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Book Review: <i>Catholic Philosopher Chick Makes Her Début</i>

Book Review: Catholic Philosopher Chick Makes Her Début

Catholic Philosopher Chick Makes Her Début by Rebecca Bratten Weiss and Regina Doman Front Royal, VA: Chesterton Press, 2012 Catholic Philosopher Chick Makes Her Début is the intelligent Catholic woman’s beach read. This book is so much fun that you won’t want to put it down until you have turned the last page with a […]

Watching Movies Through Catholic Eyes

Watching Movies Through Catholic Eyes

May 30 12 • • 0 comments

In How to Read a Film, author James Monaco writes that movies “have drastically changed the way we perceive the world… yet we all too naturally accept the vast amounts of information they convey to us in massive doses without questioning how they tell us what they tell.” When it comes to movies, how we […]

Substitute Vatican Sec. of State Discusses Leaks' Impact on Pope

Substitute Vatican Sec. of State Discusses Leaks’ Impact on Pope

Pope Benedict is said to be “saddened” by the discovery that one of his closest aides, Paolo Gabriele, 46, his valet or butler, has betrayed his trust, copying and disseminating secret Vatican documents from the Pope’s own apartments. Some in Rome are concerned that the emotional strain of these events could harm the health of […]

On the Vatican's Norms for Discerning Private Revelation, Part One

On the Vatican’s Norms for Discerning Private Revelation, Part One

May 29 12 • • 0 comments

A couple of months ago I openly questioned Andrea Tornielli’s publishing the Latin text of the Vatican’s document Normae S. Congregationis (NC).[i]  This past week, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) published not only the Latin text of the document, but also issued a translation in the major European languages.[ii] As the […]

Refusing to Render Unto Caesar That Which is God's

Refusing to Render Unto Caesar That Which is God’s

May 29 12 • • 1 comment

“Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.  But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.  For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”  Acts […]

Therapeutic Thrifting

Therapeutic Thrifting

May 29 12 • • 8 comments

Every so often, I feel the driving need to go thrift shopping. I don’t just “need” to go, I need to go. Most of the time, I’ll go and be happy I went. At other times, I’ll tell myself it’s a fanciful notion and try to ignore it, but that only lasts so long. The […]

WHO Ignores Link Between Growing Incidence of Preterm Birth and Abortion

WHO Ignores Link Between Growing Incidence of Preterm Birth and Abortion

May 29 12 • • 1 comment

The World Health Organization (WHO) has just released an important new study looking at the growing and harmful medical phenomenon of “pre-term birth.” The “WHO Global Action Report on Preterm Birth” estimates that more than 1 in 10 babies born in 2010 were born prematurely, that is, “before 37 weeks of pregnancy are completed.” This […]

<i>Miracles: Healing for a Broken World</i> Affirms Charisms

Miracles: Healing for a Broken World Affirms Charisms

May 29 12 • • 0 comments

Fr. Stefan Starzynski’s book, Miracles: Healing for a Broken World (Our Sunday Visitor) is one of those faith-building books that every observant Catholic should read at least once. While this book is not quite a new release, I read it and thought, “How and why did I not hear about this book sooner?” The book […]

Poem: "Christ's Childhood"

Poem: “Christ’s Childhood”

Christ’s Childhood Till twelve years’ age, how Christ His childhood spent All earthly pens unworthy were to write; Such acts to mortal eyes He did present, Whose worth not men but angels must recite: No nature’s blots, no childish faults defiled, Where grace was guide, and God did play the child. In springing locks lay […]

Despite Reports, "No Cardinals Under Suspicion"

Despite Reports, “No Cardinals Under Suspicion”

No cardinal is under suspicion of being the mastermind behind the “Vatileaks” affair which is rocking Rome, Father Federico Lombardi, S.J., the Pope’s spokesman, told journalists in the Vatican Press Office shortly after noon today. Nor has the Pope constituted a special team of lay investigators, led by a woman, to look into the case […]

A Life Lesson I Learned from Homeschoolers

A Life Lesson I Learned from Homeschoolers

I homeschooled my six children from kindergarten through 12th grade.  In the beginning, we were very structured.  I enrolled my children with a homeschool program that had once been a school. I spent my life monitoring them doing their “schoolwork”.  Watching them produce this much schoolwork ( some of it ‘busy work’) every quarter, every […]

Poem: "An Ocean without Sails"

Poem: “An Ocean without Sails”

May 27 12 • • 0 comments

An Ocean without Sails Say the nomads, who should know Make no plans today, sometimes No one knows the way to go And in the guts there are no signs A long and distant line of sight No more than steppe as flat as pain, Cloud by day or flame by night Will not appear, […]

How to Positively Influence Your Young Adult Son- (without bugging him too much)

How to Positively Influence Your Young Adult Son- (without bugging him too much)

