The latest attack on constitutional rights by Obama administration is a requirement that forces employers to purchase health insurance coverage for their employees that includes contraceptive drugs and abortifiacients. As a finger in the eye of the Catholic Church and other religious groups opposed to contraception and abortion, and with a least a figurative smirk […]
The mention of Distributism often draws skepticism by those who, while valuing its merits, believe Distributism incapable of providing satisfactory answers to our modern needs. From chewing gum to automobiles, chairs to food stuffs or toys to beer, we live in a world consumed by and dependent on mass-produced goods and large scale industry. The […]
If Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor were the naïfs who foisted the United Nations on the world, George H. W. Bush was responsible for its revival as a political force. From about 1950 to 1990, the United Nations Security Council was essentially toothless, as the Soviet and U.S. governments disagreed on issue after […]
With the celebration of Black History Month we are reminded of the historic presidency of Barack Obama, the nation’s first African-American president. Some black leaders, however, believe that Mr. Obama has let the black community down. For example, prominent voices like Dr. Cornell West and PBS’s Tavis Smiley, former supporters of Obama, believe that having […]
This morning, a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled by a 2-1 vote that a California constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman is unconstitutional. In an 89-page ruling that cited William Shakespeare and Marilyn Monroe, Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote, “Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and […]
What do political pundits Peggy Noonan, Chris Matthews, E.J. Dionne, Jr., and Mark Shields have in common? Noonan, a former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, is Catholic. Matthews and Dionne claim to be loyal but dissident Catholics at least on matters such as contraception (Dionne) and public policy on abortion (Matthews). Mark Shields, another Catholic, is […]
The Obama administration supports “democracy” and “self determination” in the Middle East—two euphemisms that, in the real world, refer to “mob-rule” and “Islamic radicalization,” respectively. Yet, as Jimmy Carter recently put it: “I don’t have any problem with that [an “Islamist victory” in Egypt], and the U.S. government doesn’t have any problem with that either. […]
I am here today to address those of you who have already made up your minds to redefine marriage. History will not be kind to you. Previous generations of social experimenters have caused unimaginable misery for millions of people. Particular people advocated the policies that led to today’s 50% divorce rate and 40% out of […]
Humor me for a moment and just imagine if the following purely fictional (at least as of this writing) HHS press release was issued: Affordable Care Act Ensures Elders Receive End-of-Life Services at No Additional Cost WASHINGTON—The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today that it is adopting additional Guidelines for Elder Care […]
Last week in his State of the Union address, President Obama claimed to share President Lincoln’s opinion “that government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more.” I thought about that today while running errands and noticing that virtually every billboard in my town directs citizens to federal […]
America’s Catholic bishops are princes of diplomacy, highly educated, erudite, men of tact, propriety. They’re asked to shepherd the flock with a long historical timeframe—like, say, eternity. They tend not to have knee-jerk reactions to issues of the moment. And so, it’s not often when a paragon of decorum, namely, Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik, publishes […]
The big Catholic news item in the United States these days centers around the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate requiring nearly all employers to offer health insurance plans that provide zero-deductible coverage for “preventative services” like sterilization and contraception, including drugs that cause abortion. When the mandate was first proposed, the United […]
If there is one word that captures many Europeans’ response to the continent’s financial crisis, it is denial. Witness the description by the editors of France’s newspaper-of-record, Le Monde, of France’s S&P credit-downgrade on January 13 as “un non-événement financier.” The fact that this “non-event” will increase France’s borrowing-costs (not to mention those of the EU’s own bailout […]
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty applauds Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) for introducing a bill protecting the conscience of millions of individuals against the Obama Administration’s abortion-drug mandate. Unlike other pending bills that address conscience issues, Senator Rubio’s bill—The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012—is narrowly focused and establishes a firm religious exemption in the […]
The title of this article, “What Does Centesimus Annus Really Teach?,” seems to imply that there might be some dispute about the teaching of Centesimus Annus, the latest of the three social encyclicals written by our late Holy Father, Pope John Paul II. And this is correct. For when Centesimus was issued in 1991 it generated an unusual […]
On January 10, 2012, the United States 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas Medical Providers Performing Abortion Services, et al. v. David Lakey, et al. vacated the preliminary injunction order of the federal district court in Austin, Texas that prohibited the enforcement of parts of the Texas Woman’s Right to Know Act (H.B. 15), […]
On Tuesday evening, I had the honor of attending the State of the Union address as the guest of Congressman Mike Kelly (PA-03). Here are my impressions in abbreviated form: The address seemed more like a rewrite of previous speeches than an original work. Sure, there were new anecdotes and fresh twists on old policy […]
While reading a tale of adventure and combat on the high seas, say a novel by Patrick O’Brian or C.S. Forester, I can recall a vivid description of two ships of the line, engaged in a deadly duel, in which one of the vessels manages to inflict a particularly crushing fusillade on its opponent, described in a […]
Today, the Sixth Circuit issued a major victory for the constitutional rights of individuals with religious beliefs. The court held that Eastern Michigan University may have violated the Constitution by expelling a counseling student based on her religious beliefs about homosexual conduct. “No individual should be forced out of their profession solely because of her […]
I was asked for my initial reaction to President Obama’s State of the Union speech, and the handsomely redesigned Think Christian posted them last night, “Jobs, Steve Jobs, and the State of the Union.” As I point out, the president’s protectionist posturing is belied by the realities experienced by companies like Apple. The president is essentially telling companies: Ask […]
In recent days there have been a lot of media reports about Hungary. According to those reports, the country not only is in a very bad shape economically, but there is also a risk that the Government, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, was trying to overturn democracy and install a right-wing dictatorship that is […]
Shortly before Newt Gingrich’s decisive victory in South Carolina last week, he was asked a critical question by a Palmetto State voter: Would he support a Muslim candidate for president? The former Speaker of the House answered in a way that was both characteristically insightful and profoundly helpful with respect to one of the most […]
“People ask me, ‘What will convert America and save the world?’ My answer is prayer.”–Blessed (Mother) Teresa of Calcutta The battle is on… got your weapon? It’s no secret that our beloved country is entrenched in an intense struggle. It’s a war between the culture of life and the culture of death; between economic stability […]
I was a student at Saint Louis University School of Law when I learned of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v.Wade. It was in a class taught by the late Gerald T. Dunne. Dunne was a biographer of Supreme Court Justices Joseph Story and Hugo Black; he was a decorated Navy veteran of World War II (Silver […]
