Facebook promotes a very odd concept of ’knowing’ someone, and it has led to the further warping of our sense of friendship. My experience, like many of you, has been a passing meeting with someone leads to a friend request. But, we are not friends. We are barely acquaintances and yet we claim to know […]
This week the Washington Post drew attention to a new Pew poll indicating that a majority of Americans believe it’s time to move away from the policy of mandatory minimum sentencing in nonviolent criminal cases. Many people probably don’t realize that in many instances involving criminal sentencing, judges aren’t actually permitted to do their jobs and judge. Their discretion […]
Last year I remember rushing into mass minutes before the opening song. Exhausted from hours of setting up for a ministry event, I was unable to prepare for mass properly. Sliding into my usual spot I jumped to attention as the procession began. My eyes naturally scanned the area directly across the expanse to those […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion (Exodus 22:20-26; Psalm 18:2-4,47,51; 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10; Matthew 22:34-40) Loving Others As God Has Loved Us If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate. (Exodus 22:26) Do you have children? If so, you’ve probably thought about what you would do if […]
In the ongoing Kentucky U.S. Senate race, both candidates have accused the other of supporting “amnesty” for “illegal immigrants” and of not upholding the rule of law. Immigration is a complex issue, and the laws governing it are even more complex. Political campaigns, at least in our day, are not well-suited to serious debates about […]
“War is a terrible and cruel thing.” SISTER MARIA of Nazareth has committed herself to an extraordinary mission. The Argentinian nun from the Institute of the Incarnate Word has been living in Aleppo, Syria, for the past two months, ministering to a traumatized Christian community in the former million-strong metropolis in the north of the […]
In 1976 my daughter was born. I was head-over-heels in love with her. At the time I was a commercial writer for a television station; I remember clicking away on my manual typewriter in time with a new tune by Stevie Wonder: Isn’t She Lovely. To me (and a million other new fathers) that song […]
What a mess. What a God-awful mess the new reproductive technologies in general—and commercial surrogacy, in particular—are making of family life. What a legal, emotional, and moral mess. Case in point: A commercial surrogacy contract was litigated in Tennessee all the way to the state’s Supreme Court—which was forced to sort out the chaos that […]
Justice is obscured when prosecutors use criminal convictions to bolster political ambition. Justice is defeated when prosecutors deny their mistakes to get elected. The French word, “liaison” comes from an older French word, related to the Latin word, “ligere”, meaning “to bind together.” Somewhere in its tangled etymological history, “liaison” was transformed in common usage […]
As much as I don’t like to think about it now, my 2-year-old daughter will not always desire to spend every waking minute with her mom. She prefers to engage with me now, but I know that the television, computer, phone and movies will grab her attention as she gets older. So I strive to […]
In our modern world, it can be extremely challenging to live a virtuous life. “The concept of virtue is often considered outdated and old-fashioned, but for Catholics, becoming virtuous is essential for eternal salvation.” What, then, can we do? Thankfully, we have saints we can look to as role models in virtue as we journey […]
Despite their flattering words, they were trying to trap him, to force him into a no win situation. Consider the circumstances. They are living under the iron boot of a brutal empire which filled the earth with its idolatry. Patriotic Jews longed to throw off the tyrants’ yoke. They prayed for an anointed king who […]
A third 20th Century pope advances toward sainthood this weekend with the beatification of Giovanni Battista Montini, Pope Paul VI (1963-1978). In canonizing Popes, the general rule is that we raise men to the honor of the altars and not papacies. Pope Montini, however, is so inextricably linked with the Second Vatican Council, over whose […]
Pope Francis’ General audience this past Wednesday was about hope. Like many other virtues, hope can be twisted into many different definitions. Pope Francis clarified, “Christian hope is not simply a desire a wish: for a Christian, hope is expectation, fervent, passionate expectation for the final definitive fulfillment of a mystery, the mystery of God’s […]
40 Days for Life is a grassroots effort. Even as the campaign continues to grow, our headquarters team tries to visit as many 40 Days for Life locations as possible. It’s important for us to meet with you, and your fellow volunteers, at your prayerful vigil. With 297 cities in 11 countries conducting 40 Days […]
Do not see Men, Women and Children unless you are inured to today’s porn and sex and sex and porn everywhere. The language and visuals are graphic and explicit and involve teens (and remember, today’s sex is degraded), but after a few seconds of getting into it each time, the camera mercifully cuts away. But […]
As editor here at Catholic Lane, we’ve received a lot of submissions regarding the synod. Our correspondent Karee Santos has been busy giving you her thoughts on the Synod from the standpoint of someone who deals with marriage prep in the real world. I’ve received several submissions from readers who wish to offer their own […]
Maclean’s recently featured a compelling summary of our rapidly-deteriorating communities titled “The End of Neighbours.” The expertly-written piece by Brian Bethune is one of the better articles you’ll read this year, and it gets at a key tragedy that is particularly convicting for a Christian conservative: We have forsaken our neighbors. For decades, Americans and Canadians have been […]
Last week doctors in Sweden announced the birth of a baby after a uterus transplant. The baby is so far healthy being born at only 31 weeks gestation. I am very happy that mother and baby are healthy enough to leave the hospital and I wish them continued health. I also wish that this procedure […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion (Isaiah 45:1,4-6; Psalm 96:1,3-5,7-10; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5; Matthew 22:15-21) Moving Forward in Faith through God’s Open Doors Thus says the Lord to his anointed … opening doors before him and leaving the gates unbarred. (Isaiah 45:1) “A new door will open for you today.” Have you ever […]
Who is The Church? Who is the Body of Christ? Who belongs? A temptation exists to spend so much time answering these questions correctly and identifying who is with us and who is against us that we miss out on membership ourselves. Some of us are so busy counting heads, checking purses, and securing a […]
The village of Kaa is in the north of the Bekaa Valley, close to the Syrian border. It has a population of some 13,000 Christians, most of them Melkites. After the city of Zahle, this is the home of the country’s the largest Catholic population. Kaa is surrounded by mostly Shiite Muslim communities. Kaa has […]
We were having oatmeal for breakfast, and the one-year-old handed me his spoon and said: “Feed!” He likes it when I feed him sometimes (as in: as often as I’ll agree to). The morning in question he was just too cute to turn down, so I took the offered spoon and started feeding him. He […]
