By Maria Lozano NEW YORK—Venezuela was once the country of dreams—but those dreams have turned into nightmares. Such is the sad verdict of one of the country’s bishops. Case in point, Bishop Jaime Villarroel of the Diocese of Carúpano, told international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need: Most of the young people in […]
So a radical feminist and two childless women walk into a courtroom. How do you expect them to rule on abortion or contraception? Their lives as they know them, depend on both. In Whole Woman’s Health vs. Hellerstedt, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Texas law regulating abortion clinics as if they were any ordinary […]
Have you ever been so heartbroken and your hopes so shattered that you could scarcely consider what your future holds or whether you even had a future? That is what it must have been like for the disciples the day after Jesus was crucified. They had placed their faith in him and dared to hope […]
At what point can we say that a life no longer matters? Is it at the point when medical expenses become too costly or burdensome for relatives? Is it at the point when someone feels they have outlived their usefulness, or are just not able to do the things they love to do anymore? For […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion Mass Readings: 1st Reading: Deuteronomy 30:10-14 2nd Reading: Colossians 1:15-20 Responsorial: Psalm 69:14, 17, 30-31, 33-34, 36-377 Gospel: Luke 10:25-37 Loving God & Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself, The Heart of the Gospel Message You shall love . . . your neighbor as yourself. (Luke 10:27) Think […]
By Mark Riedemann TELSKUF, IRAQ (July 5, 2016)—It is the silence that you notice first. Not just a lack of noise but an absence of sounds. Even the birds have left. I am in Telskuf, Iraq, about 20 miles north of the Islamic State (ISIS) stronghold of Mosul and a mile and-a-half from the front […]
Some 22 years ago when I was being catechized, preparing to enter into the Church, I was much troubled by the Eucharistic phenomenon, transubstantiation. As a physicist, I could not understand how the wafer could become the flesh of Christ and the wine His Sacred Blood. The wise old priest who was instructing me asked: […]
New evidence from the United States suggests abstinence education is a reason why teen pregnancy has fallen to historically low rates. Nearly sixty percent of high school students had never had sex, up from 46% in 1991. Meanwhile, another new report links condom giveaways in schools with increases in teen pregnancy. This investigation of the […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion Mass Readings: 1st Reading: Isaiah 66:10-14 2nd Reading: Galatians 6:14-18 Responsorial: Psalm 66:1-7, 16, 20 Gospel: Luke 10:1-12, 17-20 Signs That We Are Heaven Bound Rejoice because your names are written in heaven. (Luke 10:20) Let’s take a moment right now to rejoice. We live in a […]
As an observer of the human species, I believe I have discovered a new type. I call them “paid internet protesters,” or “PIPs” in internet-speak, who are all armchair culture warriors. Dr. Rachel Lu, a senior contributor at The Federalist, wrote an article called, “The LGBT Movement Will Self-Destruct.” My response was titled, “The LGBT […]
In a recent conversation, I mentioned to a friend that I had started writing a new book. He immediately seemed interested and asked about the subject. “Well,” I said, “it’s about how we’re all called to be saints and what that requires of us.” “I look at a lot of the qualities of saints and […]
We are now in the Fortnight for Freedom — a two-week period the U.S. bishops have set aside for Catholics to appreciate our God-given right to religious freedom, the “first freedom” affirmed by the Bill of Rights. Our First Amendment freedoms are endangered in a myriad of ways today, and the threats to Catholic schools are greater […]
It was five years ago. The memory is still in my mind.I entered my room to discover my five-year-old grandson looking up at a large crucifix on the wall above my bed. He turned and asked if that really happened. “Yes it did,” I replied. “Did Jesus die?” he asked, turning back to look at […]
If ever there were a law that so embodied the original argument in favor of abortion, it was the Texas law struck down today by the U.S. Supreme Court. If ever there were a mockery of all that the early proponents of abortion held dear, it was made by the united votes of the three […]
A leading medical journal published its first series on transgender health and reveals what appear to be major contradictions. On the one hand the journal argues there is nothing medically wrong with transgenderism. On the other hand, it argues transgenderism is a condition that requires medical attention, setting up transgenderism as the first non-medical condition […]
By M.Z. de la Morena GYUMR?, Armenia—Sister Arousiag proudly points out the dormitory of the convent of Our Lady of Armenia here: it is where Pope Francis will rest for a few hours on the second day of his June 24-26, 2016 visit to Armenia. “It is the best room we have,” she assures a […]
In letters to the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) the presidents of five Catholic colleges cited their institutions’ faithfulness to Church teaching in explaining how the expansion of Title IX to include “gender identity” posed a significant threat to the religious mission of the colleges. College requests for religious exemptions from […]
Whenever I show anyone a picture of my beautiful, bouncing baby boy, inevitably one of the first three things they say is, “Oh my goodness, his eyelashes are so long!” (The other two are some variation of “Wow, he’s big!” and “He is so handsome!” I’m not biased—just reporting the facts.) It’s true, his eyelashes […]
The architects of a new world order often speak of a global village. Hillary Clinton tells us that it takes a village to raise a child. Are they speaking of the same village? If there is a benevolent global village then where is it and why is so much of humanity exiled from it? If the […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion Mass Readings: 1st Reading: 1 Kings 19:16, 19-21 2nd Reading: Galatians 5:1, 13-18 Responsorial: Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-11 Gospel: Luke 9:51-62 Winning the Battle for Our Minds For freedom Christ set us free. (Galatians 5:1) Did you know that a battle is going on in your mind […]
A unanimous decision of the European Court of Human Rights has once again said that homosexual marriage is not a human right under European law. Almost one year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Obergfell v. Hodges case, which imposed homosexual marriage on the entire United States, the European Court opted with caution, […]
This past October, California governor Jerry Brown signed an assisted suicide law making it legal in the state for “physicians to provide lethal prescriptions to mentally competent adults who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness and face the expectation that they will die within six months.” However, not all medical professionals and hospitals agree […]
By Eva-Maria Kolmann NEW YORK—An Indian prelate has described Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, who will be canonized by Pope Francis Sept. 4, 2016, as the “best missionary of the millennium.” Bishop Salvadore Lobo of Baruipur, who headed the canonization committee, reported that Christ had said to Mother Teresa in a vision: “Go into the houses, […]
