Yesterday was the occasion of what has become my annual Christmas poetry luncheon at Buca di Beppo in Washington, D.C. This year I co-hosted the event with Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, whose Southern charm was needed to offset my post-60 gruffness. I intended to post videos of all twelve poetry … Read more
Yesterday was the occasion of what has become my annual Christmas poetry luncheon at Buca di Beppo in Washington, D.C. This year I co-hosted the event with Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, whose Southern charm was needed to offset my post-60 gruffness. I intended to post videos of all twelve poetry … Read more
Poetry, Not Polemics, Mark the Beginning of Advent
Yesterday was the occasion of what has become my annual Christmas poetry luncheon at Buca di Beppo in Washington, D.C. This year I co-hosted the event with Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, whose Southern charm was needed to offset my post-60 gruffness. I intended to post videos of all twelve poetry … Read more
The Health Care Bill Must Be Defeated — End of Argument
Whatever hope the health care bill had of authentic Catholic support ended yesterday when the Senate defeated the Nelson-Hatch amendment. Mirroring the Stupak-Pitts amendment in the House, this amendment would have prohibited federal funding for abortion. Deacon Keith Fournier has written eloquently this morning about the significance of this moment in our legislative history. … Read more
The Wounded Irish Church
The responsory at today’s Mass was especially appropriate: “The Lord is coming and will not delay; He will bring every hidden thing to light and reveal himself to every nation.” Sadness and anger pervades Ireland this first week of Advent. The release of the massive Murphy Report revealed more details about the three decades of … Read more
The Laughter That Binds Us All
Marjorie Campbell’s new book, On the Way to the Kingdom, has its origins in the radical feminism of her youth and her discovery of the late humorist and newspaper columnist Erma Bombeck. A mother of three children (ages 13 to 20), a wife, and an attorney, Campbell turned away from radical feminism when a friend … Read more
CCHD Responds to Its Critics and Chicago Responds to Its Own
With its annual collection coming up this Sunday, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development is fighting back against the organized effort encouraging Catholics to ignore the collection. CCHD’s woes began last year, when its grants to ACORN were terminated following the allegations of voter fraud and embezzlement brought against them during the … Read more
Abortion, Health Care, and the President’s Priorities
Two days after the Stupak-Pitts Amendment passed, President Barack Obama made a statement that appeared to accept a ban on abortion funding in health care reform. “I laid out a very simple principle, which is, this is a health care bill, not an abortion bill, and we’re not looking to change what is the principle … Read more
How the Stupak-Pitts Amendment May Change Our Politics
Last Friday night, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi decided to allow a vote on the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, she may have unwittingly altered the direction of the Obama presidency and the Democratic Party. For the first time in a long time, the pro-life issue is setting the agenda for the national debate on a major … Read more
Another ‘John Paul II’ Catholic Runs for Congress
On October 30, Brian Rooney, an attorney for the Thomas More Law Center, filed his papers to run for Michigan’s 7th Congressional Seat. Rooney had initially put aside his political plans when his son Blaise was born with a congenital heart defect in February, but the fight to save his son’s life in the midst … Read more
A New Grassroots Political Organization Makes Its Mark
The election results of November 2 were not merely the spontaneous reaction of Republicans to the bad economy and liberal excesses of the Obama administration. The four pro-life, conservative GOP candidates in Virginia and New Jersey were elected in a groundswell of religious and social conservatives, many of them independent voters who had … Read more
Bethlehem University Student Deported to Gaza in Handcuffs and Blindfold
Berlanty (Betty) Azzam was two months away from receiving her business degree at Bethlehem University. Anticipating life beyond college, she made the two-hour trip to Ramallah for a job interview, but on the way back she was asked for her papers at the “container” checkpoint. Azzam was detained by the Israeli military for five hours, … Read more
USCCB Clarifies Its Position on the Regulation of Hate Speech
This past Monday I reported that the USCCB Department of Communications is listed as a “principal partner” on the “So We Might See” Web site. So We Might See is a coalition of religious groups that is petitioning the Federal Communications Commission to investigate “hate speech.” Since the page on the organization’s Web site displaying … Read more
USCCB Partners an Effort to Investigate Rush Limbaugh’s “Hate Speech”
In an important article for the American Spectator, Jeffrey Lord describes the effort of “So We Might See” — “a national inter-faith coalition for media justice,” according to its Web site — to force a Federal Communications Commission investigation of conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh. The organization’s petition to FCC chairman Julius Genachowski and … Read more
The Stupid Party May Learn a Lesson in Upstate New York
A special election will be held on November 3 in upstate New York that may send a much-needed message to the GOP. New York Congressional District 23 was put up for grabs when nine-term Rep. John McHugh, a Republican, resigned to become Secretary of the Army. The eleven Republican chairs of the district nominated Dede … Read more
Obama’s Nominee for EEOC Promotes Polygamy and Homosexuality
President Barack Obama has nominated a Georgetown University law professor, Chai R. Feldblum, to the Equal Employment Opportunity Council. Feldblum, a lesbian activist lawyer, formerly worked for the American Civil Liberties Union, the Human Rights Campaign Fund, and in the mid-1980s clerked for Justice Harry A. Blackmun, the author of Roe v. Wade. Feldblum faces … Read more
Why Catholics Should Take a Position on the Hate-Crimes Bill
Last Saturday night, President Barack Obama spoke to the nation’s leading homosexual-rights lobbying group, the Human Rights Campaign, in Washington, D.C. Among the several promises Obama made were “to repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act” and “to pass an inclusive hate crimes bill.” As I reported a few days ago, the USCCB has … Read more
Why a ‘Public Option’ Will Lead to Abortion Coverage
This week, the Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to vote on the health-care bill. If it passes, the Finance bill will be reconciled with the bill already passed by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Then health-care reform will go to the Senate floor for a vote. The Finance Committee version does … Read more
Divine Mercy Care
“Put us head to head with any Planned Parenthood clinic, and people will choose us.” Dr. John Bruchalski, an OB/GYN in Fairfax, Virginia, told me how his Divine Mercy Care organization can transform national health care. DMC presently consists of an obstetrics and gynecology facility, the Tepeyac Family Center, and the DMC Pharmacy, opened almost … Read more
Newt Gingrich and the Pope
When Newt Gingrich was received into the Church last March, the reactions were predictable. The former Speaker of the House was simultaneously welcomed, jeered, and cynically accused of positioning himself to run for president in 2012. When I spoke to him last Friday in his Washington, D.C., office, Gingrich was humble and soft-spoken about … Read more