Cloning - Petri Dish

Human Cloning Has Arrived–Like It Or Not

May 22, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Human cloning is finally here—but the scientific community and the popular media are reluctant to tell the story. According to Wesley J. Smith, Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center for Human Exceptionalism, an international group of scientists have successfully created scores of cloned human embryos.  The team of scientists claimed, in the prominent peer-reviewed journal Cell, that they had allowed four of these cloned embryos to develop to the blastocyst stage (that is, … [Read More...]

Sunk-cup-of-coffee

Can’t Get By Without Your Morning Cup o’ Joe? Skip Starbucks, Go to St. James Coffee

May 22, 2013 By 4 Comments

UPDATE:  Your help is needed to keep this great Ministry of Coffee open!   St. James Coffee opened last July and has struggled financially; they now have about 8-10 weeks of funds at their current numbers.  Sales are improving; expenses are being reduced.  Their events are varied, successful and fruitful.  But without some help, the store will need to reduce their hours or even close.  Please consider how you could help to keep this innovative Catholic coffee shop perking! *     * … [Read More...]

Tongues of Fire: Pentecost and Its Golden Sequence

May 18, 2013 By 1 Comment

Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim. We sometimes take it for granted, this Feast of Pentecost.  We know … [Read More...]

Saturday Special: A Garden of Roses for Our Mother

May 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment

In this Marian month, I continue my weekly focus on Mary, the Mother of God.  This week:  the Rosary. "The holy Rosary is a powerful weapon. Use it with confidence and you'll be amazed at the results." - Saint Josemaria Escriva I confess:  I've sometimes had a difficult time … [Read More...]

A Life Story, a Love Story in 85 Seconds

May 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Getty Images, the world’s leading stock photo agency, offers more than 80 million still images and photos and more than 50,000 hours of stock film footage for business and consumer use.  The Seattle-based company targets three markets:  advertising and graphic design professionals, the media, … [Read More...]

Vatican Announcement Re. Embroiled Cardinal O’Brien

May 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment

I had heard this unofficially.  Yesterday, though, the Holy See Press Office issued a press release, confirming that Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Britain’s most prominent cardinal, is leaving Scotland.  According to the Vatican Information Service: “His Eminence Cardinal Keith Patrick … [Read More...]

Other Shoe Dropping: Another Gosnell Emerges in Texas

May 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Whew!  Our nation is relieved that the horrible newborn killer, Kermit Gosnell, is finally safely behind bars and will remain there, out of sight and out of mind, for the rest of his natural life. So now we can rest easy, knowing that no late-term babies will be born alive, only to have their … [Read More...]

Don’t Worry, Be Happy, Sing the Ave Maria

May 14, 2013 By 5 Comments

He is a gentle, happy man.  A ten-time Grammy Award winner, a virtuoso vocalist and conductor, Bobby McFerrin is best known for his 1988 hit “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Bobby McFerrin’s peaceful, joy-filled improvisations well up in a heart that is attuned to God.  His family was deeply … [Read More...]

New European Initiative Insists: The Human Embryo Is “ONE OF US”

May 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment

A million signatures. That’s the ambitious goal of the non-denominational European campaign “One of Us”.  Organizers of the grassroots initiative hope to persuade the European Union to debate and then vote on whether to protect the human embryo from unregulated scientific … [Read More...]

Gosnell Is Guilty! Should He Be Executed?

May 13, 2013 By 1 Comment

On May 13, after seven days of deliberations, a federal jury has found abortionist Kermit Gosnell guilty of three counts of first-degree murder (in the deaths of Babies A, C and E, who were acquitted alive and then killed by having their spinal cords “snipped” with scissors) and one count of … [Read More...]

Father Corapi–Back in View?

May 12, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Is Father John Corapi still trying to restore his reputation and return to active ministry? In 2011, Father Corapi was removed from public ministry as a priest, following allegations of misconduct.  Since that time, he has consistently maintained his innocence. And now, in a March 18, 2013 … [Read More...]

Saturday Special: Mary, Untier of Knots

May 11, 2013 By 2 Comments

Last week I told you that on Saturdays during the month of May, I would write something about Mary, the Mother of God.  On this, the second Saturday of May, let’s talk about one of Pope Francis’ favorite devotions:  Mary, Untier of Knots. As a Jesuit priest in the mid-1980s, Jorge Mario … [Read More...]

WHY DO YOU STAND THERE, LOOKING AT THE SKY?

May 9, 2013 By Leave a Comment

… [Read More...]

THIS IS WATER: How to Think About Life

May 8, 2013 By 1 Comment

David Foster Wallace was an award-winning American novelist, short story writer and essayist.  Time magazine called his 1996 novel Infinite Jest  “one of the best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.” Wallace was a professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California, and was … [Read More...]

7-Year-Old Steals Car to Avoid Going to Church

May 7, 2013 By 1 Comment

I’d love to tell you that my children, when they were young, always loved going to church…. But no.  They were pretty virtuous youngsters, and I was immensely proud of them; but sometimes they were in the middle of a game with friends or they were watching TV, and they just didn’t want to … [Read More...]

Breathtaking Disrespect: Pope-Emeritus Benedict Portrayed in Condoms

May 7, 2013 By 9 Comments

I’m speechless.  In a convergence of chutzpah and bad taste, Shorewood (WI) artist Niki Johnson has used 17,000 multi-colored condoms to create a larger-than-life portrait of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.  She has titled the creation “Eggs Benedict”. Just like the fawning ministers in … [Read More...]