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Biotech Company Using Aborted Fetal Cell Lines to Test Food Flavor Enhancers — Some Major Food Companies Severing Ties with Senomyx

Senomyx is a biotech company that produces artificial flavors.  It enhances the way our food tastes.  They are so clever their website states that they “focus on the discovery and development of savory, sweet and salt flavor ingredients.”  Last year another discovery was made, that Senomyx uses, in its research, HEK 293.  HEK 293 are […]

Answer to Family Breakdown is “Social Fatherhood,” UN Says

 The cohesion of the American family is about the worst in the world, according to a new UN report. Rather than recommending policies reinforcing traditional family roles, the study recommends social policies reflecting the new reality.  Just 70 percent of American children grow up with both parents, worse than the developed world average of 84 […]

DVD Review: Charlton Heston Presents The Bible

“I’m not a priest or a scholar.  I’m an actor.  I tell stories.”  These words spoken by the legendary Charlton Heston summarize the theme of the re-released 4-disc DVD set, Charlton Heston Presents the Bible.  The DVD titles include Genesis, The Story of Moses, Jesus of Nazareth and The Passion. In the mid-1950’s, the actor […]

Lent, A Time to Pray for Miracles

Editors Note: The three previous article spoke of Lent as a time to “open wide our hearts to Christ”, a time “to listen to God’s voice”, and a time “to repent in words and actions.” This article will look at Lent as a grace-filled time to pray for miracles — small ones and big ones. These […]

Santa Pudenziana

On my tours, I often ask the group to name the cathedral of Rome. Many know the correct answer is Saint John Lateran. Some, understandably, think that Saint Peter’s Basilica is the cathedral. Now, if I were to ask where is the first cathedral of Rome, what would you say? Before you answer, let’s take […]

Bridging the Generation Gap in the Workplace

Like many of my fellow business leaders, I do my best to stay current.  I embrace social media, read the latest leadership books and stay abreast of trends in the marketplace.  And from a workplace perspective, there is one particular conversation topic in full discourse across the country—Generation Y in Corporate America. It should be. […]

Muslim Jihad in Christian Ethiopia

Not only does last week’s jihadist rampage against Ethiopia’s Christians highlight the travails Christians encounter wherever Islam has a sizable population, but it offers several insights, including some which should concern faraway, secular nations with Muslim minorities. According to Fox News: Thousands of Christians have been forced to flee their homes in Western Ethiopia after […]

Are We Becoming Users and Disposers of Others?

Professor Robert George of Princeton University, and co-author of the Manhattan Declaration, is heading to Benedictine College, Atchison, Kansas on Friday, July 15 to address medical doctors and medical professionals in a keynote speech on their conscience rights as part of a larger week dedicated to renewing the culture. An excerpt from the Manhattan Declaration, […]

S. Marco al Campidoglio

Today we visit the basilica of San Marco. First dedicated to Saint Mark the Evangelist, the church was later also dedicated to Pope Saint Mark, who once lived on this site. This is one of Rome’s oldest churches, built around the year 336. Known as Titulus Marci, this was one of the original twenty-five titular […]

The Incoherence of Federal Sex Policy: Title X, Medicaid, and the Eisenstadt Decision

In a 1972 decision widely hailed by the political classes, the Supreme Court opined in Eisenstadt v. Baird, “If the right to privacy means anything, it is the right to be free from unwarranted government intrusions into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or beget a child.”1 Imagining that […]

Easter Entertainment: JONAH, A VeggieTales Movie

When our children were young, my best friend shared a VeggieTale movie with us saying, “Your kids will love it; mine do!”  She was right, not only did they love it, but my husband and I enjoyed them too.  The characters are fun to watch and the Bible stores come to life in a way […]

Total Commitment

What does “Total Commitment,” mean? Well, the synonyms for “commitment” are: promise, pledge, binder, obligation, dedication, and loyalty. There is an old story about the Chicken and the Pig who were walking along the road. They saw a sign for Perkins Restaurant showing an ad for ham and eggs. The Chicken said to the Pig, […]

Rare Good News About Christians in the Midle East: Bearing Witness in Lebanon

In a recent interview, Father Raymond Abdo, the Provincial of the Discalced Carmelite Fathers in Lebanon, said that the most important thing that can be done for Christians in the Middle East is to help them not to emigrate, because everyone from the East should “bear witness to the Faith in the East.” Speaking to […]

Don’t You Ever Give Up!

We buried a dear friend today. We’ve known Betty and her husband, Norm for more than 20 years and in the last few months the breast cancer Betty valiantly battled for nearly that same amount of time finally took her life. In the interim, we ended up working together on various projects and committees and […]

Imperfect Justice in Snyder v. Phelps

On March 2, the Supreme Court issued a decision in the case Snyder v. Phelps that illustrates the difficulty of balancing competing claims to rights and justice in our judicial system. The court overturned a lower court’s $5 million tort judgment against Pastor Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, for invasion […]

The Samaritan Woman and the Original Meaning of Lent

Lent’s a time of introspection.  We read Exodus, and watch the Israelites grumbling, even after the amazing things God had done for them (Ex 17:3-7).  In them, we recognize ourselves.  For many of us, then, Lent is time for the spiritual equivalent of New Year’s resolutions.  We set aside work on ourselves for forty days […]

Comic: Influence From The Other Side

Dewey’s Disciples: From Madison to Maryland and Beyond

“More than 10,000 union members and supporters swarmed the State Capitol here,” began an ecstatic People’s World, describing the scene in Annapolis, Maryland. The masses assembled “to protest proposed changes to teacher’s pensions and to respond to the recent attack on unions in Wisconsin.” The CPUSA organ was there, reporting triumphantly, ready to storm the […]

What If We Just Said ‘Pray’?

The “reform of the reform” is afoot and some folks are none too pleased. How’s that for an understatement?!    For instance, about fifteen months ago, America Magazine featured an essay by the longtime pastor of St. James Cathedral in Seattle, Fr. Michael Ryan, belittling the new English translation of the Roman Missal; accusing the bishops […]

ACLU Attempting to Criminalize Christianity: ‘Communism is the Goal’

Irony is defined as “the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning.” The term doublespeak means “evasive, ambiguous language that is intended to deceive or confuse.” There is perhaps no greater example of ironic doublespeak than inclusion of the phrase “civil liberties” within the inapt designation: “American Civil Liberties […]

Reflections on Latin and the Catholic Church’s Memory and Identity, Part Four

Part Four, The Church’s Memory and Identity Continued: In the previous installments of this series (part one, part two, part three), I discussed the role of various influential theologians and laymen who effectively acted as “interpreters” of Vatican II.  Their actions, I argued, led to a lot of confusion about what the Council taught and […]

Intercessor of the Unborn

It’s been a month since the passing of Dr. Bernard Nathanson who died of cancer at the age of 84.  I’ve been waiting for NARAL (originally known as the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws) to offer some tribute to this man who was a founding member of their group. And where has […]

The JP2 Generation Tells Its Story: Part Three, Fr. Dan Hoffman

Presented in cooperation with Greg Schlueter and JP2Journey.com: The JP2 Generation Tells Its Story, remembering World Youth Day 2002 and the impact of Pope John II. Part Three, Fr. Dan Hoffman There are not many things more beautiful than the joy of the Lord! As we embarked on the third day of this pilgrimage of […]

Poem: “Annunciation”

Annunciation  Lest all be lost to sin’s increase and praise redound to Satan’s lie of dark renown, when angels speak what God decrees and men confound there is a grace that does abound. Stephen Pohl