Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, called it “magnanimous.” I must admit, I certainly didn’t expect it. The gesture from president-elect Obama of tapping Evangelical pastor, Rick Warren, to deliver the inaugural prayer deserves recognition and congratulations from those, like myself, who have criticized his positions on abortion and other social issues. Obama … Read more
Years ago, we belonged to a parish where the pastor was an elderly “retired” French-Canadian priest. Monsignor Leo was a little rough around the edges and sometimes a bit deaf in the confessional, but we loved him just the same. We especially loved him at Christmastime. Every year, at the end of the first Christmas … Read more
With Election 2008 in the history books, we asked a diverse group of faithful Catholics to respond to the following question: With the results of the 2008 election, it appears that old coalitions are breaking down while new ones are being created. This presents Catholic voters with a challenge and an opportunity: What should the … Read more
Catholics are seriously annoyed at the way the holiday season is changing. If you are among them, you are probably already annoyed at this article, because I didn’t say Christmas season. It is Christmas, for goodness sake, so why can’t we just say that? I received an e-mail the other day from Amazon.com headlined, “The … Read more
In response to Vice-President elect Joe Biden’s erroneous public comments on the Catholic Church’s teachings on abortion, USCCB Chairman Justin Cardinal Rigali released a statement asking: When does a new human life begin? When is there a new living organism of the human species, distinct from mother and father and ready to develop and mature … Read more
Recently my eye was caught by a news item announcing that teenagers are to be handed “morning after” abortive pills over the Christmas season as they attend clubs and parties. Meanwhile, a firing of muskets in a Christmas tree ceremony in a country town has been banned because people might be frightened by the noise. … Read more
The Catholic faith has always taught that sexual relations between two consenting married heterosexual adult human beings not already related by blood are not just good but sacramental. We got rid of the Catholic faith and assumed that would continue as the norm. Then racism got into it, and nutty racists developed a nutty theory … Read more
The implosion of Catholic religious orders in the 1970s shook the foundations of the Catholic Church in America, threatening both the financial viability of parish schools and the transmission of faith and morals to subsequent generations. Decades later, the clergy sex-abuse crisis produced another earthquake from which the Church has yet to recover. Â Most … Read more
This week I’m wrapping up my sympathetic look at the Seven Deadly Sins, from the viewpoint of fallen man who’s not really eager to climb back up. If zealous Christians can aptly be termed by theologians “Weebles” — “These souls wobble but they don’t fall down!” — the much more numerous people for whom I … Read more
It was astonishing to see thousands thronging the Jai Alai arena in West Palm Beach a few years before the death of Rev. Patrick Peyton (1909-1992) when I helped him with a Rosary Crusade, but I should have known that by his standard it was an unexceptional number, even smallish. No priest, unless he … Read more
Go to Change.gov, the Web site of President-elect Barack Obama, and you’ll find a document titled “Advancing Reproductive Rights and Health in a New Administration.” Signed by dozens of pro-abortion groups, including Catholics for Choice, this 55-page document provides an overview of the marching orders for the Obama administration in removing all present restrictions on … Read more
Since the death of J. F. Powers in 1999, admiring reviewers (all of his reviewers have been admiring) have mourned not only his death, but the general obscurity of his novels and stories. Although his first novel, Morte D’Urban, won the 1963 National Book Award — over the more familiar names of John Updike, Katherine … Read more
A New Hampshire jury must decide whether to sentence Michael Addison, a convicted cop killer, to execution. He is a terrible man who bragged about his plans to shoot a cop, if he needed to, while committing his many crimes. His defense team is concentrating on his unhappy childhood. The picture that emerges is of … Read more
I must have been three or four years old when I was first acquainted with death. My parents had a summer home at the Belgian seashore; enchanted as I was by the dunes and the wild flowers, I was roaming about when, to my delight, I found a bird’s nest hidden in a bush. The … Read more
Lisa Correnti is a San Diego mother of seven children. But like many other Catholic mothers, she has engaged in politics in order to defend the basic values of her faith. For several years she has quietly built her Web site, www.onenationundergod.org, into a goldmine of up-to-date information on the performance of Catholic politicians. In … Read more
I recently attended a meeting of pro-life leaders from around the country, called in order to formulate a national strategy on how to defeat the promised Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). During the 2008 presidential campaign, President-elect Barack Obama infamously stated, to much applause, “Well, the first thing I’d do as president is, is sign … Read more
Much bustle here at Inside Catholic last week, as well as on my blog. Lots of people wanted to know why I was so adamant about defending the UK bishops’ suggestion that Muslim students be given a prayer room and other accommodations. To reiterate: I’m not particularly adamant about defending the bishops’ dubious idea. I … Read more
Several years ago, I was given a very handsome Platinum Press edition of Stories for Christmas by Charles Dickens. This book has 478 pages, so Dickens had much to say about this wonderful, wonder-filled feast. I recall Chesterton saying somewhere that the ceremony surrounding the English-speaking Christmas is practically invented by Dickens. Â We Americans, … Read more
One way I teach my students to work with language is by showing them how to play with it — just as a psych professor teaches future therapists and ex-wives how to play with people’s minds. Sometimes I combine the methods proper to both disciplines — for instance, when I keep a straight face explaining … Read more
Catholic liberals (by which I mean theological liberals, not political liberals) never cease to amaze me. On the one hand, they appear to have a sincere devotion to their religion. On the other, they campaign for moral and theological changes that, if carried into effect, would tend to destroy their Church. Why do I say … Read more