Site Map

Site Feeds

Pages

Categories

Monthly Archives

Tags

All Articles

USS Cole, Towed October 29, 2000.

The Betrayal of the USS Cole

May 12 16 • • 0 comments

Betrayed too many times to count.

Syria: 'Things Were Never So Bad in Aleppo Before'

Syria: ‘Things Were Never So Bad in Aleppo Before’

May 12 16 • • 0 comments

By Oliver Maksan NEW YORK—In an urgent appeal to the outside world, Franciscan Father Ibrahim Alsabagh is calling on Christians throughout the world to pray for the Syrian city of Aleppo, currently caught up in the midst of heavy fighting. “Never, since the beginning of this terrible war were things as bad as they are […]

Poem: "Heaven Glow"

Poem: “Heaven Glow”

May 11 16 • • 0 comments

Heaven Glow Mr. Lee looked at the child moments old. “Sirius is his name,” said he. Mrs. Lee, cuddling the boy, truth be told, Said “Yes, Sirius Lee” he will be. But he wasn’t. Eyes twinkling stellar was he, Not dark, dismal or dull. Shimmering sparkling was he, Not Sirius Lee at all. Because he […]

Married Love is Total Self-Giving, Says Pope Francis' Amoris Laetitia

Married Love is Total Self-Giving, Says Pope Francis’ Amoris Laetitia

May 11 16 • • 0 comments

Pope Francis’ Amoris Laetitia (Joy of Love) should be required reading in pre-Cana classes, say commentators, because the Pope explains Catholic teaching on marriage so wisely and elegantly to the current generation. Throughout the papal exhortation, you can find the themes of the four marks or “keys” of married love: faithfulness, freedom, fruitfulness, and a […]

Nigerian Bishops Ask Their President for Action on Christians' Rights

Nigerian Bishops Ask Their President for Action on Christians’ Rights

May 11 16 • • 0 comments

Nigeria’s Catholic bishops have in no uncertain terms asked their new president to enact and enforce policies that—in accordance with the country’s constitution—would guarantee fair treatment of Christians in the north of the country where they are often relegated to second-class status. Meeting May 2, 2016 with President Muhammadu Buhari, the bishops’ demands—voiced in a […]

Obama’s Foreign Policy Legacy: Chaos and LGBT

Obama’s Foreign Policy Legacy: Chaos and LGBT

May 10 16 • • 0 comments

As President Obama nears the end of his term his foreign policy remains indecipherable even to experts. His reticence in foreign affairs – even in cases of genocide – is legendary, except for one matter. A coordinated game plan on one key issue emerges through officials’ speeches, obscure overseas funding, even “buttonholing” diplomats in UN […]

God’s Definition of Tolerance: The Woman Caught in Adultery

God’s Definition of Tolerance: The Woman Caught in Adultery

May 10 16 • • 1 comment

The Story and Its Reminders We have all heard the story of the woman caught in adultery who fell before Jesus at the point of being stoned under Mosaic law ( John 8:1-11). First, we know that those who brought this woman before Jesus were not really interested in the law, compassion, forgiveness or, for […]

Poem: "My God, my God, why have You forsaken"

Poem: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken”

My God, my God, why have You forsaken Your life for mine? Why are You so far from helping Your own holiness by taking on my sins? You magnetized crowds with Your love and prayers and healing touch, only to draw sin from us – like a magnet cast in iron nails that tear away […]

Mary: Woman. Why not "Mom?"

Mary: Woman. Why not “Mom?”

Mama, Mammy, Mom, Mommy. Sweet, Beloved, Dear. Think of all the terms of endearment we use for our mothers. Think of all the terms of love and care our mothers use for us. Of all our titles and names for Mary – The Litany Of Loreto, also called the Litany Of The Blessed Virgin Mary, […]

The Momentum of Mercy

The Momentum of Mercy

When I was child, I thought of mercy as something that was granted only to a person who really needed it, such as a big sinner, or when I did something really bad. I never thought about how mercy can be a part of everyday life. If we are open to the expansive nature of […]

New Civil Society Coalition Formed to Protect the Family

New Civil Society Coalition Formed to Protect the Family

A new coalition to confront the growing international threat against the family is launching a pro-family platform to unite organizations against overreach by international institutions. “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and binding international instruments reserve singular protections for the family in recognition of the family’s irreplaceable role as the natural environment for the growth […]

On the Beautiful Prayer of Crying

On the Beautiful Prayer of Crying

May 4 16 • • 0 comments

A boy falls and skins his knees. A boy wrestles in the living room and bonks his head on the coffee table. A boy tries to field a ground ball at shortstop, only to take a bad hop that bloodies his nose, or gets plowed by a much bigger boy on the football field. “Boys […]

