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<em>Erie Times News</em> and Church Teaching -- A Reader Speaks Up

Erie Times News and Church Teaching — A Reader Speaks Up

Reading James Drane’s article (and corresponding cartoon) today in Erie’s Times News (“Catholic Church should change its policies on birth control”) made us want to cancel the paper… again. Of course, it demands a reply, but why bother? What good does it do? Where is the Church’s official reply? But then I’m haunted by the awareness that if […]

A Whiff of Privatization

Feb 24 12 • Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson • 0 comments

Three decades ago, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher implemented a policy called “privatization” to rejuvenate the moribund economy of the United Kingdom. Like the United States today, the cost of a too-large government was sapping the vitality of the U.K.’s economy. The private sector was staggering under the heavy tax burden needed to fund the public […]

They Just Don’t Understand

Feb 24 12 • Patti Maguire Armstrong • 2 comments

I once did not understand. So now, instead of getting upset when others don’t understand, I see it as an opportunity to inform or at least to pray for them. When I came to understand Catholic teaching on love and marriage, my heart grew to include the unborn children I once thought I did not […]

The Way of the Cross: Christian Living During Lent

Feb 24 12 • Marlon De La Torre • 0 comments

I’m not strong enough. Imagine if these were the words you told Christ when He asked you to take up your Cross and follow him. St. Mark’s Gospel reminds of us this very notion where Christ provides us with His unique blueprint on discipleship: And he called to him the multitude with his disciples, and […]

Seven States Sue Obama Administration Over ObamaCare Mandate

Feb 23 12 • Ben Johnson • 2 comments

Seven states filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration today seeking to overturn the mandate that religious employers provide contraception, sterilization, and abortifacients to their employees as part of their health care plans. The state attorneys general of Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas filed suit today in U.S. District Court, arguing […]

Dare to Dream

Feb 23 12 • Ken Connor • 2 comments

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Phil 4:13 During the presidential contest of 2008, Barack Obama inspired millions of followers with his trademark slogan “Yes we can!” Against the odds, the little known Senator from Illinois went on to defeat the 600 pound gorilla in the 2008 Democrat primary – Hillary Clinton […]

A Healthy Child Can Never Be Guaranteed

Feb 23 12 • Rebecca Taylor • 0 comments

A couple in Texas is suing a sperm bank in New England because their child has cystic fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis is a devastating disease that is caused by mutations in the CFTR gene. People with cystic fibrosis have mutations in both their copies of the CFTR gene; one mutation from their father and one mutation […]

The Forty Days and the Fortieth Day

Feb 23 12 • Deacon Joshua LeBlanc • 0 comments

As we approach this season of Grace, there are often a few questions and misconceptions about Lent which arise. Most people assume that the Lenten season is forty days in length, which isn’t exactly true. This idea comes from a time in which Lent was forty days long, but let’s look at the history of […]

CSA: A Distributist Agrarianism

Feb 23 12 • Kevin Ford • 1 comment

After quitting my job as a school teacher in 2010 to become a full-time organic farmer, I was left with a dilemma. I was quite certain that I could grow high quality produce, but what was I going to do with it? I had heard about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs from various other small-scale […]

Cooking the Books, Disparaging Catholics

Feb 23 12 • Judie Brown • 1 comment

The only folks who might have missed the fallacious claim that 98 percent of Catholics use contraception are those who have no newspaper or television set around. Lucky folks! The rest of us must consider the stark reality that whatever the media reports, no matter how wrong it might be, it will grab hold, stick […]

Inside Loaves of Stone

Feb 23 12 • Heidi Bratton • 0 comments

I have some imaginative ideas for teaching our children the spiritual lessons of Lent and Easter, but they involve rocks instead of cute bunnies or painted eggs, so please put on your creativity cap before reading further. During Lent, church sanctuaries everywhere are xeriscaped with dusty, dull-colored sand and rocks among other dehydrated things. These […]

Obama’s Values Spark Return of Culture Wars

Feb 23 12 • Marybeth Hicks • 0 comments

In 2007, while still a member of the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama said, “I am absolutely convinced that culture wars are just so ‘90s. Their days are growing dark.” Until recently, I’ve been inclined to agree with Mr. Obama. The culture wars are over. We lost. We’re no longer fighting to uphold traditional social values. […]

