Agony in the Garden The ivory orb lit up the quiet garden, In the place where the young man prayed. He prayed for His mother and father And all the friends He had made. He remembered the wedding party With all the fun they had had, And when the last wine was served, Their response […]
When Josephine Bakhita died in 1947, thousands of Italians passed her funeral bier to pay respects to a simple woman who had achieved great renown for her kindness. To this day, the people of Schio, Italy, honor now-Saint Josephine, a former African slave, with the title “Nostra Madre Moretta,” which means “Our Black Mother.” In […]
When I was asked to share my perspective on the HHS mandate, I thought there must be a mistake. Surely folks would rather hear from a good Catholic. A perfectly NFP-practicing, saved herself for marriage—five, six, seven-kid-having Catholic woman. That hasn’t exactly been my path. Not to mention, what could I possibly add to the […]
This is about RH Reality Check’s article decrying the Texas ultrasound law and the rejection of the Doonesbury cartoon in reference to it, but I need to work up to it first. For years I (and many other life-lovers) have warned abortion advocates that when they promote the dehumanization of a group of human beings (the unborn […]
One I Knew… One I knew Cursed death As if it were a figure in a hood A skeleton and scythe A visitor, a revenant A walker in the night The death you curse is death in you It wears your face It breathes the sour breath of rage And at the banquet of rejoicing […]
At some point in the lives of far too many people, they no longer recognize or believe in the existence of sin. They look right at it, desire it, engage in it, but don’t see it for what it actually is — a grave offense and injustice to God, an act of immense ingratitude to […]
The question for Republicans right now seems obvious: Would you prefer Rick Santorum or Mitt Romney to run against Barack Obama? Well, it depends on whether you prefer to engage President Obama on cultural grounds or on terms of class warfare. Obama and his chief political strategist, David Axelrod, are going to give us one […]
It’s a provocative question abortion opponents have been asking for years: If it is ethical to kill an unwanted child before birth, why not kill her afterward? Pro-lifers pose that question rhetorically, as a means of exposing the weakness of pro-choice arguments that devalue the human fetus until the moment she clears the birth canal. […]
Some years back, Mark and I visited with friends of ours, an older couple for whom we had great admiration. Dick and Pat showed near perfect complementarity, worked like a team, and had a way of disagreeing without actually disagreeing. This couple had a way of filling the room with peace and joyful energy at […]
The Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, Wisconsin has been in the news for over a year after the local Bishop, David L. Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay, approved as supernatural the apparitions to a Belgian immigrant woman named Adele Brise (“Breece”) in the 1850s.[i] These apparitions went unnoticed by […]
The Obama Administration has taken another step in what amounts to a four-year plan to make abortion-covering health insurance, subsidized by the federal government, commonly available in the United States. The latest action came on March 12, when the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a lengthy regulation that spells out how some […]
“Never, ever, ever give up.” Thus said Winston Churchill in October 1941, in the shortest of his speeches. As the WW II statesman applied this maxim famously to political life, so too might we apply the principle of perseverance to our personal lives when the warfare is spiritual in form. Perseverance works in tandem […]
I read once that when a neurosurgeon touches a spot on the human brain with a probe, he elicits memories. All kinds of memories: a moment in childhood, a school day, a family vacation from years past. Sights, sounds, tastes, smells, feelings. Pain and pleasure, fear and fury and fun. Whatever is stored on that particular […]
Every time the subject of human personhood is raised, somebody immediately argues that legal recognition of personhood would mean an end to in vitro fertilization (IVF). It is true that any procedure that has as a byproduct the killing of human beings prior to birth would be outlawed—and that includes IVF. But few want to […]
A Statement of the Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops March 14, 2012 The Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, gathered for its March 2012 meeting, is strongly unified and intensely focused in its opposition to the various threats to religious freedom in our day. In our […]
Moved by Grace When I was 32 days shy of nine, my parents moved us. Away from the brilliant green waters of Recife Away from Lourdes, who made the spongiest strawberry sponge cake And she could sew aprons and matching dresses too. They moved us away from the vast, tall green stalks of sugarcane fields […]
Many of the most violent attacks on morality taking place today seem to be centered around questions of sexual morality. The controversies surrounding sex education in schools, acceptance of homosexual conduct, pornography, divorce, and, of course, the paramount matter of abortion—all these would seem to have sex as their common theme. But though all these […]
To say that our public discourse today stands in need of some improvement is undoubtedly an understatement, but perhaps no area of our common life requires more careful consideration than our political speech. All too often we find public discussions of political economy cast in stark terms, such as “socialism” versus “capitalism.” Very often these […]
In a recent column at CatholicCulture.org, Phil Lawler criticized the bishops of the United States for issuing statements on “too many debatable political issues” rather than sticking to matters that fall more properly within the scope of their teaching authority. As an example, he pointed to a newly released USCCB statement that “appeared to give […]
Last week, we talked about making good decisions — God’s way. I want to follow up on that. One may ask, “How does a Bible verse that is so abstract make sense regarding my finances.” The fact is that it does have an impact, financially and spiritually. One of the key components in our relationship […]
Sex-selection abortions have been illegal in Great Britain since 1967. But that hasn’t been stopping British abortionists from performing them. A far-reaching undercover investigation carried out by the London Telegraph found that doctors, counselors and medical staff across the country were not only perfectly willing to perform sex-selective abortions, but they were even willing to […]
Lent is a time when we make an attempt to address things about our corporeal and spiritual lives that need addressing. Many give up sweets as a gesture of putting aside objectively good things associated with feasting to live the days of mourning in preparation for when they will feast again at Easter. Some attempt […]
My children were really amusing me. And I mean that with the utmost sarcasm. “Who’s coming over?” one asked. “No one,” I said. “Then why are you doing that?” “What do you mean? I do this all the time!” I said. “Oh, we’re having company?” chimed in another. “No!” I said firmly. “Yeah, right. Who […]
Eve Tushnet is among the most promising young Catholic intellectuals in America. She is a student of art and culture whose writing touches on sexuality, personhood, and faith. Published in journals secular and religious, she was profiled in the New York Times as a “gay Catholic voice against same-sex marriage.” This is the first of […]