Fruitful Love Symbolizes God's Inner Life, says Pope Francis' <em>Amoris Laetitia</em>

Fruitful Love Symbolizes God’s Inner Life, says Pope Francis’ Amoris Laetitia

May 4 16 • • 0 comments

The night before Pope Francis officially released Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love), I was chatting about it with Fr. Dave Dwyer on the Busted Halo radio show. Revealing that he had been able to get his hands on an advance copy, Fr. Dave told me, “You’re going to love it. He says a lot […]

<em>Talking to God: Prayers for Catholic Women</em>

Talking to God: Prayers for Catholic Women

Sometimes it can be hard to find the words to pray, both in times of celebration and when we are hurting. Maybe we haven’t prayed in so long, we aren’t sure where to begin. As Grace Mazza Urbanski writes in the introduction to Talking to God: Prayers for Catholic Women (Franciscan Media, 2016), “We encounter […]

What Did Jesus Write?

What Did Jesus Write?

May 3 16 • • 3 comments

It’s a well-known story of forgiveness in John 8, but it remains mysterious. “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery.” Upon hearing this, Jesus kneels and begins to write in the sand. What was Jesus writing? Scripture doesn’t tell us, but the reactions of those in the crowd give us […]

Always Choose Life!

Always Choose Life!

May 2 16 • • 0 comments

A number of years ago, my wife and I were contacted by the mother of a sixteen year old girl who had a positive pregnancy test. I will call the teenager Katie (not her real name) and her mother Joanne (not her real name). Katie was obviously in a crisis pregnancy:  It was a crisis […]

Poem: "The Sacrifice of the Sun"

Poem: “The Sacrifice of the Sun”

May 1 16 • • 0 comments

(I was inspired to write this after reading an ancient legend about the sun dying every night so that the moon might draw breath. As it was Holy Week for Christians, this inspired me to try my hand on a comparative allusion about how Christ died so that humanity might draw new life) “The Sun […]

Witnesses Tell UN of Genocide of Christians in Middle East

Witnesses Tell UN of Genocide of Christians in Middle East

Apr 29 16 • • 0 comments

Held by terrorist captors, an Iraqi woman named Khalia resisted their demands that she abandon her Christian faith.  Her story was told at the UN this week, along with other accounts of atrocities suffered by Christians and religious minorities in the Middle East at the hands of the Islamic State, or ISIS. According to experts, […]

Dominican - Black Friar

Western Civ in the Crosshairs

Apr 29 16 • • 1 comment

Students are enmeshed with a secular worldview.

Thérèse, Faustina, and Alphonsus: Heaven’s Trust Triangle

Thérèse, Faustina, and Alphonsus: Heaven’s Trust Triangle

Apr 28 16 • • 0 comments

One of the most perplexing puzzles in human salvation is the confrontation between taking salvation and sin seriously on one hand and, yet, feeling an almost insurmountable uselessness in one’s daily effort to save one’s soul on the other. The paradox is clear: we have to take salvation seriously, but the more seriously we take […]

In an Industry that Makes People, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

In an Industry that Makes People, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Sperm donation, egg donation and surrogacy: Third party reproduction seems to be a “done deal” in Western society. Even ardently pro-life people do not seem to see the problems. Hey, these techniques are making babies, not killing them. So what could possibly go wrong? A lot of things can go very wrong. Let me describe […]

Poem: "Microcosmos"

Poem: “Microcosmos”

Apr 27 16 • • 0 comments

Microcosmos When we first started looking through microscopes a cold fear blew and it’s still blowing. Life hitherto had been frantic enough in all its shapes and dimensions. Which is why it created small-scale creatures, assorted tiny worms and flies, but at least the naked human eye could see them. But then suddenly beneath the […]

The Big Deal With Bathroom Laws

The Big Deal With Bathroom Laws

Apr 27 16 • • 4 comments

About ten years ago Regina and I were going through a stretch of pretty rough road together, and all the hidden fault lines in our marriage were exposed. My best friend who had been one of the priests on the altar at our wedding heard my confession one day and said, “Gerry, for your penance, […]

Pope Francis Praises Personal Freedom in Family Life

Pope Francis Praises Personal Freedom in Family Life

Apr 27 16 • • 0 comments

The four keys to a lasting marriage are faithful, free, fruitful, and total love, as we explain in our newly released book on Catholic marriage. Pope Francis stresses these same four themes in his recent exhortation Amoris Laetitia (Joy of Love). Our last article looked at what the pope had to say about the first key, […]