Here’s my latest article for InsideCatholic. It’s entitled, Why Abortion and the War in Iraq are not Equivalent. Take time to read the comments. It’s amazing how people read something into an article. The piece was a modest attempt at an analysis of the moral arguments that equate the unjust war in Iraq with the crime of abortion. It was not an attempt to support the Republican party. It was not an attempt to justify the war in Iraq. It... Read more

A friend and I drove up to Belmont College near Charlotte last night to hear Michael Novak deliver a lecture about his new book which counters atheism. It was a good chance to see the campus and learn more about the good things happening there. At these events it’s amazing how many people I meet who are readers of this blog. Novak said that in his discussions and debates with atheist Christopher Hitchens, that Hitchens once said, “I don’t believe... Read more

I confess that I have been somewhat flippant in my posts on the presidential campaign, and perhaps not been treating the subject with as much gravitas as it deserves. I encourage all readers to be informed by our Catholic bishops about their proper rights and responsibilities. Their wise counsel is to be found here in a wonderful document about faithful citizenship. One paragraph in particular caught my eye. We are often told that we mustn’t be single issue voters, however... Read more

We watched The Apostle last night. Now that’s one sweet Christian movie. One of the difficulties in making a film about faith is that movies are, well, motion pictures. They are pictures that move, and faith is an inner, invisible gift. This is why so many Catholic films about saints are worthy, but boring. The real adventure in a saint’s life is invisible and within. How do you show a saint’s interior struggles? The film maker too often resorts to having... Read more

Cardinal Newman on the impossibility of cafeteria Catholicism At the time of the apostles a Christian was bound to take without doubting all that the Apostles declared to be revealed; if the Apostles spoke, he had to yield to an internal assent of his mind…immediate, implicit submission of the mind was the only necessary token of faith. No one could say, “I will choose my religion for myself, I will believe this, I will not believe that; I will pledge... Read more

This article tells us that a leading scientist in England has resigned from his post at the Royal Society (a prestigious intellectual club) after an outcry from the scientific establishment. The man suggested that maybe, just maybe it could be okay, in some circumstances, in order to further the educational process, you know, in order to students to actually learn, that it could be permissable perhaps to allow them to ask a question about creationism in a biology class. Professor... Read more

Here’s a story from the Washington Post about a committed Catholic Dad who died saving his  son’s life… Read more

It’s a beautiful thing that the Memoria of Our Lady of Sorrows follows directly after the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross. Our Lord’s suffering on the cross is magnified through our Lady of Sorrows. That is her role. She magnifies the Lord. When she says, “My soul magnifies the Lord’ of course it means she is praising the Lord, but I like the play on words which shows her role in the drama of salvation: she shows God’s... Read more

This article tells us that the Church of England is about to issue an apology to Charles Darwin for rejecting evolution. Just when you thought the Church of England couldn’t come up with any further lunacy they cook this one up. What next, an apology to Picasso for not appreciating cubism? An apology to Nietzsche for not fully appreciating nihilism? While they’re issuing apologies I always thought it sad that the Church of England never made a formal response to... Read more

On the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (or Triumph of the Cross) we honor the Holy Cross by which Christ redeemed the world. The public veneration of the Cross of Christ originated in the fourth century, according to early accounts, beginning with the miraculous discovery of the cross on September 14, 326, by Saint Helen, mother of Constantine, while she was on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem — the same day that two churches built at the site of... Read more