The following column first appeared in the March 1997 edition of Crisis Magazine. President Clinton’s veto of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act last April cracked open the facade of principle and consensus that our national leadership had presented to the country. The ideological gulf that exists between the president and the electorate, if ever … Read more
In his speech marking the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, President Bush accurately described our nation’s ongoing war against the people who attacked us as “the deciÂsive ideological struggle of the 21st century.” This war is a struggle for our civilization. I have spent a lot of time talking about the formidable enemy we … Read more
On June 5, the United States Senate expects to open its second debate on the Marriage Protection Amendment. The Senate is acting again in response to a growing national legal campaign by same-sex ”marriage” activists seeking to systemically overturn state marriage laws against the will of the people. Since Congress last voted on the marriage … Read more
On January 9, the Senate will begin confirmation hearings on the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito for associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. Judge Alito deserves a fair and dignified process, including respectful hearings and an up-or-down vote, expected January 20. He is one of the most knowledgeable and qualified Supreme Court nominees … Read more
This month the Senate considers the historic Supreme Court nomination of Judge John Roberts. President Bush could not have selected a better person for the job. Judge Roberts is an eminently qualified nominee—a distinguished appeals court judge on the D.C. Circuit and a brilliant lawyer who has argued an incredible 39 cases before the Supreme … Read more
America is the most prosperous nation on earth, and yet millions of Americans remain entrenched in poverty. The hand of big government has not lifted them out of the cycle of poverty—the helping hand of family members, neighbors, and faith-based and community organizations is what makes a difference in the lives of people in need. … Read more
“I have looked for you, and now you have come to me.” Those were some of the last words of Pope John Paul II. This holy man with an incredible personal story and a simple message, rooted in the love of Christ and power of prayer, changed lives. Pope John Paul II touched my life … Read more
The political winds on abortion are changing. Reacting to their election losses, Democrats are trying to fix their party’s pro-abortion image. It may just be talk, but it signals an important public trend toward valuing unborn life. Clearly, the eight-year debate that ended in the 108th Congress’s partial-birth abortion ban awakened the conscience of the … Read more
The 108th Congress is done, and the 2004 presidential election is history. It’s time to review what President George W. Bush and Congress accomplished with regard to the Catholic Church’s most significant issues. While much remains to be done, this Congress and this president have made substantial progress on core social matters. Of the five … Read more
Every generation has but a moment to carry the torch that defines who we are and what we will become. Will our torch shine brightly, or will it diminish? Our best hope will not be found in the laws of men but in love of others, or as President Bush defines it, compassion. Remember, “The … Read more
In his papal encyclical Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II warned the world community that “with the new prospects opened up by sciÂentific and technological progress there arise new forms of attack on the dignity of the human being.” We see this danger in the current debate over stem-cell research emÂbroiled in presidential election-year politics. … Read more
“In the end it’s about values,” Senator John Kerry (D-MA) said in July regarding the campaign for president. I agree. But whose values? Thinking back to when Senator Kerry and his running mate Senator John Edwards (D-NC) applauded the cheap shots and vulgarities aimed at President George W. Bush during Kerry’s New York celebrity fundraiser, … Read more
I made a decision recently to support my colleague, Senator Arlen Specter—a pro-choice Republican—in the Pennsylvania Senate primary race. While the decision was controversial with some, I’m convinced it was the right one. Put simply, I supported Senator Specter because it will further the causes in which I believe and because it’s in the best … Read more
Senate Democrats who pride themselves on being advocates for the poor are blocking our best weapon in the war on poverty—welfare reform. In April, Democrats used a parliamentary procedure to prevent a Senate vote on the welfare reauthorization bill that would build on the tremendous success of the 1996 welfare reforms in getting people off … Read more
It’s only the latest example of rampant antireligion in the courts. The California Supreme Court has ruled that Catholic Charities must include contraceptive coverage to women as part of any prescription drug benefit for employees, even though Church doctrine forbids contraception. Indeed, activist courts are increasingly hostile to religion in any form, even a social-services … Read more
American troops have fought hard and continue to shed their blood to free Iraq from Saddam Hussein’s authoritarian regime that oppressed the Iraqi people, threatened Iraq’s neighbors, and supported global terrorism. Now the vision for a new Iraq, and indeed, a new Middle East, is a free, democratic society, governed by the rule of law, … Read more
Anti-Semitism is back with a vengeance: desecration of cemeteries, attacks on synagogues, vicious graffiti, physical assaults, and slurs from global newspapers and political leaders. These old expressions of hatred—taboo for more than 60 years—have a new face and a new life. Fed from the underbrush of anti-Zionism, the new anti-Semitism is spreading like wildfire throughout … Read more
On November 18, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled narrowly in Goodridge v. Massachusetts Department of Public Health that homosexual couples have a constitutional right to “marry” in the state, a decision that impacts the whole nation. As I predicted in my remarks last April, the Goodridge decision is just the beginning of the fallout … Read more
On November 5, I stood behind President George W. Bush as he signed into law the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. The president’s signature marks a victorious end to an emotional legislative campaign that began in 1995 to outlaw an especially brutal abortion procedure. Another important outcome of this debate is that more than … Read more
Activist Supreme Court justices increasingly are looking past our borders to England, France, Canada, and the permissive laws of other states to determine how they interpret our Constitution. Their policy aim is to remodel America in Western Europe’s image—a secularized society that devalues civic virtue. To accomplish this, they overstep their constitutional bounds and, instead … Read more