It had to happen eventually. This president is too thin-skinned to take the high road for very long. Yesterday, at a labor rally in Milwaukee, Obama went off his prepared remarks (a big mistake for him!): [O]ver the last two years, that’s meant taking on some powerful interests — some powerful interests who had been … Read more
When I posted "Our Summer of Silents" a few days ago, I began wondering if I had spent too many of the 90+ scorching days afforded to Northern Virginia watching movies. So I started poking around in the various stacks of books cluttering our home to reassure myself I had spent some time in that … Read more
Silent movies were never silent; they were always accompanied by some manner of music, sometimes a full symphony orchestra led by white-tied and usually white-haired conductors, but more often the celebrated theater organist. For Chippy and me, this has been the summer of silents – excuse me – “pre-dialogue movies” more accurately describes the genre. … Read more
A friend of mine, a cradle Catholic who doubts her faith, asked me what she should teach her four-year old about religion. “Everything,” I said, “heaven, hell, God, angels, sin, grace, forgiveness, don’t leave anything out.” “How can I do that,” she responded, “when I’m not sure myself?” Such attempts at parental honesty can leave … Read more
Jack Smith at the Catholic Key blog is reporting that pro-Obama group Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good appears to be “out of business.” He cites the evidence from their Web site: They’ve had no blog posts since June 10. They’ve made no tweets since May 12. They haven’t posted to their own facebook … Read more
At Catholic Advocate, I have posted the speech given by Dr. Patrick Lee, a professor at Franciscan University, at the America’s Divine Destiny event last Friday night at the Kennedy Center. Sponsored by Glenn Beck, the Kennedy Center event featured a Jewish, Evangelical, Protestant, and Catholic speaker. The Catholic was Dr. Lee, a renown pro-life … Read more
I have often learned my most valuable lessons from my worst enemies. In graduate school I spent several years wrestling with the texts of the atheistic philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who taught me one unforgettable lesson: Those who lack the tragic sense of life are apt to invent realities to replace the one they cannot face. … Read more
A few minutes ago I received the press release below, not yet posted at the Catholic Action League web site. I had to read it several times because I kept saying to myself, “It can’t be so!” But, sadly, it is. Caritas Christi, a network of six hospitals owned by Archdiocese of Boston, will soon … Read more
At Catholic Advocate, I’ve posted the remarks I made at the Catholic League’s rally in NYC last Thursday in front of the Empire State Building. The rally was well-attended, around 3000 people stretched down 39th street. Bill Donohue was his usual bigger-than-life self, completely in his element introducing the seventeen speakers and keeping the proceedings … Read more
Over at the Catholic Key Blog, the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has published its plan for reforming the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. Already a year old, their CCHD plan is very convincing. I began reading it with a healthy skepticism… until I came to this: Our first decision, then, was to cease funding … Read more
Direct peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine will resume on September 2 in Washington, D.C. The announcement of the talks has been greeted with a polite but skeptical nod from the media and a rolling of the eyes from experts in the realpolitik of international affairs. The assumption behind these dismissals is that peace talks … Read more
This blog post from the always fluent Lisa Graas got my attention today, given that I’ve been trying lately to make sense how the CCHD decides to give away our money. The Chicago Worker’s Collaborative (CWC) receives CCHD funding through the Chicago Archdiocese. As a part of their “Boycott Arizona” campaign, the CWC has targeted … Read more
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), the anti-poverty program run by the USCCB, came under fire this past year for funding groups who were explicitly supporting abortion, contraception, and same-sex marriage. After its internal investigation, the CCHD claimed there were problems with only five groups out of the 51 listed as problematic by the … Read more
In my 15 years with Crisis Magazine, the Morley Institute, and now InsideCatholic, the conversation that most often reoccurs is the one about the fate of the Catholic university and college. It begins inevitably with alumni complaining about the latest anti-Catholic outbreak on the hallowed grounds of their former college campus and ends with their … Read more
This morning, I received an email from Jim Franklin of the Boston Catholic Insider blogging team reporting that the Archdiocese of Boston has blocked access to their web site from the Archdiocesan office in Braintree, MA. Since we at InsideCatholic.com are ardent believers in both the freedom of the press and the basic right of … Read more
Anne Hendershott alerted me to the post at National Review Online about the funding George Soros provides to Jim Wallis and his organization/magazine called Sojourners. Wallis is the de facto leader of the Religious Left coalition that does everything it can to aid the Democratic Party. Any pretense of Wallis to non-partisanship was completely blown … Read more
Too often, Catholic commentators, including myself, speak about American bishops in the plural. The existence of a national bishops’ conference unfortunately encourages this habit, one that obscures a basic fact about the Catholic Church: It is individual bishops who are responsible for sanctifying the lives of the Catholic faithful. There’s no better antidote to the … Read more
If you are able, I urge you to join Bill Donohue at the Catholic League rally in New York City on August 26 at the Empire State Building. I will be there, I wouldn’t miss a chance to join the protest against the landlord who decided to pull the plug on the lights honoring Mother … Read more
On January 29, the Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Death Penalty (CMN) was launched. According to its executive director, Karen Clifton, the CMN was created “with the encouragement of the USCCB.” The support of the bishops’ conference is substantial. The Coordinating Committee includes both Kathy Saile, the director of the Office of Domestic Concerns, … Read more
To my eye, nothing is more powerful in films than the depiction of the love parents have for their children. Sometimes this love pops up in unexpected cinematic places. Unable to sleep this morning, still jet-lagged from my trip to the Holy Land, I watched what many consider to be Wim Wender’s masterpiece, “Paris, Texas.” … Read more