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"Camp Virgin Mary." Displaced Iraqis get Chapel in Baghdad

“Camp Virgin Mary.” Displaced Iraqis get Chapel in Baghdad

Dec 15 15 • 0 comments

By Oliver Maksan BAGHDAD—Father Luis Montes is glad and he has reason to be: “We have just consecrated a new chapel. It was high time that our refugees got their own small church. This gives them back a piece of the home they have lost. And the people can now go to Mass without risking […]

Learning from the Moms

Learning from the Moms

Dec 15 15 • 0 comments

I’m a new priest and I have a lot to learn. Of course, working in a parish affords me many opportunities to work with different and diverse groups of people. A group of mothers approached me a few months ago and asked if I would be willing to lead a book discussion for them. I […]

Annual UN Report Repeats False Claims About Abortion

Annual UN Report Repeats False Claims About Abortion

Dec 15 15 • 0 comments

As wars and natural disasters force increasing numbers of people from their homes, among the most vulnerable are mothers with infants and pregnant women. Unfortunately, maternal health suffers most in humanitarian settings, lags behind other global development goals, and is often tarnished with controversy by the pro-abortion lobby’s attempts to co-opt it. In its annual […]

Poem: "If I Had But an Hour with You"

Poem: “If I Had But an Hour with You”

Dec 14 15 • 0 comments

If I Had But an Hour with You If I had but an hour with You It would be as a dream come true To sit at your feet and gaze upon You ’Twould be joy beyond measure. But alas, it is not to be Not now whilst I am living. This joy, this joy […]

Mercy Has No Limits

Mercy Has No Limits

Dec 11 15 • 3 comments

Mercy and forgiveness go both ways: God toward us, and us toward others. As concerns others’ forgiving us, we cannot control that. It is a futile waste of time and energy to try to control others. We can only control, with the help of God’s grace, our own attitudes and actions. In Matthew 18:23–35 we […]

Techno-Babies

Techno-Babies

Dec 11 15 • 1 comment

David and Melissa Pineda wanted desperately to have another child. In 2013 the couple went to Dr. Rifaat Salem for an IVF treatment that they hoped would give them their fourth child. But what happened soon after nearly broke their hearts. They found out later that Salem allegedly discovered that he had “mistakenl?y implanted” embryos […]

A Guide to Intentional Christmas Giving

A Guide to Intentional Christmas Giving

Dec 11 15 • 0 comments

A few years ago, I started making an effort to do my all my Christmas shopping before the start of Advent. I wanted to be free during Advent to focus on spiritual preparation for Christmas, rather than rushing around trying to buy everyone’s gifts at the last minute. As a born procrastinator, this proved to […]

Did Neanderthals Have a Soul?

Did Neanderthals Have a Soul?

Dec 10 15 • 4 comments

“The magisterium of the Church takes a direct interest in the question of evolution, because it touches on the conception of man, whom Revelation tells us is created in the image and likeness of God…. “Pius XII underlined the essential point: if the origin of the human body comes through living matter which existed previously, the […]

God's Grace Shines a Light in Syria's Darkness

God’s Grace Shines a Light in Syria’s Darkness

Dec 10 15 • 0 comments

By Eliane També ALEPPO, Syria—War rages on in Syria. Aleppo, the country’s major business center—what’s left of it—is a city at war, subject to regular bombardments by various factions fighting for dominance. Last year, a mother of two sons, 48-year-old Joumana Jarjour, a Melkite Catholic, was gravely wounded by scrapnel from a rocket that landed […]

Climate Summit Frustrates Population Control Groups

Climate Summit Frustrates Population Control Groups

Population control advocates are miffed that the UN Climate Summit in Paris will not address fertility reduction. “It’s pretty hard to reduce your carbon footprint when you keep adding more feet…” said Population Media Center in a newsletter, a population control group that lingers on the fringes of the Paris negotiations. The group says world […]

Silence - Finger Over Mouth

Does God Hear the Theological Silence About Racism in Abortion?

For some time now, a group of theologians has opined about “Theological Silence About White Racism.” In words of accusation that could not be stronger or more vigorous, this sin is condemned as injustice, institutional violence, group dehumanization, troubling social evil, social subjugation, race-based wrongdoing, social sin, habitus of white superiority, tragedy, social inequity, unjust […]

Mary's Salvation and Ours

Mary’s Salvation and Ours

Dec 8 15 • 0 comments

“Have you been saved?” Maybe you have been asked that by one of our Protestant brothers or sisters. If our Blessed Mother had been asked, she could have given the loudest “Yes!” the world had ever heard. Her personal salvation from the stain of Original Sin is celebrated today. Mary praised God’s salvation in her Magnificat and […]

Vatican II Quinquagenary

Fiftieth Anniversary of Vatican II Closing

Dec 8 15 • 0 comments

Beginning of the Jubilee Year of Mercy.

