Today, I saw a priest who likes to run his mouth on Twitter with a very strange take. He said: Are you a Catholic man who longs for traditional liturgy, reverence and orthodox theology and spirituality in the church? If you’re not married yet, why not become a priest and help bring about that change? I’m going to have to take exception to that. If your passion is for orthodox theology– if the place where your heart rests is studying and... Read more
I noticed the Friendship Room asking for prayers for a guest who came in tonight, pregnant and living a “desperate lifestyle.” Later, I saw my friend Molly who runs the Friendship Room posting on her personal Facebook; she gave me permission to share the status with you: The wind chill is in the single digits, the actual temps are in the teens, imagine standing outside, begging for food, and offering sex for a place to stay warm tonight. Now imagine... Read more
Friday night, I went to bed to the soft kiss of snow against the window. We’ve been having an abnormally warm winter, so I was pleased. I love the snow. But when I woke up, the snow was already being washed away by a thick, noisy freezing rain, halfway between water and ice. If clouds got runny noses, it would look as appealing as this weather. It’s January. The Christmas lights are down. The winter gray is here– freezing rain... Read more
I want to say a few words about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), in light of President Trump’s new change. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has just estimated that twenty thousand Ohioans could lose their SNAP benefits in April if Trump’s new rule restricting who can get them goes into effect as planned. The number is said to be about seven hundred thousand across the country. People often write to me to ask if this or... Read more
Catholic social media erupted that Cardinal Sarah & Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI were publishing a book delivering a massive blow to evil liberal Pope Francis. I smelled a rat, as did many others. And, indeed, it turns out we were right. Archbishop Gänswein, Benedict’s personal secretary insisted Benedict, didn’t know he was going to be cited as an author, and actually only submitted one essay to be used under a different circumstance. Read more
They told me I had to vote Republican, because Republicans were pro-life. For awhile, I believed them. I voted Republican for years and years– at first, as a brainwashed conservative eighteen-year-old and later as a grown woman who didn’t like Republicans but felt like I’d be committing a sin if I didn’t. Saving unborn babies was the most important issue. It was more important than war, which also kills unborn babies, or environmental destruction which could kill hundreds of... Read more
There is one thing I want my readers to know, on this terrible news day with so much trauma and anxiety in it. I want you to understand that it is wrong to treat Catholic social teaching like a pizza. I’ve been seeing a lot of that the past few days. A pizza is an object of a certain surface area, and once that surface area is filled, you have no more room. You need to make decisions about what... Read more
Want to know what I got for Christmas? Oh, I got a lot of good things for Christmas– four huge gifts I didn’t expect. It started when the secular world’s idea of a Christmas began, with my friend I’d never met in person showing up and taking the family to Pittsburgh on Black Friday for a trip to the zoo, and then to Trader Joe’s and out to dinner. I felt like Christmas had already happened for me, as far... Read more
Shortly before Christmas, I wrote a little about the Legionaries of Christ’s new report, coming clean about some of the abuse they’ve committed over the years since their inception by the pedophile Marcial Maciel. I wrote about my experiences in the diocese of Columbus in the late nineties and early oughts, where the Legionaries were officially not allowed to be– but where their lay branch, Regnum Christi, ran meetings of their children’s branch, ECYD, with impunity. I spoke about the... Read more
People who live in big cities in America are– rightly, I think– terrified that big American cities will be at an increased risk for another terrorist attack. That’s a real concern. I watched 9/11 from my living room in Columbus 18 years ago and I never, ever want to see that happen again. The fear must be much worse for people who live in New York and Washington. But what’s far more likely to happen, is that Iran will suffer... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In