From The Washington Post:  Norma McCorvey, who was 22, unwed, mired in addiction and poverty, and desperate for a way out of an unwanted pregnancy when she became Jane Roe, the pseudonymous plaintiff of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade that established a constitutional right to an abortion, died Feb. 18 at an assisted-living facility in Katy, Tex. She was 69. Her death was confirmed by Joshua Prager, a journalist currently at work on a book... Read more

A thoughtful reflection on dating and faith appears today in, of all places, The Washington Post:  It was a statement made innocently enough, while discussing the taboo topic of religion during our first date. “We should go together.” That’s right —  I asked a guy who I met on Tinder two weeks earlier to take me to his church. “Yeah, sure!” he said. He laughed, but I was actually serious. We had arrived at the topic when James brought up a... Read more

If you wanted to find the most challenging, most difficult, most confounding passage in all of the gospels, this just might be it. It is also the most fundamentally Christian – because it is the passage that calls on each of us to be the most like Christ.  More than that, it calls on us to be “perfect, like the Father is perfect.” That is a tall order. And look at what it entails. Turning the other cheek. Giving away... Read more

There’s a message here for our times. And it goes a lot deeper and says a lot more than you might think at first. It’s a homily all its own. Just watch.   Read more

Details: A local cosmetology student is being investigating for giving free haircuts to homeless in the community. Juan Carlos Montesdeoca has given dozens of free haircuts to the homeless at the Santa Rita Park over the past few months. “Out of the kindness of my heart. Out of the memory of my mom, because she lost her hair,” Juan Carlos Montesdeoca said. Montesdeoca thought he was doing a good deed for Tucson by offering the haircuts, a service many homeless hadn’t... Read more

Is penmanship making a comeback?  Check this out: Cursive handwriting instruction is returning to elementary school classrooms in New York City. Schools chancellor Carmen Fariña has committed to include cursive writing in third-grade curriculum in city schools, according to Staten Island assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, who has advocated for cursive instruction. Many schools have already started implementing the curriculum. The assemblywoman said it’s important for young people to “know how to write a signature of their own to identify themselves, and have... Read more

From CNN: Samantha Taylor was at Orlando’s Jewish Community Center for a morning meeting when she heard reports of a bomb threat crackle from the director’s walkie-talkie. Her daughter attends preschool there; she ran to the classroom and evacuated with the students and teachers. While police and bomb-sniffing dogs searched the building for several hours, the teachers kept the children calm and happy at a safe spot down the street, Taylor said. No explosives were found. On the same day,... Read more

From Vatican Radio:  The Colombian Foreign Ministry confirmed last Wednesday from the San Carlos Palace in Bogotá that Sister Gloria Cecilia Narváez Argoti was kidnapped Tuesday evening while she was going about her charitable duties at the Catholic parish in the village of Karangasso, Mali. The Colombian Embassy in the West African capital of Accra, Ghana, is coordinating with Mali military and police the safe release of the 56-year-old Franciscan nun who is believed to have been captured by four... Read more

From Fides:  About 30 young people, belonging to an organization of civilian volunteers, mostly Muslims, cleaned and tidied the Chaldean church dedicated to the Virgin Mary, in Drakziliya, in Mosul on the left bank of the Tigris River and now under the control of the Iraqi army. The church had been confiscated and chosen as the logistic base by the militiamen of ISIS, but in the period of jihadist occupation apparently it suffered only minor damage, contrary to the false information... Read more