Movie Review -- <em>The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2</em>

Movie Review — The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2

If you already know how the Hunger Games saga ends, you may want to skip this third installment — unless you are fond of tedium. The beginning gets off the ground well enough with lots of dialogue and ominous music that is just setting the stage for future action scenes. However, said action scenes drag […]

Family in Full: Blending Backgrounds for New Family Traditions

Family in Full: Blending Backgrounds for New Family Traditions

Dec 4 15 • 0 comments

It was Thanksgiving and my then-girlfriend was meeting my family for the first time. Much to my surprise, all five of my siblings were able to be there, and we enjoyed – or so I thought – our usual holiday dinner with the typical excited-aggressive talking that Italians tend to do. Later that evening, I […]

Being Squeezed into (I Hope) Fine Wine

Being Squeezed into (I Hope) Fine Wine

Dec 3 15 • 0 comments

I like wine, red and dry. My preferences are Chianti and Merlot. A bottle of Cabernet, Pinot Noir or Petite Syrah will do in a pinch. Some brands and years taste better than others, but I’m not a connoisseur. I’m not picky about the wine coming from Italy or California. For me, good wine is […]

Poem: "Here, Now and Forever"

Poem: “Here, Now and Forever”

Dec 3 15 • 0 comments

Here, Now and Forever Here You are beside me. Here You are within me. Here You share Your Being as Bread for my living. Here I am believing. Here I am becoming. Here I receive Your Spirit as Life for my soul. Here we dwell together. Here we dwell in loving. Here we give, completely, […]

It’s Time to Become Pro-Life 3.0

It’s Time to Become Pro-Life 3.0

Dec 3 15 • 0 comments

For the last few years, scientists have been warning us that genetically modified children are just over the horizon. Rumors have been flying around that laboratories are already using a revolutionary new gene-editing technique called CRISPR to try to change the genes of human embryos. Advanced gene-editing techniques like CRISPR hold great promise for treating […]

Book Review: <em>Our Lady, Undoer of Knots: A Living Novena</em>

Book Review: Our Lady, Undoer of Knots: A Living Novena

On October 12, 2013, “Pope Francis revealed to the world his special devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title Our Lady, Undoer of Knots. . . He spoke of Mary as the ‘new Eve’ who unties the knot of Eve’s disobedience.” In May 2014, Marge Fenelon traveled to the Holy Land with the […]

Beware the Devangelization

Beware the Devangelization

Dec 2 15 • 0 comments

The accepted dictionary definition of “evangelize” is: 1. To preach the gospel to. 2. To convert to Christianity. 3. To promulgate or promote (a doctrine or idea, for example) enthusiastically. Now, we know that a large part of our job as Catholics is to evangelize, that is, to bring others to Christ. The ways and means are up for discussion, often passionate discussion over the course of our Church’s history. […]

No Excuse for Murder, No Justification for Abortion

No Excuse for Murder, No Justification for Abortion

Dec 2 15 • 0 comments

By now most people are aware of the shooting that took place at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs last Friday. Robert Lewis Dear, Jr., killed three people and wounded several more, purportedly in retaliation for the activities documented by the Center for Medical Progress in which Planned Parenthood officials are seen and heard […]

The Grief of Being Unloved

The Grief of Being Unloved

Dec 1 15 • 0 comments

English writer and broadcaster Claire Rayner (1931-2010) said: “Only the unloved and unloving escape grief.” That is not entirely true. I will reserve comment about the unloving other than to say if they do not know grief in this world they will certainly know it in the next. The unloved live in grief of the […]

Supreme Court to Rule on the Biggest Abortion Case of the Decade

Supreme Court to Rule on the Biggest Abortion Case of the Decade

In what could be the abortion legal battle of the decade, the U.S. Supreme Court decided last month to weigh-in on the Texas abortion regulation law. The case will have far-reaching and long-lasting consequences for women’s health. It will determine whether the unregulated and unaccountable abortion industry will be able to continue business as usual, […]

The Lonely Road of the Church's "New Minority"

The Lonely Road of the Church’s “New Minority”

Dec 1 15 • 17 comments

A religious once said, “Being a missionary is like taking a pearl of inestimable value into a land where the people don’t want it, even as a gift.” The sad truth is that today, everyday faithful Catholics are called to be missionaries  in their own churches. Why? Because our fellow parishioners are often as in need of evangelization […]