Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us. We were motoring through the French countryside, on a tour of the wine country which took us from Paris to Bordeaux and the walled city of St. Emilion, into the Loire Valley and the vineyards of southwestern France. We learned about the gravelly soil which provides the perfect drainage for the vines, and about the roses which mark the end of each row and, like the proverbial canary in the mine, warn... Read more
To visit the White House, you wear a dark blue suit, white shirt, and red tie. To visit Jesus in the Eucharist, you wear cut-offs, a t-shirt and sandals. To go for a job interview, you wear Your best outfit, hair neatly styled. To go to Sunday Mass, you wear a Bud-Light t-shirt, jeans with a small hole in the knee, and a comfy pair of Reeboks. To meet your son’s math teacher, you wear A tailored pair of... Read more
This is the day! The science world is panting with excitement, exhilarated because scientists at Europe’s CERN research centre near Geneva have announced that the elusive Higgs boson—the subatomic particle imagined and named half a century ago by theoretical physicist Peter Higgs—has been discovered. According to Reuters, CERN Hadron Collider director general Rolf Heuer told scientists and reporters gathered at the CERN near Geneva that: Two independent studies of data produced by smashing proton particles together at CERN’s Large Hadron... Read more
Before the Andy Griffith Show… way before Matlock… Andy Griffith made his film debut in the black-and-white film “A Face in the Crowd.” He played a country boy, a complex young man with a mean streak. A power-hungry drifter, who achieved success—first as a television host, and then in the political realm. Director Elia Kazan cast Griffith as the lead in the 1957 film, and his co-stars included Patricia Neal, Lee Remick, Walter Matthau and Tony Franciosa. Griffith was raised... Read more
In recent days there have been many harsh words written about the alleged Marian apparitions at Medjugorje. Howard Kainz, Marquette University professor emeritus, wrote a critical article published June 29 in Crisis Magazine about an invitation he received to attend five apparitions with Medjugorje visionary Marija Pavlovic Lunetti. The apparitions are slated to occur at the 2012 gathering at the Tabernacle of our Lady’s Messages at Caritas, in Birmingham, Alabama, between July 1 and 5. Kainz reported that “…the Caritas... Read more
Hurray, Facebook! Let’s hear it for Twitter! C’mon, YouTube! If you’re in Michigan, as I am—and if you’re reading this post on-line, as you are—then let’s hear it for Social Media Day!! Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder, whose Twitter handle is @onetoughnerd, signed the proclamation on June 27, bringing to three the number of states which officially celebrate Social Media Day on June 30. And my home state of Michigan is no slouch, media-wise! Boasting 137 social media accounts on Facebook,... Read more
Well, that just put a lid on everything I had been planning to tell you about today. How can you screech about a new video game, or crabby comboxes, or ice cream flavors, when our federal government continues to usurp cherished American freedoms? Obamacare cannot be supported under the Commerce Clause, ruled the Supreme Court in a 5-4 vote; but it can be implemented as a tax. Yessiree: Despite President Obama’s multiple assertions that “This is not a tax,” a... Read more
Oh, things were so confusing in the earliest days of Christianity! St. Irenaeus—the second-century bishop of Lyons, France, whose feastday we celebrate on June 28—had to explain and defend the Faith both from within the Church and from outside critics. As a young boy, Irenaeus was dedicated by his mother to the service of the Church; and he was placed in the care of Polycarp, a bishop and apologist who had learned the faith directly from St. John the Evangelist. ... Read more
I’m feeling nostalgic today. It seems that there was a time when we were all Americans; and as citizens with a shared hope, we all believed in Life, in Freedom, in the strength that comes from knowing your mom and dad love you. At time of political crisis, we come together again—left and right, white and black, labor and management, Catholic and Protestant and atheist—to remember our common vision. We remember that the political issues which divide us are not... Read more
I’m excited about Greg Burke’s new job. Last week, the Vatican announced that they’d enlisted the Fox News correspondent to serve as senior communications advisor at the Vatican’s Secretariat of State. I’m excited because officials at the Vatican—God bless them—need all the help they can get. Newswires have been full of bad news for the Roman Curia: Vatileaks has been the latest snafu, but there’s the Vatican Bank scandal, the decade-long clergy abuse crisis, liberal outcry following the Pope’s Regensburg... Read more
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