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Opportunities to Glorify God

Opportunities to Glorify God

Oct 9 12 • 1 comment

I was recently told I have cancer. We often hear that other people have the dreaded “C” word but now it is my turn. Initially it was hard to get my head around the news. The oncologist at the Cross Cancer Institute was unsure how to approach my treatment. My situation is complicated by the […]

Can the Government Veto a Sermon?

Can the Government Veto a Sermon?

Oct 9 12 • 2 comments

Sunday, October 7, 2012 was “Pulpit Freedom Sunday.” It is based on a simple question: May the government filter, edit, or veto the contents of a sermon? No court has ever heard a case regarding whether the Internal Revenue Service can do so. Yet every day – and especially in these weeks prior to an […]

Romney Channels George W. Bush's Middle East Policy

Romney Channels George W. Bush’s Middle East Policy

Oct 9 12 • 0 comments

Mitt Romney gave a generally fine speech [yesterday] on the Middle East. Sensibly, he criticized the Obama administration for its Benghazi shenanigans, for the “daylight” with Israel, fecklessness vis-à-vis Tehran, and the cuts in military spending. Very justifiably, he called it “time to change course in the Middle East.” But I worry about three specifics. First, […]

We All Know it's Wrong

We All Know it’s Wrong

Oct 9 12 • 0 comments

CBC President Jennifer Lahl interviews Alana S. Newman, the founder of the Anonymous Us Project about an event that took place in New York on October 1. Jennifer: Last week I received a Google alert telling me about a charity fundraising event in New York City to raise money for Gay men to have babies via reproductive technology […]

Bl. John Henry Newman, 1880

Blessed John Henry Newman, Ora Pro Nobis

Oct 9 12 • 2 comments

167 years ago today, Thursday, October 9, 1845, the Anglican priest Rev. John Henry Newman was received into the Catholic Church by the Italian Passionist priest Rev. Dominic Barberi. Today, both Fr. Barberi and Fr. Newman are beati of the Catholic Church: Bl. Dominic of the Mother of God was beatified by Pope Paul VI […]

153 Years Later—Our Lady’s Message to Adele Brise Is Still Relevant

153 Years Later—Our Lady’s Message to Adele Brise Is Still Relevant

Oct 9 12 • 0 comments

The Queen of Heaven Visits Adele Brise On October 9, 1859, the life of a Belgian immigrant named Adele Brise was forever changed. It was on that day she received her third apparition of the Blessed Mother, who identified herself as the Queen of Heaven. Our Lady’s specific request of Adele was to pray for […]

Do We Expect Too Much from Parents Today?

Do We Expect Too Much from Parents Today?

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 […]

Ten Ways to Celebrate the Year of Faith

Ten Ways to Celebrate the Year of Faith

Oct 9 12 • 2 comments

With his Apostolic Letter of October 11, 2011, Porta Fidei,  Pope Benedict XVI declared that a Year of Faith would begin on October 11, 2012, and conclude on November 24, 2013. The first day of the Year of Faith marks the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council and the twentieth anniversary of the publication […]

Scientist Who Developed Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Wins Nobel Prize

Scientist Who Developed Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Wins Nobel Prize

Oct 8 12 • 3 comments

The man that envisioned a better way than destroying human embryos to get embryonic-like stem cells has won the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Dr. Shinya Yamanaka developed the technique to take an adult cell and reprogram it to an embryonic-like state as a way to avoid the destruction of human embryos. Dr. Yamanka’s reprogrammed adult […]

40 Days for Life: Have You Come Out to Pray Yet?

40 Days for Life: Have You Come Out to Pray Yet?

Oct 8 12 • 0 comments

Many of the 316 cities participating in 40 Days for Life this fall are holding 24-hour vigils. That’s  960 total hours! It is a very powerful witness to know that before any couples show up for an abortion and long after the last abortion worker leaves, there is someone there praying and bearing witness to the community. For […]

Pondering the Future of American Catholicism

Pondering the Future of American Catholicism

Oct 8 12 • 1 comment

Two new books by thoughtful Catholic authors take deeply different views of the future of American Catholicism. Both deserve serious pondering. One of them is called Why Catholicism Matters. The subtitle tells it all: “How Catholic Virtues Can Reshape Society in the 21st Century” (Image Books). It’s the work of Bill Donohue,  feisty president of […]

