An article from Crisis, entitled “The Misguided Compassion of Social Justice Catholics,” by Dana R. Casey, was making the rounds on the internet recently, and I tried not to read it, because I knew it would not make me happy. But, because I am an intellectual masochist, and because educated Catholics were sharing it, I did the thing, and clicked the link, and regretted it. I will probably regret responding to it also. I meant to write a piece on… Read more

Breastfeeding is a moral issue, yes, but the moral responsibility lies with the society that tells women they must breastfeed, and then makes it impossible for them to do so. Read more

During this Easter season, I implore my fellow Christians to extend hands in friendship to Muslims in our communities – geographic or virtual – who are, often, living in fear due to escalating Islamophobia. Let’s remember to lay the blame for violence not on “Muslims” but on the actual groups guilty of doing the deeds. Even if this whole Christian pacifist thing sounds too hippie dippy to suit your fancy, remember: this may be our only hope to subdue the rising surge of extremist violence, so it is, unlike martyrdom, rather practical. Read more

“Dreamt that my little baby came to life again; that it had only been cold, and that we rubbed it before the fire, and it lived. Awake and find no baby. I think about the little thing all day. Not in good spirits.” This Mary Shelley wrote in her journal, a few weeks after the death of her premature daughter. A year later, in her novel Frankenstein, she would present the literary world with a very different spectacle of the… Read more