In an attempt to help their highly ranked—yet financially struggling—Catholic university, the Board of Trustees at Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg, MD, hired Simon Newman, a Los Angeles private equity and strategic planning leader to be its new president in 2014. A year later, Newman found himself at the center of a faculty-led firestorm over … Read more
Portrayed as a villain in Spotlight, the new film describing the clergy abuse scandal, Jack Dunn, the media spokesman for Boston College and trustee for Boston College High School, has hired a lawyer to demand that the scene portraying him as a cold and callous bureaucrat—caring nothing for victims—be stricken from the film. The scene … Read more
Since the release of a Pew Research Center report last spring on the “Changing Religious Landscape,” media outlets have suggested that the declines in Church affiliation indicate that the United States is becoming a nation that has given up on God. NPR claims that Americans—especially young Americans—have lost their faith. Now, a study reported in … Read more
As Congress began hearings last week to examine the federal laws guiding the procurement and sale of fetal tissue for medical research, the focus has remained on the role Planned Parenthood plays in harvesting this tissue. We argue that Congressional leaders need to begin paying attention to the end-stage users in the value chain surrounding … Read more
When F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “Show me a hero, and I’ll write you a tragedy,” he might have had someone like Cate Dyer in mind. Dyer is the 36-year-old founder and CEO of StemExpress, the fetal tissue procurement company at the center of the Planned Parenthood scandal. Lauded as a pioneer in promoting life-saving research … Read more
As Planned Parenthood prepares to mount a legal defense for what faithful Catholics view as its indefensible actions surrounding the selling of fetal tissue—including organs and body part of unborn children—the organization will have plenty of help from a new generation of pro-choice lawyers trained at some of the nation’s premier Catholic universities. Law Students … Read more
Despite the Catholic Church’s unambiguous teaching on the “intrinsic evil” of abortion, Catholic Colleges throughout the country continue to promote student internships and volunteer opportunities at Planned Parenthood—the country’s largest abortion provider. In fact, at the same time Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley, OFM Cap, Chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U. S. Conference … Read more
For more than a century, abortion has created tremendous wealth for providers in the United States. That continues today as yet another shocking video has been released showing a top Planned Parenthood official discussing the sale of body parts of unborn children. And, although this news does not seem to disturb many on the pro-choice … Read more
As faithful Catholics welcome the recent reports of the significant declines in abortion rates throughout the country, some on the “pro-choice” side decry the declines. One abortion advocate has actually called the decline in abortion rates a “worrisome trend” that suggests the possibility of an “increasing stigma” surrounding abortion—a change in the norms and values … Read more
Despite a ruthless public relations war against San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone for attempting to ensure that Catholic schools remain faithful to the Church, the majority of respondents to a San Francisco Chronicle poll remain supportive of their episcopal leader. On Sunday, the Chronicle provided a weeklong poll for readers entitled “Time for Archbishop Cordileone … Read more
Faithful Catholics who have supported Patricia Jannuzzi, the embattled New Jersey Catholic high school theology teacher, who had been suspended from her job at Immaculata High School for using her Facebook page to present authentic Catholic teachings on homosexuality and same-sex “marriage,” were happy to hear that she finally was returned to the classroom. It … Read more
Chesterton once wrote that “War is not the best way of settling differences—but it is the only way of preventing them from being settled for you.” If the Catholic Church is to continue to teach the timeless truths about the dignity of all human persons from conception to natural death, and the sanctity of marriage … Read more
A few years ago, when an undergraduate student research assistant of mine—a recent convert to Catholicism—told me that he was planning to meet with a well-known dissenting Catholic theology professor who was then ensconced in an endowed chair at a major metropolitan Catholic university, I told him: “Be careful, you might end up liking him … Read more
Disappointing progressives yet again, Pope Francis has now condemned contemporary gender theory as denying “the order of creation.” In an interview published in a new book, Pope Francis: This Economy Kills, by Andrea Tornielli and Giacomo Galeazzi, (portions of which were also published last month in the Italian daily La Stampa), Pope Francis appears to reject … Read more
In their zeal to protect students from any comments or opinions that may hurt their feelings, many professors have created “safe spaces” in their classrooms—controlling all conversations in an effort to ensure that no one is ever offended. But, a recent controversy at Marquette University has revealed that a “safe space” is now defined as … Read more
In an attempt to undermine the right of Catholic K-12 schools to “hire (and fire) for mission” the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle recently claimed that while the paper will not “quarrel with Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s determination to ensure that his rigid interpretation of Church doctrine is taught at four Catholic high schools,” they suggest … Read more
Undeterred by data debunking the notion that college campuses have become what Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has called “havens for rape and sexual assault,” the Obama administration is now investigating 90 colleges and universities for possible alleged sexual violence. Suggesting that “women are at a greater risk of sexual assault as soon as they step … Read more
In a news story that received little media attention last year, LifesiteNews.com and Breitbart, reported that the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation awarded the National Catholic Reporter a $2.3 million grant to provide positive publicity for the work that is being done by Catholic women religious. It was a noble goal that emerged from Conrad Hilton’s … Read more
More than two decades ago—long before we all were transfixed by the rebelliousness demonstrated by Katniss Everdeen in the dystopian society presented in the Hunger Games, or Tris Prior in the dystopian Divergent—Newberry Medal-winning novelist, Lois Lowry published The Giver, a novel designed for a young-adult audience, which described a totalitarian society in which no … Read more
More than four decades ago, Pope Paul VI predicted in Humanae Vitae that the emergence of the new reproductive technologies—especially the birth control pill—would lead to a “lowering of moral standards … and a rise in infidelity.” Today, with the emergence of Truvada, a pill that has been shown in clinical trials to be up … Read more