for 12-13 days. In both studies the embryos grew autonomously and began […]
Game of Thrones, the wildly popular HBO series based off of George R.R. Martin’s high fantasy book series A Song of Ice and Fire, is a presently unavoidable part of popular culture. Praised for its high production values, including acting, costuming, setting, and cinematography, and dubbed one of the “epic sagas of our times”, the […]
The U.S. Government wastes billions on programs and initiatives that American taxpayers don’t want and certainly don’t need. But no example of government waste is more disgraceful than the tens of millions of dollars handed over each year to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)—an organization that for decades has been working hand-in-glove with China’s […]
A monstrous notion has become law. Assisting in the suicides of sick and disabled Canadians is legally permitted. It is now a new right — the right to death. The pied pipers of this new right use misleading euphemisms such as medical assistance in dying (MAID). A more accurate, precise and honest description of this […]
Many Protestant rebels from Luther forward placed mistaken reliance on the works of St. Augustine of Hippo as providing a patristic Fathers-of-the-Church warrant for their new teachings and heresies. Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and other adherents of the Augsburg Confession (a document that set forth the beliefs, including some heretical beliefs, of Lutherans and others) employed […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion Mass Readings: 1st Reading: Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23 2nd Reading: Colossians 3:1-5,9-11 Responsorial: Psalm 90:3-6,12-14,17 Gospel: Luke 12:13-21 Seeing Our Lord in All Things Christ is all and in all. (Colossians 3:11) This concept of Christ being “in all” is a central aspect of Jesuit spirituality. The founder […]
I’m going to call the latest documentary on John Paul II an “almost perfect documentary.” The title is: Liberating a Continent: John Paul II and the Fall of Communism. Why is it almost perfect? Because it’s Rolls Royce super-classy in every way. The production values are off the chain, the august interviewees always on point, […]
By M. Z. de la Morena NEW YORK—Just a few years ago, if anyone had told Miguel that he would be speaking to Pope Francis in front of thousands of young people in Poland—telling the story of how he overcame his addiction to drugs—he would never have believed them. But that is exactly what Miguel […]
When the United States Supreme Court handed down its pro-abortion ruling on June 27 of this year, pro-death groups across the land celebrated. The Court basically struck down two provisions in a Texas law because, in its words, the pro-life restrictions created an “undue burden on abortion access.” Thus the macabre champagne toasts and the […]
When Pope Francis spoke to the UN last September he warned about what he called “ideological colonization.” By that he meant the attempt to import or impose a vision of human sexuality at odds with traditional peoples. The African Bishops have repeatedly warned about how traditional way of life is under pressure from ideological colonization. […]
“Scientists are slowly waking up to an inconvenient truth – the universe looks suspiciously like a fix. The issue concerns the very laws of nature themselves. For 40 years, physicists and cosmologists have been quietly collecting examples of all too convenient “coincidences” and special features in the underlying laws of the universe that seem to […]
We have all heard it, yet most of us would not be able to name it. The term polyphony (from the Greek for “many sounds”) is used to describe music that employs simultaneous yet independent melodies. This can occur in secular or spiritual songs, and the spiritual realm includes both sacred music (typically using a […]
With a juicy, promising title and a screen populated with adorable, fuzzy furballs of varied shapes and sizes, the animated smash hit: The Secret Life of Pets is a fun Summer escapade for all ages. The different personalities of species and dog breeds are, well, typecast. The goofy guinea pig, the self-involved cat, the excitable […]
A new report demonstrates to policy makers which countries are best at helping traditional families and which are failing. The UN acknowledges the traditional family structure of a married mother and father raising their children as the “natural and fundamental group unit of society.” A growing body of social science research affirms that individuals thrive […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion Mass Readings: 1st Reading: Genesis 18:20-32 2nd Reading: Colossians 2:12-14 Responsorial: Psalm 138:1-3,6-8 Gospel: Luke 11:1-13 Deepening Our Relationship with Our Heavenly Father through Prayer He will get up to give him whatever he needs. (Luke 11:8) Imagine the situation: you are traveling through ancient Palestine and […]
One of my favorite saints, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, The Little Flower, often wrote of appearing before God with empty hands, both from the standpoint of having used all of the graces and opportunities to do good works but, also, perhaps, as an expression of intrinsic humility in that we can never fully do enough […]
Our relationship with our biological parents influences our happiness long after we’ve flown the nest. So says a new study showing how those raised by same-sex parents experience significantly more depression, obesity, and other problems in young adulthood than their peers. In the first study to examine children raised by same-sex parents into early adulthood, […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion Mass Readings: 1st Reading: Genesis 18:1-10 2nd Reading: Colossians 1:24-28 Responsorial: Psalm 15:2-5 Gospel: Luke 10:38-42 What Does it Mean to Have “Christ in You, the Hope for Glory” Christ in you, the hope for glory. (Colossians 1:27) There are three ways to look at these words: […]
If you were ever in search of a film to spur your church community into pro-life action, a new film called Voiceless may be just the ticket. “Voiceless is a call to the church,” said Jason Jones, co-executive producer of the film. “Now more than ever as we see no relief from our judiciary or […]
