Elizabeth Crnkovich also contributed to this article. Gardasil has been controversial from the beginning. While other vaccines protect against diseases spread by casual contact, Gardasil was developed to protect against a sexually transmitted disease called Human Papilloma Virus or HPV. Merck & Co., the manufacturer, has been very effective at lobbying governments around the world […]
A Catholic Mother’s Companion to Pregnancy: Walking with Mary from Conception to Baptism is the book I wish I had owned and read when I was going through my own pregnancies. Sarah Reinhard, a self-described “non-baby” person – even though she has three lovely children of her own, takes an honest and faith-filled look at […]
One of my favorite films in recent months was the wonderful movie October Baby. Today, I’m happy to share my recent interview with Theresa Preston in celebration of the release of October Baby: A Novel. Enjoy! Q: Theresa, thank you so much for your time. Would you kindly begin by introducing yourself and your family to […]
On those very rare occasions when all 10 of us attend the same Mass – Christmas, Easter – we have been told that we look like the perfect family: well-behaved, clean, kneeling and standing at the right times……perfect big Catholic family. We’re not perfect of course, but it’s kind of nice of them to say. […]
Four was our magic number. Before my husband and I got married, we’d both agreed we wanted four children, and since gender couldn’t be planned, we didn’t care what kind we’d have. For the first two years of our marriage, I was busy preparing for the bar exam so we’d held off on kids until […]
The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article on The Perils of Texting While Parenting. The point it was trying to make was simple. Parents are spending too much time on their mobile devices and not enough time paying attention to their children. Also, while there is only anecdotal evidence, it is believed that this […]
In this week’s Gospel, Mark paints a touching portrait that is familiar to most of us, of the Christ who loves all children: And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them, “Let the children come […]
This is to share the intense feelings of a mother wondering if a frail little life in the womb will survive or not. Many, many women know this feeling and it’s not easy to give it words, a mixture of hope and faith, heartbreak and yearning, and no one – no one – but the mother knows exactly what […]
A week ago, after I gave a speech to a parent group, a mother with a difficult issue approached me. It was something she didn’t want to discuss in front of her school community during the question-and-answer session. “Basically,” she whispered, “my daughter is totally addicted to Facebook. She is on it all the time […]
The Gospel reading this weekend has one verse in particular that always makes me consider very carefully my responsibility as a mother, and assess just how well I’m doing in my vocation. Jesus said, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, It would be better for him if a […]
It’s been an eventful week at the intersection of parenting and politics, that busy corner where decision-making often is affected by the onslaught of traffic from social engineers, liberal educators, public health experts, and civil rights activists who know better than parents what’s best for their kids. Several news stories seem to indicate that America’s […]
“They had been discussing among themselves . . . who was the greatest. Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, ‘If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.’ “Taking a child, he placed it in the their midst, and putting his […]
The minute a child is born, his identity begins to form. As he is exposed to different things, he learns how to perceive the world. He learns what is right, what he should not do, what happiness is, and what sorrow means. He observes and then reacts. Most of all, his virgin mind absorbs the […]
Please read Part One of this article here: Spiritual Growth Within the Catholic Family, Part One If you’re a Catholic Mom or Dad, chances are good that you might be striving to make your faith a hallmark in your family. That’s a great goal. But what that looks like day-to-day and year-to-year may shift and […]
Elizabeth Ficocelli, an adult convert to the Catholic faith, is a woman in love with the sacraments. That love shines forth in her latest book, Seven from Heaven: How the Sacraments Can Heal, Nurture, and Protect Your Family Today. She believes that teaching about the sacraments is “the perfect catechetical tool . . . to […]
My switch from selfish feminist “have-it-all” career woman to “open-to-life” Catholic homemaker undoubtedly represents an extreme conversion of heart. Like many young women today, I grew up in a culture that told me I was in control of the number of children I would have, and that marriage was whatever I wanted it to be […]
When your child speaks, do you listen? You may give an ear, but do you give attention, your time? Do you try to hear what really is being said? If not, you’re like many of us fathers. We hear but sometimes fail to listen. After all, there are so many messages coming at us, and […]
Ruth and Eric Brown didn’t expect anything to be wrong. At 20 weeks pregnant, Ruth had no indications her baby was anything but perfect. So they were completely unprepared for what they learned at a routine obstetrical ultrasound: Their third child, daughter Pearl Joy, was profoundly underdeveloped. Pearl was diagnosed in utero with alobar holoprosencephaly […]
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is a Lifetime Original Movie available on DVD. It is based on the best-selling novel by the same name by Kim Edwards. Starring Dermot Mulroney, Gretchen Mol, and Emily Watson, it offers a very positive portrayal of a girl with Down Syndrome. In a world in which the majority of children […]
A new study just out from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, shows that girls as young as six are being conditioned by secular media to view themselves as sex objects. Yes, you read that right sex objects. At a time when they should be learning to read and exploring their artistic creativity, they are instead taking […]
In the Fall of 2009 we unfortunately found out at 18 weeks that one of our twins did not survive. I had a case of H1N1 a few weeks prior, and it affected one of the babies. Thankfully our remaining child was growing well and was not at any increased risk. We named the son […]
Every morning, my six month old baby boy looks up out of his crib with wide blue eyes and smiles around his pacifier as I pick him up. I’m his Mama, you see, and he loves me. But I’m not the only mother he has known. For nine months, he grew and was lovingly cared […]
Sports are often said to be a microcosm of life. But for kids playing on their first team, sports can provide valuable life lessons and opportunities for developing virtues. Coaches, then, can be influential mentors who start youngsters on the right road. Yet it’s not as simple as it looks. I had been thinking about […]
It is now well-recognized that boys are not reading. What is the problem? Most commentators want to say that boys have an aversion to books. But the problem is quite the opposite: books—modern books, that is—have an aversion to boys. A recent edition of The New York Times Sunday Book Review featured a Robert Lipsyte article that […]
