After Easter, the passage from John 21 about the catch of 153 large fish in the Sea of Galilee comes up a couple of times. The disciples go night fishing. After a fruitless night, the Lord, from the shore, asks: “Have you caught anything?” “Nothing.” “Cast your nets on the right side of the boat.” … Read more
Margaret, over on on NRO’s Corner Maggie Gallagher says that Kagan will be the lynchpin for same-sex marriage in all 50 states: A vote for Elena Kagan is a vote for “marriage equality,” which features in two key cases that will shortly be before the Supreme Court: Perry v. Schwarzenegger, which arises out of California’s … Read more
Lots of buzz today about President Obama’s pick to replace Justice Stevens on the Supreme Court — Elena Kagan. Conservatives are understandably nervous about her record on abortion; Steve Ertelt at Life News quotes Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony list, saying: “In the past Kagan has been a strong supporter of the … Read more
Award-winning actress and sex symbol Raquel Welch has a message for young women today, and it’s not what you might expect. In a piece on CNN Opinion called, “It’s sex o’clock in America,” Welch comments on the effects the Pill has had: These days, nobody seems able to “keep it in their pants” or honor … Read more
Award-winning actress and sex symbol Raquel Welch has a message for young women today, and it’s not what you might expect. In a piece on CNN Opinion called, “It’s sex o’clock in America,” Welch comments on the effects the Pill has had: These days, nobody seems able to “keep it in their pants” or honor … Read more
Sr. Carol Keehan responded to the standing ovation she received at a gathering of Obama’s Catholic coalition by making a very strange claim about her support of the recent health-care legislation signed by President Barack Obama. “We were in complete accord with our bishops and our church that abortion is a grave evil. There is … Read more
Halfway through the latest serial! Here’s the next episode in Frank Borth’s 1962 “Uncle Harry’s Monkey’s Uncle.” As always, these pages come courtesy of Catholic University’s online archive of Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact. Ooh, this should be good…
Many years ago, I visited the Carmelite Monastery in the hard coal region of Pennsylvania as the nuns were preparing for their annual novena honoring their foundress, St. Theresa of Avila. They told me of various intentions they had received for the novena, especially one that puzzled them: “Please pray for the knees of Johnny … Read more
Looks like the folks at NCR’s “Washington Briefing” had their collective Kum-Ba-Ya moment when Sr. Carol Keehan rose to speak at the podium. Michael Sean Winters describes the moment: Then there are those moments when a group of people want to express their profound admiration and love for someone and, given the context, the only … Read more
Looks like the folks at NCR’s “Washington Briefing” had their collective Kum-Ba-Ya moment when Sr. Carol Keehan rose to speak at the podium. Michael Sean Winters describes the moment: Then there are those moments when a group of people want to express their profound admiration and love for someone and, given the context, the only … Read more
Looks like the folks at NCR’s “Washington Briefing” had their collective Kum-Ba-Ya moment when Sr. Carol Keehan rose to speak at the podium. Michael Sean Winters describes the moment: Then there are those moments when a group of people want to express their profound admiration and love for someone and, given the context, the only … Read more
Jeffrey Overstreet, of the Looking Closer blog, is one of the film critics I look to with great regularity, particularly when it comes to identifying and analyzing the more “spiritual” components of cinema. (His book “Through a Screen Darkly” examines the ways in which “artists – whether they know it or not – have captured … Read more
In a recent message on modern means of mass communication, Pope Benedict XVI asked us to “give the Internet a soul”: Without fear we must set sail on the digital sea facing into the deep with the same passion that has governed the ship of the Church for two thousand years. Rather than for, albeit … Read more
A nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center studied the changing demographics of motherhood in the United States, examining data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the U.S. Census Bureau from 1990 to 2008. Mothers of newborns are now older, better educated, less likely to be white, and more likely to be … Read more
Friday is finally here, along with this morning’s link round-up: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke at a conference yesterday where she said she wants Catholics to “play a very major role” in immigration reform. Bill Maher on Christianity: “The problem with faith … is it kind of screws up your priorities. Your priorities shouldn’t be … Read more
Rising Road: A True Tale of Love, Race, and Religion in America Sharon Davies, Oxford University Press, 352 pages, $27.95 In 1954, Hugo Black joined his fellow Supreme Court justices in outlawing racial segregation in American schools in the unanimous, landmark decision, Brown v. Board of Education. There is, indeed, as Reinhold Niebuhr might put … Read more
Many readers of this blog also read First Things… or at least, would like to read it. Now you’ve got no excuse. The Anchoress is plugging a great deal today: a subscription to First Things for only $20. That’s half the regular price. The sale ends tomorrow, so be sure to check it out. That’s … Read more
They leave for different reasons. Some saw hypocrisy. Others were hurt by those in authority. Still more disagree with a Church teaching. Sometimes, all they’re waiting for is an invitation back. And often, it’s not the Catholic Church itself that the “fallen away” have a beef with but their particular experience of it. “Evangelize at … Read more
Spring means baseball, and spring plus kids means Little League. And since I’m the kind of guy who presses down with his feet to counteract airplane turbulence, for me spring plus kids means coaching Little League. It’s now my fourth child going through the system, and the sixth or so bunch of kids I have … Read more
…Father Rutler knew them. His collection of columns written for Crisis and InsideCatholic over the years on the famous (and not-so-famous) people he has known will be released next week by Scepter Publishers under the title, Cloud of Witnesses: Dead People I Knew When They Were Alive. Father Rutler’s trademark thoughtfulness and bone-dry humor are … Read more