Ohio teacher claims she was fired over pregnancy, sues archdiocese

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:01 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

Details: A former first-grade teacher at Kettering’s Ascension Catholic School is suing the school, Ascension Church and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati in federal court, saying officials discriminated against her a year ago when they fired the unmarried woman after she told the principal about her pregnancy. Kathleen Quinlan of Kettering, who has since delivered twin girls, said in the Dec. 14 lawsuit that her firing for moral reasons was discriminatory because male employees who engage in premarital sex... Read more

Secrets the preacher can’t share from the pulpit

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:01 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

From Connecticut comes this candid bit of spleen-venting from a Protestant pastor: Eleven in the evening is well past my bedtime, which is to confess that I don’t have a particularly glamorous social life. A single man in late middle-age on a tight budget, I try to limit my trips to Monte Carlo to once-a-month or so. All of which means I am not at my best when the late Christmas Eve service rolls around. I’d just as soon be... Read more

Best Christmas letter. Ever.

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:01 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

This arrived in my e-mail last week, from a former colleague, now retired. It moved me because, among other things, instead of yammering on about what he did, he wrote about what someone else did for him. He begins by noting that “an anonymous person made a huge investment in our family stock this year. He doesn’t know us and we don’t know him. Personal contact is not allowed for a year, however, we can exchange non-identifiable notes. So in... Read more

Nun: Syrian rebels kidnapped, beheaded Christian

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:01 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

The grissly details: Syrian rebels beheaded a Christian man and fed his body to dogs, according to a nun who says the West is ignoring atrocities committed by Islamic extremists. The nun said taxi driver Andrei Arbashe, 38, was kidnapped after his brother was heard complaining that fighters against the ruling regime behaved like bandits. She said his headless corpse was found by the side of the road, surrounded by hungry dogs. He had recently married and was soon to... Read more

Are baby boomers headed back to church?

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:01 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

Maybe: Based on the premise that people become more religious as they age, Gallup editor-in-chief Frank Newport predicts that religion will have a more prominent place in American society as a new generation of seniors hits retirement age over the next 20 years. Newport makes the case in his new book, “God is Alive and Well: The Future of Religion in America,” that the baby boom generation will evolve into an increasingly religious demographic. “If that’s the case, there are... Read more

New Year’s resolutions for the New Evangelization

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:01 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

Some great ideas from the blogging bishop, Christopher Coyne: As the new year begins, we often make resolutions and so, I offer the following possible new year’s resolutions to consider if one is going to be serious about being an evangelizer. I offer them for myself as well as for those readers who chose to follow my advice. Many of these resolutions are already part of my life: confession, pray, etc.. My hope is that anyone of us who is... Read more

A feminist who is miserable about “Les Miserables”

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:01 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

Author Stacy Wolf looks at “Les Mis” through a feminist lens in the Washington Post, and isn’t impressed: In 1987, when “Les Miz” opened on Broadway, it was part of a cultural moment that Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Susan Faludi labeled the “anti-feminist backlash.” Its popularity at the time wasn’t surprising: The late 1980s weren’t kind to ambitious women. Television didn’t allow single mothers — such as Murphy Brown and Kate and Allie — to live successful, fulfilling lives. They all failed personally... Read more

“Today is where your book begins; the rest is still unwritten”

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:01 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

I’m not scheduled to preach on Tuesday, but here’s a little something from the vault. Below, my first homily for the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, delivered on January 1, 2008. The readings can be found here. Happy New Year! DGK. + Years ago, my wife and I decided, just once, to spend New Year’s Eve in Times Square. We weren’t brave enough to stand outside in the cold with noisemakers and funny hats. Instead,... Read more

Here it is: Dave Barry’s Year in Review for 2012

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:01 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

The wait is over. Barry is back. He begins: It was a cruel, cruel year — a year that kept raising our hopes, only to squash them flatter than a dead possum on the interstate. Example: This year the “reality” show “Jersey Shore,” which for six hideous seasons has been a compelling argument in favor of a major Earth-asteroid collision, finally got canceled, and we dared to wonder if maybe, just maybe, we, as a society, were becoming slightly less stupid.... Read more

Wholly family: celebrating wonder on this feast day

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:01 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

Two of my Patheos neighbors have reminded me today about the meaning of family, and it couldn’t be more timely. Elizabeth Scalia on Facebook directed folks to a post she put up a couple years ago about her two grown boys: I love my kids, but they could not be more different. They’re both “certified geniuses” according to whoever thinks up those tests, both artistic, musical, creative, inventive, curious, math-and-science loving and fair-minded. Elder son is utterly fearless about approaching... Read more