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Obama’s Middle East Speech: So Balanced It Goes Nowhere

One of the problems with Obama’s Middle East speech was that parts of it were so deliberately balanced — so meant to appease all sides — that they go nowhere. For example, look at the portions where he discusses democracy in the Middle East versus the alternative — Islamist rule, which he does not name. […]

The Kaleidoscopic GOP Primary

I faithfully listen to audiobooks as a means of coping with northern Virginia traffic. Recently, I have been engrossed by Edmund Morris’s  Colonel Roosevelt (2010), which, like the first volume of his biographical trilogy, could very well earn him another Pulitzer Prize. At one point in the book, Theodore Roosevelt describes the workings of politics […]

The DSK Saga is Emblematic of Many Things

While much of the world has been alternately stunned and entertained by the saga surrounding the former head of the International Monetary Fund, let’s revisit a few basic facts. Dominique Strauss-Kahn was also the leading Socialist candidate poised to run against French President Nicolas Sarkozy. At the heart of socialism is its antagonism towards two […]

May 21, 2011: The All Too Familiar “Cleverly Invented Story”

You may have seen them in your community too.  What I am talking about are these very large billboards announcing the end of the world on May 21, 2011.  These billboards are promoting the teachings of Mr. Harold Camping, a radio preacher who believes that Jesus will “rapture” Christ’s true believers into heaven and resurrect […]

The Role of Conscience — Vocation of Catholic Health Care Professionals? (Part 1)

  When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n.1777).   We live in a culture where health services are driven by moral relativism, commodification of the human person, the technological imperative, profitability in health services, the creep of utilitarian and impersonal ethical paradigms, escalating […]

Do Cows Get Mammograms Too?

Feel free to do what I did, Google “Mastitis + Nonlactating” but try not to, like I did, freak out at the dire health possibilities.  Except for the 942 results for “Non-Lactating Mastitis in Bovines”.  Though I’ve never been a Bovine, it appears those poor cows are hurting just like me. Scared, alone, in pain […]

Shari’a Threat Persists Despite bin Laden’s Death

Some early media reactions to the death of Osama bin Laden were, to use as charitable a word as possible, unserious. To such a point that one was reminded of a scene in The Wizard of Oz. The wicked witch has been killed, and the other characters dance about and merrily sing, “Ding-dong, the witch […]

Obama’s Muslim Outreach 2.0: Doing Business with the Muslim Brotherhood

President Obama’s latest paean to what he calls “the Muslim world,” delivered at the State Department today, was an exercise in whistling past the graveyard of real and growing dangers and a litany of misleading statements that borders on official malpractice.   Its most important upshot is this:  The United States is now prepared to do […]

California Bill Respects Authority of Parents

I have to confess my initial reaction to the headline was to roll my eyes in contempt for yet another government entity that I assumed was trying to legislate good parenting. After all, it’s a trend that has gained traction of late. Some states are mandating the content of school lunches. Others have laws about […]

If They Only Knew What Makes For Peace

Death is part of our lives, and the Gospel reminds us that we know not the day or the hour of our demise. And so it was this year when a professional colleague of mine and then an old friend both died sudden deaths. One was young; the other old. One died with a massive […]

A Few Thoughts About Judgment Day and May 21, 2011

A few weeks ago, I went to New York to hear a friend’s daughter play the cello for her senior recital at Julliard School of Music. As I walked from the subway station to the school, at the corner of 65th Street and Broadway, a sincere-looking young woman left the place where she had been […]

The Easter Season, A Time to Seek First the Kingdom of God

Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal (John 6:27). Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and […]

Liturgical Worship or Concert Attendance?

Reflecting Upon Attending a Christian Concert On Friday, February 4, I attended the Rock and Worship Roadshow at the Resch Center in Green Bay, WI.[i]  I went because the artist Matt Maher was playing and I hoped to have the opportunity to meet and talk with him.[ii]  I am glad to say that I was […]

Wedding Madness Meets Marriage Phobia

Spring is wedding season, and though few celebrations can top last month’s royal wedding, plenty of brides hope to give Kate Middleton a run for her tiara. The $27,800 price tag for the average American wedding may be chump change compared to the $32 million royal nuptials, but it’s enough to drive an $86-billion-a-year wedding […]

Regalism versus Real Catholic Monarchy

The Development of Regalism Regalism was a development of the late Middle Ages and early modern period that sought to centralize all power in the hands of the king. All social and economic institutions, even — or especially — the Church, were brought under royal control. This was the beginning of the modern “nation-state,” in […]

Osama Bin Laden: Chicken or Egg?

To posit the significance of Osama bin Laden’s demise, we must first decide which came first — the chicken or the egg? Quaint as it is, this question is fundamentally an inquiry into the nature of cause and effect. In our context, did Osama bin Laden “create” the idea of jihad, or did the centuries-old […]

Baseball Fouls

My husband and I went to a Milwaukee Brewers game this past Saturday. Our two oldest sons had tickets they couldn’t use, so they offered them to us. We gratefully accepted. It was a great opportunity for a little getaway, and I hadn’t yet been to the new Milwaukee County Stadium (I know, it’s been […]

Liturgy Should Say: ‘We’re not in Kansas Anymore’

Last Wednesday night I had the pleasure of addressing a “Theology on Tap” gathering of young adults on the topic of how to prepare for the new English translation of the Roman Missal. During the Q&A portion of our time together I was somewhat surprised when a number of attendees wondered aloud about how the […]

Muslim ‘Inferiority Complex’ Kills Christians

Days ago in Egypt, throngs of Muslims (henceforth, “Islamists”), estimated at 3,000, fired guns and rifles and hurled Molotov cocktails at Coptic churches, homes, and businesses in the Imbaba region near Cairo: twelve Christians were killed—some shot by snipers atop rooftops—232 injured; three churches were set aflame to cries of “Allahu Akbar,” while Coptic homes […]

Egypt – “Serious, but not hopeless”

Following the violent attacks on Christian churches in Cairo last weekend, the Coptic Catholic Patriarch of Alexandria, Cardinal Antonios Naguib has spoken of a “very serious situation,” but one not without hope. Last Sunday, May 9, the president of the Sunni Al Azhar University in Cairo issued a joint declaration, together with representatives of all […]

Strange Things are Done

The Bard of the Yukon, Robert Service, penned the immortal lines:  There are strange things done in the midnight sun,         by the men who moil for gold; The Arctic trails have their secret tails,         that would make your blood run cold; So began The Cremation of Sam McGee, the poem that would make […]

Sins of the Father: Abortion, Birth Control, and the ACLU

As someone with the highly unusual task of researching old, declassified Soviet and Communist Party USA archives, I often get quizzical looks as to why certain things from the distant past still matter. Well, it’s indeed true that past is often prologue. And it’s striking to see how something in communist archives from, say, the […]

There Be Dragons Indeed

I am one of the apparently few people who have seen There Be Dragons, Roland Joffe’s film about St. Josemaria Escriva, founder of Opus Dei.  Only it isn’t really about Josemaria at all.  It’s about Spain. The photography is beautiful and the settings are wonderful (so good that they made me homesick for Spain, where […]

Comic: A Different Assignment