A financial reform plan released by the Vatican in October is filled with optimism and hope for sustained economic justice. The plan makes prudent and timely recommendations that would apply moral and ethical principles to alleviate the accelerating world financial crisis – now wider in scope than the Great 1930’s Depression. The document called, “Reforming […]
Editor’s note: Just before the holiday season, both secular and religious, got under way at the end of last year, the mainstream media and the blogosphere were exercised by a document released by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace addressing the world’s dire and confounding economic problems. Since this is an election year and since […]
The exercise of human freedom actually defines us in selfishness or love and determines our eternal destiny. We are a mix of both selfishness and love, but we must be fully freed of our selfishness that keeps us outside of God and the Kingdom of his Spirit. The human will was made to abide in […]
When I was growing up, we were urged to pray for vocations. That meant to pray for more priests and nuns. After all, they were the ones especially called by God. The rest of us had to figure out for ourselves what to do with our lives, what school to go to, who to marry, […]
Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on an op-ed in today’s New York Times by Sara Ritchey: The Vatican recently announced that it is going to facilitate the process of allowing former Episcopal priests and congregations to enter the Roman Catholic Church as intact groups. “What will life be like for the wives of Roman Catholic priests?” […]
In the summer of 2009, the Population Research Institute went out on a limb. We made a cartoon. It wasn’t a very long cartoon, only about a minute and a half—and the animation was deliberately minimalist. But it was clever, quick, and easy to watch. The music was original, cool, and jazzily low-key. It avoided […]
If Mitt Romney gets the GOP nomination, prepare for a season of class warfare in America unlike any before. Not only has President Obama been pushing class warfare unceasingly for three years now, but his chief strategist, David Axelrod, has been employing precisely this tactic against Romney, and well before Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry […]
I grew up in Denver and am admittedly biased. I’m a Denver Broncos fanatic. In the Mile High City, the Broncos are more than just a football team; they’re an institution. Everybody loves a comeback. Former Broncos quarterback John Elway — one of the greatest QBs in NFL history — had comebacks in his DNA. […]
In Part 1 of this article, I pointed out that a purpose of the Keynesian redistribution of wealth was to keep the engine of Capitalism working. Its adherents advocate it from a sincere belief that this is the best way to help everyone. It sustains the poor and maintains the wealthy. The conservative and libertarian […]
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the largest in the United States, rang in the New Year with some disturbing news: Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala had resigned in shame after publicly admitting to having sired two children with the same woman more than a decade ago. (I use the word “sire” intentionally, as “fathering” is something […]
Two years ago during Lent, I embarked on a forty bags in forty days project. The idea, which came from Faith and Family, was to rid one’s house of forty bags of excess material goods – ideally through giving items away, although some items definitely deserve a place in the trash. I’ve decided it’s time […]
Mission: Impossible–Ghost Protocol is a perfect action-thriller flick. It’s slaying at the box office, too, which shows that audiences are paying attention. Tom Cruise is back, he’s still got it (in spades), and really pulls and keeps the whole project together. He doesn’t swagger, but he leads his MI team with “hunches,” bravery and physical […]
Spending and taxes will be center stage in the 2012 presidential election, but at the heart of those pivotal issues is one that is paramount in terms of America’s future: cascading mandatory spending on entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security. Erskine Bowles, co-chair of President Obama’s bipartisan reduction commission, the one he ignored, recently described the […]
Couples in Kenya are embracing Natural Family Planning (NFP) with the help of a new clinic opened by the pro-life group Human Life International (HLI) Kenya in collaboration with the Catholic Church. The St Mary Mother of Charity and Consolation Clinic for NFP opened last November in Nyeri, Kenya as part of the pro-life outreach […]
Is it possible that secular liberals, some of them anyway, are starting to realize that knocking the supports out from under traditional marriage may not be such a great idea? If so, and if their next step is to think seriously about how to halt this destructive process, it will be the dawning of a […]
If you follow professional sports, and especially if you are a football or hockey fan, you undoubtedly are aware of the rash of concussions that have rendered players unfit to play. Now there’s a rash of lawsuits being filed against the National Football League, the latest of which includes a group of 106 retired football […]
I suffered a sneak attack last week while sitting at the head table for a dinner at Providence’s prestigious Hope Club (my husband Toshi was the evening’s speaker). Surrounded by the grandeur of the old place (still Christmas-clad) and enjoying a good meal, I was happy to be placed between a Navy fighter pilot getting […]
Just how frustrated are American parents with the leftist Kool Aid being passed off as curriculum in our nation’s public schools? It’s come to this: Last week, the New Hampshire legislature overturned a gubernatorial veto of a bill that will allow parents to object to material being taught in school and further empowers them to […]
Very few people actually argue that there should be no tax to support the functions of government. Distributists accept that government has a proper role in society and needs to exist for the fulfillment of that role. The functions of government have a cost which must be covered, therefore, we must address the question of […]
The great G.K. Chesterton once quipped: “When you break the big laws, you do not get liberty; you do not even get anarchy. You get the small laws.” Dr. Arthur Hippler’s Citizens of the Heavenly City : A Catechism of Catholic Social Teaching is a book about the big laws. One of the beauties of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is […]
I’ve been battling this same problem for years now: the papers on the dining room table. You see, we have an 8 person table, and usually 4-5 people eating, so I’m able to use one end for the mail. And it piles up, and around, and occasionally down…as paper clutter will do. So yesterday a […]
It is a commonplace among believers in God’s written word to express a longing to have lived in the times depicted within its pages. To have seen, perhaps even conversed with, such towering figures of faith as Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and Nehemiah. To thrill at the great victories God granted through Joshua, David, and Jehosaphat. […]
When I first saw this story, I was surprised. Then I was vaguely sympathetic, for a few seconds. Then, I became completely incredulous that anyone could think about this for more than a minute and still believe that it’s a good idea: Free cars for poor fuel road rage. Not only did somebody apparently think […]
As reported by ABC News, while fielding questions at a campaign event in Windham, NH on January 5th, Rick Santorum was challenged to defend his faith by a voter who said, “We don’t need a Jesus candidate, we need an economic candidate.” “My answer to that,” Santorum responded, “We always need a Jesus candidate. We […]