Fasting for Freedom

Feb 23 12 • Msgr. Richard Soseman • 0 comments

A few weeks ago, the new Bishop of Manchester, New Hampshire, the Most Reverend Peter Libasci, called upon all people of good will to offer prayers and fast. His request came at the same time as many Bishops asked their flock to pray, as Bishop Jenky of Peoria put it, “for the freedom of the […]

Poem: “If Not to Hell”

Feb 23 12 • Pavel Chichikov • 0 comments

If Not to Hell Suppose that God had let them stay In Paradise for one more day, No sword of fire at the wall For their betrayal and downfall To see one day and then the next Development of intellect, Plow and harrow and the seed, The pulling out of Eden’s weeds The felling of […]

How the West’s Fertility War Has Left Women at Risk

Feb 22 12 • Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse • 0 comments

Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men Mara Hvistendahl Public Affairs, 2011; 314 pages, $26.99 This brave and timely book has many strengths and one glaring, but understandable, weakness. The strength of this book is the reporting. Mara Hvistendahl, a liberal, pro-choice feminist, painstakingly documents the catastrophic […]

Pharmacists’ Conscience Rights Upheld in Major Court Victory

Feb 22 12 • The Becket Fund • 0 comments

Today, religious liberty gained a resounding victory. A federal court in Tacoma, Washington, struck down a Washington law that requires pharmacists to dispense the morning-after pill even when doing so would violate their religious beliefs. The court held that the law violates the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion. “Today’s decision sends a […]

Keeping the Fast: Spiritual Fitness for Lent

Feb 22 12 • Rev. Tucker Cordani • 0 comments

It is a well-founded observation: More Catholics come to Church on Ash Wednesday (and Palm Sunday) than they do on Christmas and Easter. Reality, or ‘ecclesiastical legend’? Although I wish it were different, I see this as a hopeful sign. It tells me that, as Catholics we want the world to know that we are […]

No Time for Lenten Services? Use the Drive-thru.

Feb 22 12 • Marge Fenelon • 4 comments

A little cramped for time this Ash Wednesday? No problem. An Ohio Methodist minister, Rev. Patricia Anderson Cook, has found the solution for busy Christians on this holy day: Drive-thru ashes and reflection. From 5-6pm EST on Ash Wednesday, Rev. Cook, pastor of Mt. Healthy United Methodist Church, will be out in her church parking […]

Satan and Santorum: Perspective from Reagan’s Evil Empire Speech

Feb 22 12 • Dr. Paul Kengor • 3 comments

The secular world today trembles and shudders at the sight of Rick Santorum speaking on good and evil at Ave Maria University in Florida in 2008. Santorum’s statement came 25 years after another much-maligned social conservative, Ronald Reagan, delivered a similarly fiery speech in Florida in 1983. In both cases, the secular left recoiled in […]

Tending the Garden of RCIA

Feb 22 12 • Ebeth Weidner • 0 comments

It’s Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Church’s 40 days of inventory, reflection, and commitment, to Christ’s passion and sacrifice; it’s the path to redemption, the humiliation of the human God, and the glorious climax of the Divine Man, which we call Lent. We can “put out into the deep” during this time and find […]

Growing in Expectant Faith as Catholic Men

Feb 22 12 • Maurice Blumberg • 0 comments

This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel. (Mark 1:15) Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, “The kingdom of God is at hand for you.” (Luke 10:9) […]

How Spouses Can Live the Mass Together

Feb 22 12 • Marge Fenelon • 0 comments

The poor remodeler, he was so uncomfortable that I thought he might break into a sweat. In fact, he might already have been sweating, but I dared not look too closely, lest my scrutiny escalate his discomfort. He’d come to bid on our kitchen reconstruction and walked into more than he’d bargained for. However, the […]

Holy Mass: Heaven Is a Place on Earth

Feb 22 12 • Michael Seagriff • 1 comment

For some time now, I have been reading The Priest In Union With Christ written by the late Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., described by some as “probably the 20th century’s greatest theologian” and “one of the Church’s all-time greatest authorities on the spiritual life.” Given the on-going attack on the nature of the priesthood, our […]

Otherworldly Series

Feb 21 12 • Trent Beattie • 0 comments

Rich Donnelly has a baseball story that is out of this world. Donnelly’s daughter Amy had passed away four years before his trip to the World Series in 1997 with the Florida Marlins, but her presence was felt keenly at the end of the seventh game. The coach has recounted the story to thousands of […]