If Hillary Clinton were elected president, she’d be the second feminist to hold that office. The first was her husband Bill. (If this seems a questionable proposition, hold on. I’ll defend it later.) But “feminism” is an equivocal term, having at least four distinct but related meanings, each of them indicative of a somewhat more … Read more
Why does the mainstream media insist on describing any Catholic — no matter his or her level of faith — as "devout"? Is it a simple confusion, or is something more troubling going on? Everybody loves a riddle. See if you can guess what ties these people together based on the MSM coverage: Brought up … Read more
Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter on the Dignity and Vocation of Women, Mulieris Dignitatem, turns 20 this year, and in honor of its August 15 anniversary, Catholic women’s conferences around the world are celebrating the single instance in all John Paul II’s writings when he advocated “feminism” — or, as he qualified it, a … Read more
They weren’t there. As we gathered at the front of the cathedral, on a day of bitter cold more suited to Christmas than to Holy Week, we had the holy cards and the placard. We were a happy group, enthusiastically greeting newcomers, calling out to old friends, making introductions. But the Other Group wasn’t there. … Read more
Father Thomas Euteneuer’s remarks on Coach Majerus need to be read in perspective. Almost 50 million innocent people have been killed via abortion, methodically and deliberately. This state-sanctioned genocide has been occurring in the United States for 35 years. Even pro-lifers are vulnerable to being inured to this stark fact. â–º Click here to read … Read more
The Monday before last, Canada’s National Post published a speech by abortion doctor Garson Romalis on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of R. vs. Morgentaler. Before I get to the disturbing details, let me offer a little background for the non-Canadian reader. Dr. Henry Morgentaler, of the infamous case, is a Polish-born Holocaust survivor … Read more
It’s not that our Chattering Classes have no actual opportunities for courage. It’s that they assiduously avoid them wherever possible (after all, you could get hurt!). Case in point: this “No, I’m not making this up” blurb for atheist Sam Harris’s Letter to a Christian Nation: I can’t sign my name to this blurb. As … Read more
2007 saw a flurry of secular films that were unabashedly pro-life in their outlook, even when they were far from family fare. Movies such as Waitress; the raunchy, R-rated Knocked Up; Bella; and Juno all achieved measures of success with mainstream moviegoers, from the little independent surprise Bella (which was marketed to church-goers) to the … Read more
Whoever planted this news item might as well have planted a bomb. Last February, a woman at a local Pennsylvania mall was asked by security guards to cover up while she nursed her baby. In protest, over 150 “lactivists” gathered with their own babies to hold a “nurse-in” at the same mall. On Mother’s Day, … Read more
Catholic women who find themselves unexpectedly pregnant stand to benefit from others’ experience. This was the thought that motivated me to post some readers’ emails on my blog addressing the struggle to remain open to life in marriage and the difficulty of accepting an unexpected pregnancy. “Let’s encourage one another,” I wrote on the blog. … Read more
It is recorded of the Abbot Pambo, of whom I know nothing at all except the following anecdote, that, upon a visit to St. Athanasius, he came upon an actress — not, I would suppose, inside the good saint’s cell. (I have only very dim notions as to what sort of women these Egyptian actresses … Read more
Late last month, 33 sisters from 26 countries met in Rome at the invitation of the U.S. embassy of the Holy See and the Italian Union of Major Superiors. The weeklong meeting was no ordinary gathering of nuns; it was the launch of an international, intercongregational religious network of sisters to counter the scourge of … Read more
I’m one of those people who roots for the moderate Muslim. And yes, they do exist. After the big flap last year following Pope Benedict’s remarks about Islam, the mainstream media never got around to informing you that his invitation to dialogue was answered by a number of imams and Islamic scholars, and the conversation … Read more
How did the Democratic Party lose the support of the working-class and Catholic voters who were once its stronghold? In his book Why the Democrats Are Blue: How Secular Liberals Hijacked the People’s Party, Mark Stricherz argues that the change from the “people’s party” to a party of secular-elite values can be traced to a … Read more
Bishop Richard J. Malone is “outraged” about the decision of the Portland, Maine, school board to make birth control pills available to 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-grade girls at King Middle School. On Wednesday, the Portland School Committee voted 5-2 to make contraceptive pills available to girls, ages 11 to 13, at the student health center. … Read more
Historians have much reason to be grateful to the memorialists of the 17th and 18th centuries. Given that Antonia Fraser has made “love and Louis XIV” the subject of her latest work, she is certainly indebted to the Princess Elizabeth Charlotte (Liselotte) of Bavaria, sister-in-law of the Sun King, whom Fraser calls her favorite among … Read more
These days of Inside Catholic’s nascence find us debating the merits of political parties and ideologies in light of both Catholic teaching and historical tradition. Which party, which corresponding set of philosophies, is the one to which good Catholics ought to hitch their wagon? Does such a party even exist? I don’t want to give … Read more
Every weekday morning, this nation enjoys a pretty consistent routine. We get up, prepare for work or school, and tune in to local networks for the morning weather, traffic, and news. What have also become routine are the gruesome headlines announcing the day’s latest terrorist attack. Â Given that these incidents show no signs of … Read more
Catholics in Britain have recently begun commenting on what they see as a growing trend: Over the past couple of years it has become worryingly routine to hear crass and vulgar attacks on the Church, attacks that would be regarded as wholly unacceptable if they were made against the Jewish or Islamic faiths. … Read more
Having a bad conscience is one of the most unpleasant feelings one can experience. We dread it and understandably try to escape its sting. Anything that assuages a bad conscience will be welcome. In the meantime, the wily one—the devil—calculates what advantage he can win from it. He begins to benefit as soon as a … Read more