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Answering the Call – A Response

Recently I published the article “Hello, Church? Anybody Home?” I shared some of my exasperation towards Catholic churches who fail to make returning calls and emails a priority. The response, as you might guess, opened the proverbial can of worms. Comments made by readers echoed their frustration across the country through both personal experiences and […]

Pope in Mexico Tells Church Not to ‘Rest on Its Laurels’

By Julieta Appendini MEXICO CITY—During his visit to Mexico, Pope Francis has expressed his concern for people’s social problems, pain and suffering, and he has shared optimistic messages of hope and comfort. His smile graces all his language and his expressions of love permanently underscore his words. “The tears of those who suffer do not […]

Faith Without Hope

Ephemeral Hope I possess an intellectual spirituality that makes me shy away from an outward display of faith-filled emotions. I prefer internal intensity. I also fear how such emotions are temporary. Ephemeral feelings should not be the foundation of the spiritual life. Although, we certainly benefit from the good times, those windswept moments of conversion […]

Black History and Abortion: Genocide or Suicide?

Through the years I have done more than my fair share of writing about the abortion statistics in the Black community, of Planned Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger and her Negro Project, and of New York City’s black abortion rate that has hovered at 55-60% of all black pregnancies. It is appalling that a population demographic representing […]

Book Review: The Apostasy that Wasn’t

We are supposed to love the Catholic Church. After all, Christ is in love with her.  She is his bride. St. Paul desired to present the Church to him as a pure bride (2 Cor. 11: 2) and St. John in mystical vision saw her, glorious and radiant, adorned as a bride ready to be […]

Our Not-So Human Future

Robot soldiers, economic meltdowns, robot lovers, and autonomous drones and weapons—these are just a few of the items that make the list of Tech Republic’s “Ten Terrifying Uses of Artificial Intelligence.” But perhaps the scariest is the prospect of an increased reliance on artificial intelligence for medical treatment. Tech gurus are already pouring billions of dollars—not […]

Poem: “Miracle Fair”

Miracle Fair Commonplace miracle: that so many commonplace miracles happen. An ordinary miracle: in the dead of night the barking of invisible dogs. One miracle out of many: a small, airy cloud yet it can block a large and heavy moon. Several miracles in one: an alder tree reflected in the water, and that it’s […]

Consecrate Yourself to Divine Mercy

You may be familiar with the book, 33 Days to Morning Glory which prepares readers for a consecration to Jesus through Mary. In this follow-up, 33 Days to Merciful Love: A Do-It-Yourself Retreat in Preparation for Consecration to Divine Mercy, Fr. Michael Gaitley of the Marian Fathers invites us to make a consecration to Divine […]

Antonin Scalia’s Death: Inestimable Loss for Constitutionalism

Requiescat in pace.

Peeling Back the Onion Layers: Gravitational Waves Detected!

Many of you have read about the recent experimental detection of a gravity waves by LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory), another jewel-in-the-crown of empirical confirmations of Einstein’s General Relativity theory. And it came, appropriately, on the 100th anniversary of the publication of that theory. I’m not going to expound on the science of this fine piece […]

Birth Control, Alcohol, and Common Sense

The minds of women who plan to get pregnant are flooded with concerns about the growing baby. One such concern involves drinking alcohol while pregnant. Today, most if not all OB/GYNs advise against imbibing because of the danger to the baby in utero and the possibility of fetal alcohol syndrome after birth. This avoidable condition […]

Coming Out Christian

  Some years ago I proudly came out of the “monogamy closet.” (See comments here.) Now, after over 42-plus years, my monogamy condition is unabated, in all its forms. I don’t “self identify” as a monogamist. I am a monogamist. Major mass media and Hollywood have had no effect on my ailment, and more than […]

Poem: “Love’s Reach”

Love’s Reach I reach for You With my life, All my life. It is not for naught, That You labored, Bore my sins. I reach for You With my thoughts. In the night, I contemplate Your Dying. Writhing in agony, Alone with hell’s phantoms, Blood called From Your flesh. More than a drop Spoke my […]

Falling Oil Prices and the Future of the World Economy

Oil prices are important in high-income and developing countries.

The Ever-Present Affliction of Spiritual Depression

Clinical depression borders on being an epidemic in our world. Consider that about 15 million adults in the United States have been diagnosed with the illness. And the number of people diagnosed with major depressive disorder has been increasing by about 20 percent annually. Although about a third of those people won’t get much relief […]

Examining Our Consciences and Lent

Lent is our time to be with Jesus in the desert, where He, in His humanity, experienced weakness, hunger and temptation. Jesus entered fully into our humanity and was like us in all things except sin. This is the unique mystery of the Incarnation, where our God suffers as one of us. Jesus can identify […]

God Wants You to Get Help

In a recent conversation with a friend, she confided in me she had been suffering for an extended period of time from what she suspected was depression. Her family had requested she see a professional, but she was hesitant. Reprinted with permission from CatholicSistas.com. “At what point do I turn to a doctor and feel […]

A Spoken Word Poem: “No Mercy”

U.S. Panel OKs Three-Parent Embryos with Sex Selection

Last week a committee of scientists and ethicists have recommended to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that they approve three-parent embryo techniques for use in IVF in the United States. The committee calls it mitochondrial replacement techniques (MRT) because the goal is too “replace” defective mitochondria in woman with mitochondrial disease so they do […]

Two Ways to Maximize Prayers This Lent

Supersize, maximize, be all you can be…because if you are going to do something, why not get the most out of it? Prayer is one of those things. We know we can do it poorly — babbling like the pagans do and not even paying attention to what we are saying. “What the world most […]

Olympics Changes Rules on Transgender Athletes – Women Lose

All of my daughters are athletes. It isn’t always easy when my daughter’s varsity basketball team plays after the boys, and the once full gym empties as the girls start their game. It is heart breaking, but they understand. Women are by nature not as athletic as men and so, for many, not as exciting […]

“It From Bit”… What About God?

In delving into information theory as a foundation for quantum mechanical theory, I encountered again John Wheeler’s revolutionary thesis that we create the past by observing it–“The Participatory Universe“. The thesis rests on John Wheeler’s “It from Bit” hypothesis.   In what follows I’ll summarize that thesis by examining the “three questions”, four “no’s” and […]

Poem: “Reverses”

Reverses WHEN mirth is full and free, Some sudden gloom shall be; When haughty power mounts high, The Watcher’s axe is nigh. All growth has bound; when greatest found, It hastes to die. When the rich town, that long Has lain its huts among, Uprears its pageants vast, And vaunts—it shall not last! Bright tints […]

Hello, Church? Anybody Home?

In the midst of decades of proclamations for a New Evangelization, I have a very easy, free suggestion that will yield a huge return. Ready for it, Church? Answer your phones, return calls, and return emails. Yep, it’s that simple. Whatever nonsense am I writing about, you might inquire. I’ve worked for the Catholic Church […]