Shortly after entering the Utopia of all-you-can-eat dining halls and come-as-you-please elective courses, I found myself singled out as “the girl who hates college.” My peers concluded that this distaste for paradise stemmed from my apparently deficient education at a small, intimate Catholic high school. Maybe I was too sheltered, naïve, homesick, close-minded, and judgmental … Read more
Time for some Friday morning links: France’s ban on the niqab, or face veil, goes into effect next month: Face veils will be outlawed virtually anywhere outside women’s own homes, except when they are worshipping in a religious place or travelling as a passenger in a private car, although traffic police may stop them if … Read more
One hundred and seventy five years ago, on March 6, 1836, Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Colonel W. B. Travis, and about 180 other brave men were killed trying to defend the Alamo. Their deaths have come to symbolize courage and sacrifice for the cause of liberty, and the call to “remember the Alamo” survives even today. … Read more
I doubt there are many readers here who are pro-choice. Why, then, do I write an argument against abortion? Why preach to the choir? Â Preaching to the choir is a legitimate enterprise. Scripture calls it “edification,” or “building up.” It is what priests, ministers, rabbis, and mullahs try to do once every week. We … Read more
Pope Benedict’s second book on Jesus of Nazareth — Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection — is set to be released next week, but readers can get a sneak peek at a few sections now. Amy Welborn teases out one of the interesting chapters on “The Dating of the Last Supper.” … Read more
Pope Benedict’s second book on Jesus of Nazareth — Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection — is set to be released next week, but readers can get a sneak peek at a few sections now. Amy Welborn teases out one of the interesting chapters on “The Dating of the Last Supper.” … Read more
One of my heroes, Wendell Berry, was awarded the National Humanities Medal yesterday at the White House by President Obama. Berry, 76, is a farmer and activist from Kentucky who has written more than 40 books. He just spent a long weekend at a sit-in at the Kentucky state capitol with a group called “Kentucky Rising” … Read more
“I wake up each morning with deep gouges in my back. I don’t know how they get there, and they won’t heal.” Thus began an email I received a few years ago from a young girl who feared she was demon possessed. She experienced other disturbing symptoms and admitted to a long involvement with all … Read more
If you’re having a hard time understanding the problem with raising the statutory debt limit (yet again), here it is on a family scale:
Earlier today, the Supreme Court decided 8-1 in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church’s right to be egregiously hateful by protesting at military funerals. Offensive as their speech may be, the majority opinion states that they have a right to it: Westboro believes that America is morally flawed; many Americans might feel the same about … Read more
The past few weeks have seen a contentious, sometimes enlightening debate over how committed Catholics must be to truth-telling, in what circumstances, and at what price. The issue arose when bloggers responded acerbically to the pro-life sting operations of the heroic Live Action operatives who exposed Planned Parenthood’s use of our tax money in violation … Read more
Last month I blogged about Shahbaz Bhatti, the Catholic politician in Pakistan who had been courageously speaking out against the anti-blasphemy laws in that country, even in the face of death threats. “I follow the principles of my conscience, and I am ready to die and sacrifice my life for the principles I believe,” he … Read more
Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues (PNCI) reports that Ireland’s Fine Gael party has won the largest number of seats in the Irish National Parliament’s lower house, the Dáil Éireann: Prior to the election, Fine Gael had pledged to uphold the nation’s pro-life protections: “Fine Gael is opposed to the legalisation of abortion” and “Fine Gael … Read more
In The Joys of Yiddish, Leo Rosten defined chutzpa as “presumption-plus-arrogance such as no other word, and no other language, can do justice to” and then offered classic examples of chutzpa in action: “Chutzpa is that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of … Read more
Anti-Catholicism has always been a problem in America, although today it is nothing like what existed in an earlier era. Catholics are part of the nation’s economic, political, and cultural establishment, no longer the lesser citizens of a society that was generically Protestant and fairly proud of that fact. But every so often, events conspire … Read more
Eager not to miss any detail about the flaming ball of crazy that is Charlie Sheen, I recently spent a little time reading about his father, actor and TV-world president emeritus Martin Sheen. In some circles, you may know, Martin is recognized as one of Hollywood’s stalwart Catholics, having famously chosen his stage name after … Read more
One of the (few) bright spots in Sunday’s Oscar show had to be Luke Matheny’s acceptance speech upon winning Best Short Film. It was nice to see someone genuinely surprised and excited to be on that stage — and who thanked his mother, “who did craft services for the film,” and the great state of … Read more
Aldo Maria Valli, a Vatican expert for the Italian television network RAI, has recently published a book titled, The Truth About the Pope: Why He Is Attacked, Why He Must Be Listened To. In it, he poses the question: “Why is the present Pope the absolutely most attacked public figure and why are his words … Read more
Last week we spoke of Mary as the New Eve and Virgin Bride and noted that virginity always speaks of purity. The purity of Mary’s faith, so closely bound up with her virginity, leads to the other great Marian image found in John’s Gospel: Mary as the Virgin Mother. For at the very climax … Read more
Many of us already know about confirmation bias, the psychological phenomenon that makes people fit incoming data into their own worldview. The same news article, in other words, could make the liberal and the conservative each nod their heads, seeing things in the article that confirm their own biases, but skipping over the facts that … Read more