Use the Smile Factor in Your Website Redesign

Use the Smile Factor in Your Website Redesign

Oct 8 12 • 0 comments

When I was in college, I took a “singing for the stage” class. The instructor once put me in front of the class and told me to sing a song, but not to smile. Then she had me sing the same song again; but, this time, she had me smile. The class overwhelmingly thought my […]

A Year of Faith . . . for Parents of All Children

A Year of Faith . . . for Parents of All Children

Oct 8 12 • 0 comments

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 […]

The Deadly Legacy of a Dozen Years of Chemical Abortion

The Deadly Legacy of a Dozen Years of Chemical Abortion

It was on September 28, 2000, when we got the news. Nearly eight years after it had first been submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), RU-486, the French abortion pill, had been approved. No one in the U.S. wanted to make the pill–there had been lawsuits between the pills promoters, inspections at […]

What It Feels Like To Wonder About Miscarriage

What It Feels Like To Wonder About Miscarriage

Oct 8 12 • 0 comments

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 […]

Making a Mystic a Doctor of the Church

Making a Mystic a Doctor of the Church

Oct 8 12 • 0 comments

With the October 7th announcement that Pope Benedict XVI will pronounce that 12th century German mystic St. Hildegard of Bingen is a doctor of the church—as well as announcing that same honor being bestowed upon St. John of Avila—there is a renewed interest in the understanding of “mysticism” with our church. The church’s history with mystics actually […]

Through the Year of Faith with the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Through the Year of Faith with the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Oct 7 12 • 4 comments

The Year of Faith — Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012 through Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013 — begins this week. Thursday will be the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and the twentieth anniversary of the promulgation of the original Latin version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Year of […]

The Politically Incorrect Billionaire

The Politically Incorrect Billionaire

Two news items about “the rich” recently popped up online within a couple of hours of each other. Story No. 1: Pew Research Center found that non-rich Americans have ambivalent feelings toward the rich: On the positive side, there was admiration for those “who get rich by working hard” and a sense that rich Americans […]

Poem: "The Godliest Hour"

Poem: “The Godliest Hour”

The Godliest Hour In the cool darkness before the dawn when the stars shine brightest against a dark blue night, the silent stillness envelopes me and I can hear even the softest whisper in this, the Godliest hour. ~Maria Morera Johnson

Hollywood's Bigots and Censors

Hollywood’s Bigots and Censors

Oct 6 12 • 2 comments

When we learned about a TV show this fall that offers an incredibly vicious portrayal of nuns and employees at a Catholic home for the criminally insane, I decided to write a full-page ad for placement in The Hollywood Reporter; the first episode is Oct. 17. The FX show, “American Horror Story: Asylum,” was the subject of my […]

Supreme Court Shocks Life into Obamacare Challenge

Supreme Court Shocks Life into Obamacare Challenge

Oct 6 12 • 6 comments

The emperor wears no clothes. The bloom is off the rose. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Pardon the barrage of stale metaphors, but it’s difficult to put into words the utter pasting Mitt Romney put on Barack Obama Wednesday night. Pat Buchanan called Romney’s “the finest debate performance” in 52 years “with […]

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Misdiagnosed Causes and Misleading Solutions: Facts Guttmacher Won’t Give You

Oct 6 12 • 1 comment

The Guttmacher Institute released a new video today (the transcript can be found here) making their case for worldwide abortion access.  A large part of their argument hinges on the contribution of abortion complications to maternal mortality. The  World Health Organization (WHO) reports that about 13% of maternal deaths occur as a result of unsafe […]

Be Your Own Best Friend

Be Your Own Best Friend

Yes, that’s what I said:  You need to be your own best friend. I need to be my own best friend.   “Wait!” you might say. “Aren’t you a Christian? Shouldn’t Jesus be my best friend?”   Absolutely! But we have to let him in. Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; […]

Resistance

Resistance

Oct 5 12 • 0 comments

One day, as the scorching heat of the summer sunshine settled into the soft warmth of late afternoon, a traveler came, thirsty, to the gate of an ancient town. Anxious to find shelter and draw and drink from the town well, the weary walker passed under the decrepit portcullis and knocked firmly at the guardhouse […]