May 26 12 • • 0 comments

Recently, I’ve had opportunity to talk with several moms who have sons nearing or at young adult age. (Let’s say around the ages of 17-22) The mothers have asked me how we have handled influencing our late teen and young adult sons and how to do so that the sons will listen. In one instance, […]

The Difference that the Spirit Makes

The Difference that the Spirit Makes

As a teen, I thought the clergy were supposed to do everything. We laity were just called to pray, pay, and obey.  Oh yes, and keep the commandments, of course.  The original 10 seemed overwhelming enough.  Then I discovered the Sermon on the Mount and nearly passed out. Perhaps this is why many inactive Catholics […]

Supreme Court Rules: No Benefits for IVF Children Conceived After Parent Dies

Supreme Court Rules: No Benefits for IVF Children Conceived After Parent Dies

May 25 12 • • 0 comments

The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that children conceived posthumously with IVF are not entitled to Social Security survivor benefits.  In 1939, the Social Security Administration put in a provision that allowed dependent children to collect their parent’s benefits as survivors.  In 1939 they did not have a crazy fertility industry willing […]

A Sleeping Church Wakes Up

A Sleeping Church Wakes Up

Throughout the ongoing debate over President Barack Obama’s contraceptive mandate, and again on Monday, when Catholic leaders here in St. Louis and nationwide announced anti-mandate lawsuits, one question has surfaced repeatedly among Obama’s critics and allies alike: Why choose an election year to pick a fight with the Catholic Church? The mandate controversy is, after […]

In the Arms of Jesus

In the Arms of Jesus

May 25 12 • • 4 comments

I celebrated my birthday recently. My biggest wish was to celebrate with my five sons ages 13-24. A few of them are no longer living at home so I was thrilled that they were all able to be with me. Never far from my thoughts, however, were those seven precious babies I never got to […]

Poem: "Quenching Thirst"

Poem: “Quenching Thirst”

May 25 12 • • 0 comments

Quenching Thirst (Inspired by John 4:4-42) Absentmindedly She replaces the ladle. Weathered hands rebraid thick plaits More out of habit this time, than necessity. Eyes closed, she still sees his face And hears his rich, gentle voice. She chokes back a sob, Remembering he did not judge Or scold or chide her. He gave her […]

Gallup Poll Shows "Pro-Choice" Americans at Record-Low 41%

Gallup Poll Shows “Pro-Choice” Americans at Record-Low 41%

May 24 12 • • 1 comment

If you read most press accounts, the public in general, women in particular, are recoiling from the many initiatives “anti-abortion activists” have undertaken. But the latest polling data from Gallup demolishes that myth, noting in the process that there has been a huge turnaround in the self-identification of Independents Gallup’s Lydia Saad reported yesterday that […]

MTV Exploits Viewers to Make a Quick Buck

MTV Exploits Viewers to Make a Quick Buck

May 24 12 • • 0 comments

I have joked for years that MTV is destroying civilization as we know it. Then, the network gave us “Jersey Shore,” and proved my joke wasn’t funny, it was true. Now, I’m convinced the people at MTV actually sit around a conference table and ponder the question: How can we exploit and corrupt the innocence […]

Fiction for Boys: Hawk!

Fiction for Boys: Hawk!

May 24 12 • • 0 comments

 HAWK! by Anthony Schefter Scout First Class David M. Halloway was a stoic. He never complained and he rarely cried, not about anything. But this hike was barely a morning old and he was already sick of it. He was ready to leave the Scouts anyway and didn’t see how this hike was going to […]

Confirming the Last Mohican

Confirming the Last Mohican

May 23 12 • • 0 comments

Unbelievable. Tonight, our youngest child will be confirmed – our last Mohican. This is the last “big” sacrament we’ll celebrate as Fenelon Clan. Of course, receiving the holy Eucharist is a major celebration every single time we receive Him, and receiving the sacrament of Penance should simply delight us each time we’re reconciled, but I […]

Poem: "A Pearl in God's Eyes"

Poem: “A Pearl in God’s Eyes”

May 23 12 • • 0 comments

A Pearl in God’s Eyes My Purity and Chastity is a pearl in God’s eyes, Given me by my father and mother, It is a wonderful prize. I think and pray and wonder Of this beauty which is mine. A feeble step, a feeble fall, The little baby dropped his treasure. He is crying, and […]

43 Catholic Organizations Sue Obama Administration Over HHS Mandate

43 Catholic Organizations Sue Obama Administration Over HHS Mandate

May 22 12 • • 1 comment

In a coordinated defense of religious liberty, at 11 a.m. yesterday 43 Roman Catholic organizations filed a dozen lawsuits nationwide to strike down the HHS mandate. The plaintiffs include some of the most significant organs of the U.S. church, including the Archdioceses of New York, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis; the Dioceses of Dallas, Fort […]