I am not a coffee drinker; my mother on the other hand, having grown up in New Orleans, would gulp down ten to twelve cups a day. But not me. So what do I do on my coffee break? I indulge in a quick read here at Catholic Lane or on my other favorite Catholic […]
When I was in 4th grade, I wrote my first short story. My teacher was the first in my school who wanted to try a “creative classroom.” After we finished our assigned work, she had stations we could go to with extra projects. One included story starts. I took one of the cards and wrote […]
When I taught religion in a parochial middle school, part of my weekly responsibilities included writing the Prayers of the Faithful that would be read by a middle school student in our weekly Mass. I loved this part of my job! Actually, I loved every part of my job. For the first few years—before the […]
If her unrealistic body proportions weren’t enough of a controversy and reason for parental and feminist outrage, now Barbie has tattoos. Hang on–before you think Tattoo Barbie is going to be your daughter’s Must Have or Die Christmas Gift, don’t. Only 7,400 dolls were made and they’ve already been swooped up by “collectors”. And by […]
Halloween came and went, but Marion Salmon Hedges wasn’t able to hand out the hundreds of dollars worth of candy she purchased for the underprivileged children who annually visit her Manhattan neighborhood. Instead, she has spent the past 10 days in a medically induced coma at New York’s Harlem Hospital Center. Mrs. Hedges was the […]
The story related in last week’s Pennsylvania grand jury report had all the ingredients of a classic sex abuse scandal: a popular, successful authority figure suspected for years of molesting boys, a host of higher-ups unwilling to report him to police and a trail of vulnerable children left to suffer unspeakable violations while powerful adults […]
I’ve seen it time and time again. Someone decides to seek a better paying job, or pursue an investment strategy, or launch a new business. Invariably some pious person in the parish objects that maybe this is too worldly, that it will be a distraction from Church and family priorities, that one should be satisfied […]
The Arab upheavals of 2011 have inspired wildly inconsistent Western responses. How, for example, can one justify abiding the suppression of dissidents in Bahrain while celebrating dissidents in Egypt? Or protect Libyan rebels from government attacks but not their Syrian counterparts? Oppose Islamists taking over in Yemen but not in Tunisia? Such ad hockery reflects […]
Why do I act shocked every time the stores pull out the Christmas merchandise before I’ve purchased Halloween candy (which has been sharing shelf space with the Back to School supplies since August)? Why do I let it gross me out year after year? I know it’s going to happen. But still…. I wandered into […]
Beautiful Irish Catholic actress and mother Roma Downey has produced a new series of DVDs for children called Little Angels. I recently interviewed Roma about the new series, her favorite charity and her devotion to the Blessed Mother. To celebrate the release of Little Angels, Grace Hill Media, a company that promotes quality entertainment for faith-based […]
Most news reports about Mississippi’s proposed “personhood amendment” have cast the measure’s pro-life sponsors as the aggressors in a brand-new phase of the abortion wars, one in which abortion opponents rely on clever linguistic tricks to launch an unprecedented attack on abortion rights. That storyline omits one important fact: Abortion-rights advocates are the ones who […]
“The religion thing can wait. After all, I believe in God and am basically a good person. I really did intend to go to church this morning, but last night’s dancing took a lot more out of me than I thought and I had one drink too many. I’ll catch it next week. I’ll pray […]
We continue our reflection on the mysteries of the rosary as a means of entering more deeply into the sacred mysteries made present in Holy Mass with an examination of The Glorious Mysteries. 1. The Resurrection of the Lord And in the end of the Sabbath, when it began to dawn towards the first day […]
When most people think of Roma Downey, they think of angels due to her long-standing role as Monica in Touched by an Angel. It will probably come as no surprise that she is the executive producer of an exciting new DVD series for children called Little Angels. She took a few minutes out of her […]
There’s a widespread impression that the international financial system which the United States and its friends put in place after World War II is breaking down. The old system may of course be patched up and limp along for some time to come, but sooner or later something else will take its place. What that […]
If my email is any indication, the great divide in our nation is not between the haves and the have-nots, but between the literate and the folks who never learned the difference between there, their and they’re. Trust me, they’re out there, spouting off their strongly held opinions and punctuating their diatribes with veiled threats […]
A hundred and fifty years before Christ, they were the good guys. The Greeks were in charge and decided that, if they were to unify their kingdom politically, they needed to unify it religiously. So they imposed Greek ways on the Jews, including worshiping idols and eating pork. You can read about the Jew’s military […]
In August, when HBO released a documentary about feminist icon Gloria Steinem, critics knew in advance what to expect. HBO executive Sheila Nevins made it clear that the finished product would be not biography but hagiography, “an inspirational film about St. Gloria,” as she put it in one interview. The film lived up to its billing, […]
Many, many years ago, people who wanted to live more fully for God — to know Him more intimately in their daily lives and see themselves in His more truthful light — would often seek guidance from an Ascetic who was, more than likely, living in the desert. I find Asceticism fascinating. It was almost as […]
“Hey Ruth, your hair looks so cute!” Fiddling with her headband, Ruth’s weak, “Thanks.” sounded more like an apology. “I’m letting my bangs grow out so now this is about the only way I can wear it.” Five genuinely empathetic female heads turned towards Ruth to offer a combination of condolences, encouragement and hair taming […]
Anti-Semitism must be exposed by the light of truth so it can be soundly defeated – the operative phrase here being the light of truth, and by this I mean whole and entire; with neither attenuation nor ambiguity. On this, surely all can agree. In practice, however, this appears to be a real challenge for […]
Confidently commenting on the execution of Libya’s long-time dictator, Barack Obama stated that “the death of Mu’ammar al-Qaddafi showed that our role in protecting the Libyan people, and helping them break free from a tyrant, was the right thing to do.” About his own decision to pull all U.S. troops from Iraq in two months’ […]
If there’s one thing virtually everyone can agree on, it’s that bullying is bad. In fact, a recent survey commissioned by Care.com, a caregiver referral company, revealed that bullying is the No. 1 concern of parents of school-aged children — even more so than the fear of kidnapping. We’re all more aware of, and alarmed […]
I recently came across a perennially timely quote by William Penn — the colonial American proponent of democracy and religious freedom who founded Pennsylvania: “A people who will not be ruled by God are destined to be ruled by tyrants.” Even though Penn was a Quaker who was harshly critical of other faiths, in particular those […]
