I have sometimes wondered if city planners are trying to destroy the cities they serve. Here in my neck of the woods we’ve had to fight the city’s plans to put everything from dumps to strip clubs in quiet family neighborhoods. We usually lose. Resident’s only learn of the plans after the wheels have been greased, so to speak. When they try to protest, they are forced to take off work, go downtown, pay parking, and then sit through all-day... Read more
At least one gun control proposal is now in the hopper, and if it becomes law, it would be a big change. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca) announced plans to introduce a sweeping gun control bill that would ban 158 types of rifles, as well as other shotguns, hand guns and semi-automatic rifles. Feinstein claims that no guns will be confiscated. Her aim is to do away with the weapons by attrition over time. Representative Carolyn McCarthy, (D-NY) will file the... Read more
You are not marching in vain. That is the message from the Vatican to the pro life marchers here in the United States. The things we do here in the United States often reverberate around the world. According to Bishop Carrasco de Paula, head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, the pro life marches we hold in this country every year at this time do exactly that. I can’t join you this year. Gimpy the Foot is healing rapidly but... Read more
Power corrupts. Lord Acton You cannot serve both God and mammon. Jesus Christ I vote pro-life! Pro-life people sometimes make this statement as if they were throwing down a gauntlet, or perhaps, ending an argument. Talk to them about the many nuances of grown-up politics and they will try to end the inevitable confusion by announcing emphatically, “I vote pro-life!” The unhappy truth is that they can’t vote pro-life. “Pro Life” ain’t on the ballot. All they have to choose from when they go... Read more
Is the male/female sexual difference key to understanding marriage? Not so long ago, that question would have been greeted with confusion. After all, it was questioning the obvious; kind of like asking if gravity is key to keeping us from flying off into space. But times have changed, and today the question is more likely to be greeted with cries of “bigot” and claims about “homophobia.” Perhaps the real question should be, are we deluding ourselves? Is the claim that... Read more
I didn’t write about the 40th Anniversary of Roe v Wade yesterday. I didn’t because, as we say in these parts, I had no spit. I just didn’t wanna even think about it. Then last night, I saw this. At first view, I thought it must be a parody attacking the abortion movement. I went to the Center for Reproductive Rights, the group which is credited with this thing, and there it was. In addition to the overall sleeziness of... Read more
Historically and scripturally there have been two ways that most people betray Jesus: 1. The St Peter and all the apostles except John Way. This is the deny-Him-under-duress, run-away-from-threats-and-then-repent-later method of betrayal. I would wager that in some form or another every single one of us has done a bit of this. I know I have. I’ve hemmed and hawed; ducked and covered, trying to keep all my old friends from my life Before Christ. Trouble was, they all found... Read more
Is there something funny in our drinking water? Or have people always been this crazy and we just didn’t notice? The reasons I’m asking are … Te’o and the girlfriend who wasn’t. If he’d been a lonely nerd with acne and a weight problem no one would have been all that surprised by a fantasy girlfriend. But everyone knows that football stars are like young lords on college campuses. The profs, the staff, the press, the administration and the girls... Read more
“It represents a lack of integrity for a public official to expect others to accept the premise: “What I do publicly contradicts who I say I am religiously, but that doesn’t make any difference.” Bishop Lawrence Brandt of Greenburg Pennsylvania, issued a pastoral letter recently in which he raised an important issue about Catholic politicians who support abortion. Aside from the question of whether or not these politicians should take communion, (he thinks they shouldn’t) he raises the a more... Read more
Public Catholic exists because of two events. 1. President Obama declared war on my church. I first learned about the (then) proposed HHS Mandate forcing religious institutions to purchase insurance that paid for contraceptives, abortifacients and sterilization in the fall of 2011. I knew immediately that this was an unprecedented attack on religious freedom. I also saw it as a deliberate attempt to destroy the Church’s moral voice by forcing it to compromise its teachings in the face of government... Read more
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