At The Personalist Project: A Tunnel of Hope

Last updated on: January 24, 2017 at 12:56 pm By Kate Cousino

It helps, sometimes, when trying to untangle knotty questions of what solidarity and personalism-in-action might look like, to have some real-life examples of a person-centered approach. Accordingly, I was thrilled to come across an amazing account of a Twitter conversation between a young black woman and an anonymous young man who began by trolling her with racist taunts on Martin Luther King Jr day, two years ago. The conversation at first appears to be going nowhere… Read the rest at The Personalist Project. Read more

An Irrational Faith in Abortion

Last updated on: January 22, 2017 at 11:44 pm By Kate Cousino

Other Patheos writers have covered the various controversies involving politics and abortion in the US capitol this month—so I shall limit myself to a few brief words on why abortion continues to be a divisive and contentious topic, why acceptance of abortion is unlikely to become universal anytime soon. Walker Percy said it well, three decades ago: science is on the side of the embryonic human. The current con, perpetrated by some jurists, some editorial writers, and some doctors is... Read more

9 similarities between teenaged cars and teenaged humans*

Last updated on: January 20, 2017 at 1:06 pm By Kate Cousino

My oldest son is verging on adolescence, and I’ve noticed more and more similarities between him and my fifteen-year-old car. Which leads me to this list. You may have a teenaged car/child if: 1. You can’t get your car/teen started on cold mornings, and you keep finding lights inexplicably on at night. You know the late-night lights are an energy drain, but even though you’ve taken every precaution, you still find auxiliary devices running at 2 a.m. Time to teach... Read more

Quote of the Day

Last updated on: January 20, 2017 at 5:10 pm By Kate Cousino

“One of the greatest dangers in the spiritual life is self-rejection. When we say, “If people really knew me, they wouldn’t love me,” we choose the road toward darkness. Often we are made to believe that self-deprecation is a virtue, called humility. But humility is in reality the opposite of self-deprecation. It is the grateful recognition that we are precious in God’s eyes and that all we are is pure gift. To grow beyond self-rejection we must have the courage... Read more

How the World Works

Last updated on: January 18, 2017 at 5:19 pm By Kate Cousino

I am fuming this morning. Some of the local children came up with a cooperative solution to share a resource, and it has fallen apart because another parent told his kids that “first come, first served” is the way of the world. CC, Image credit www.uberoffices.com I felt a little silly at first that I was upset over a matter of kid politics. The conflict the children were trying to solve was over something fairly unimportant. Nobody is going to... Read more

Doing All The Traditions

Last updated on: December 14, 2017 at 1:13 pm By Kate Cousino

St. Nicholas Day was this past Tuesday. As I always do, I put some effort in beforehand to make sure we had all the requisite materials for our St. Nicholas traditions: speculaas cookies, hard wrapped candies, clementines, small toys, a chocolate letter for each family member, chocolate coins, chocolate hail (like really, really good sprinkles), dutch style rusks, and an almond ring from the local dutch bakery. On Monday, we tidied the house, sang songs about St. Nicholas, read his... Read more

Is Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton racist?

Last updated on: November 21, 2016 at 11:19 am By Kate Cousino

So, apparently, the talking point today in some circles is that the musical Hamilton is “racist” or suspect because the creators have a very clear vision for the casting that requires all of the roles to be filled by non-white actors (the only role reserved for a white character is King George). This is, according to some, discrimination that you could never get away with if you were to try to cast only white actors. First of all, many, many... Read more

An Open Letter to Fr. Frank Pavone’s Superiors

Last updated on: January 18, 2017 at 5:21 pm By Kate Cousino

This is the text of a letter I sent via electronic submission form to the Bishop of Amarillo, TX, yesterday afternoon. I have made no edits to it for public consumption. Dear Bishop Zurek, It came to my attention today that Fr. Pavone of Priests for Life falls under your jurisdiction. I am writing to express my horror at his recent use of human remains in a crass political stunt (I note that he also made an explicit political endorsement,... Read more

Defined by morals, not memories

Last updated on: October 4, 2017 at 9:43 am By Kate Cousino

This piece popped up in my FB memories from last year, and I was moved again by it. The article is by Scientific American, and talks about how patients with Alzheimer’s disease (which affects memory) but not dementia (which can affect moral traits like honesty and compassion) continue to be perceived as “themselves” by their loved ones, and maintain close bonds with caregivers. In a study on memory loss and identity, statements like “The patient seems like a different person”... Read more

A defence of earthiness

Last updated on: January 31, 2017 at 3:09 pm By Kate Cousino

*This post was originally meant as part of a two-part post. I hit a mental block with the second part, however, and so never posted this part. The recent firing of the brilliant Simcha Fisher from the National Catholic Register, when Simcha was one of the targets of the original debate about “raunchy” speech that prompted me to write this, has motivated me to post this as a form of apologia for earthiness in Catholic writing. I am saddened and... Read more