When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n.1777). We live in a culture where health services are driven by moral relativism, commodification of the human person, the technological imperative, profitability in health services, the creep of utilitarian and impersonal ethical paradigms, escalating […]
Some early media reactions to the death of Osama bin Laden were, to use as charitable a word as possible, unserious. To such a point that one was reminded of a scene in The Wizard of Oz. The wicked witch has been killed, and the other characters dance about and merrily sing, “Ding-dong, the witch […]
President Obama’s latest paean to what he calls “the Muslim world,” delivered at the State Department today, was an exercise in whistling past the graveyard of real and growing dangers and a litany of misleading statements that borders on official malpractice. Its most important upshot is this: The United States is now prepared to do […]
I have to confess my initial reaction to the headline was to roll my eyes in contempt for yet another government entity that I assumed was trying to legislate good parenting. After all, it’s a trend that has gained traction of late. Some states are mandating the content of school lunches. Others have laws about […]
Death is part of our lives, and the Gospel reminds us that we know not the day or the hour of our demise. And so it was this year when a professional colleague of mine and then an old friend both died sudden deaths. One was young; the other old. One died with a massive […]
A few weeks ago, I went to New York to hear a friend’s daughter play the cello for her senior recital at Julliard School of Music. As I walked from the subway station to the school, at the corner of 65th Street and Broadway, a sincere-looking young woman left the place where she had been […]
Reflecting Upon Attending a Christian Concert On Friday, February 4, I attended the Rock and Worship Roadshow at the Resch Center in Green Bay, WI.[i] I went because the artist Matt Maher was playing and I hoped to have the opportunity to meet and talk with him.[ii] I am glad to say that I was […]
Spring is wedding season, and though few celebrations can top last month’s royal wedding, plenty of brides hope to give Kate Middleton a run for her tiara. The $27,800 price tag for the average American wedding may be chump change compared to the $32 million royal nuptials, but it’s enough to drive an $86-billion-a-year wedding […]
The Development of Regalism Regalism was a development of the late Middle Ages and early modern period that sought to centralize all power in the hands of the king. All social and economic institutions, even — or especially — the Church, were brought under royal control. This was the beginning of the modern “nation-state,” in […]
To posit the significance of Osama bin Laden’s demise, we must first decide which came first — the chicken or the egg? Quaint as it is, this question is fundamentally an inquiry into the nature of cause and effect. In our context, did Osama bin Laden “create” the idea of jihad, or did the centuries-old […]
My husband and I went to a Milwaukee Brewers game this past Saturday. Our two oldest sons had tickets they couldn’t use, so they offered them to us. We gratefully accepted. It was a great opportunity for a little getaway, and I hadn’t yet been to the new Milwaukee County Stadium (I know, it’s been […]
Last Wednesday night I had the pleasure of addressing a “Theology on Tap” gathering of young adults on the topic of how to prepare for the new English translation of the Roman Missal. During the Q&A portion of our time together I was somewhat surprised when a number of attendees wondered aloud about how the […]
Days ago in Egypt, throngs of Muslims (henceforth, “Islamists”), estimated at 3,000, fired guns and rifles and hurled Molotov cocktails at Coptic churches, homes, and businesses in the Imbaba region near Cairo: twelve Christians were killed—some shot by snipers atop rooftops—232 injured; three churches were set aflame to cries of “Allahu Akbar,” while Coptic homes […]
Following the violent attacks on Christian churches in Cairo last weekend, the Coptic Catholic Patriarch of Alexandria, Cardinal Antonios Naguib has spoken of a “very serious situation,” but one not without hope. Last Sunday, May 9, the president of the Sunni Al Azhar University in Cairo issued a joint declaration, together with representatives of all […]
The Bard of the Yukon, Robert Service, penned the immortal lines: There are strange things done in the midnight sun, by the men who moil for gold; The Arctic trails have their secret tails, that would make your blood run cold; So began The Cremation of Sam McGee, the poem that would make […]
I am one of the apparently few people who have seen There Be Dragons, Roland Joffe’s film about St. Josemaria Escriva, founder of Opus Dei. Only it isn’t really about Josemaria at all. It’s about Spain. The photography is beautiful and the settings are wonderful (so good that they made me homesick for Spain, where […]
[This report was prepared on behalf of a group of Catholic parents to address issues locally that may also be going on elsewhere in the country. It is published here as a resource for parents who may find it useful.] Religion Books in the Catholic School: Parental Concerns and Suggested Remedies Our parent’s group has […]
Laboring in the desert of the kingdom of man, the true believer finds himself bent by the weight of sin, stiffened by the pain of sorrow and stained by the sweat of fear. While he knows that God created him out of pure love, redeems Him out of pure mercy and awaits his full return […]
Children of God for Life ( www.cogforlife.org ) and Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute ( www.soundchoice.org ) are calling on federal officials to investigate the cause of autism in children who have received vaccines produced using aborted fetal cell lines. Past studies have focused on the use of thimerosal in vaccines as reason for the rise in autism. […]
In the 1980 film Oh, God: Book II 11-year-old Tracy Richards believes that God is talking to her. In fact, God (played by George Burns) wants Tracy to tell everybody she knows that he is real. So she does. She drafts a slogan and message, just two words, is conclusive and clear: THINK GOD. She […]
“Introibo ad altare Dei“: Document on How to Implement Summorum Pontificum Published in Rome Today, May 13, 2011 A day of rejoicing for Catholics who love the rich, profound tradition of the old Latin liturgy. A day — May 13, 2011 — which, bracketed with July 7, 2007, when the Pope published Summorum Pontificum, will […]
Christians have a deep ambivalence about Ayn Rand that probably draws as deeply from the facts of her biography as from her famous novels. When the refugee from the old Soviet Union met the Catholic William F. Buckley, she said, “You are too intelligent to believe in God.” Her atheism was militant. Rand’s holy symbol […]
Uprising after uprising in the Middle East; sexual and intellectual scandal in the Church; earthquakes in Chile and Haiti; tsunamis in Indonesia and Japan; and financial collapse in almost every market: given the startling increase in the frequency of global crises –political, religious, financial, natural — one is tempted to begin looking for the antichrist […]
One of the great privileges and duties of practicing Christians is to do charitable deeds. Virtually all Christians agree on this point. There is, however, a great divide in Christendom between those who believe that charitable giving should be a voluntary, private-sector ministry and those who believe that a government welfare state should oversee a […]
