February is Black History Month, and to kick it off historian Dr. Pat McNamara brings us a fascinating story that thrilled and shamed me. What a remarkable family of faith existed in the sons and daughters of Michael Healy and Eliza Clark; they became priests, nuns and even a bishop emerging from their home in Georgia, where mixed-race children were called “slaves.” But none of it came easily or peacefully in 19th century America: By any standard, the Healys were... Read more
My Tuesday column is up at First Things and I am taking a look at how determined the press seems to be, to look away, look away from Kermit Gosnell and his ilk: The Gosnell story—a story that by any measure deserved in-depth coverage, some serious discussion about regulation and responsibility, and a few features forcing the nation to consider just when a “late-term” abortion slips into the category of “infanticide” or what our leadership and politicians really think of... Read more
Happy February 1st! For the month of St. Valentine, let’s talk about love, love, love! Red Hot Catholic Love – as per Tim Muldoon: Some twenty years ago my girlfriend and I made a daring wager: what if we did exactly what the Church recommended when it came to sex? At least in this first twenty-year span, the answer is this: experience joy. We dated. We talked about sex. Of course we wanted it. But we waited. Ours was a... Read more
I love this piece by David Mills: Once at a cookout, our youngest son and another boy, both seven or eight, were bouncing from opposite sides of the trampoline and bumping into each other in the middle, laughing hysterically as they fell down. Neither was a physically adventurous child, and they collided very gently. They loved the game, and would have played it for hours. The other boy’s father and I were talking while we watched them, when the boy’s... Read more
I’ve always said the NY Times primarily — note the qualifier — featured a bunch of developmentally-arrested 14-year olds who have never been able to find their way out of the lunch room or the schoolyard, and these two pathetic pieces, showcased in what is arguably the most coveted real-estate in journalism, make the case. Gail Collins, the editor of the op-ed page, while writing about Michele Bachmann, takes time to affect a sneer because Bachmann can remember what she... Read more
Best. Kickoff. Evah! Read more
The Franciscan Friars note: The time it took for the March to pass our camera was 1 hour 31 minutes. A week past the giant march the media couldn’t find, I figured it might be good to look back on the peaceful gathering of nearly 250,000 people, declaring that life is good. Keep the momentum going by getting the visuals; they’re very heartening! Kathryn Jean Lopez has terrific pictures up at National Review Even better pictures (sorry, Kathryn) at St.... Read more
Deacon Greg Kandra has had a very impressive career; as a writer and producer with CBS News, he won Peabody Awards and Emmy Awards, and Writer’s Guild Awards – and then he went to the Diocese of Brooklyn and helped establish Currents, the first daily Catholic news broadcast in the country, at New Evangelization Television. He has a gift for zeroing in on the human center of a story, and extending it in a way that brings all the peripheral... Read more
Pondering prayer, and the notion of praying through time, thanks to our Holy Father: We can love ourselves only if we have first been loved by someone else. The life a mother gives to her child is not just physical life; she gives total life when she takes the child’s tears and turns them into smiles. It is only when life has been accepted and is perceived as accepted that it becomes also acceptable. Man is that strange creature that... Read more
It’s not on my “must see” list, but then again, I am a crank who doesn’t like going to the movies, anyway (although True Grit did lure me), but The Rite opens today and it seems many people are aching to explore a theme of exorcism, so here is a round-up of sorts: Start with the book by Matt Baglio which uber-reader Julie Davis says “gets it right”: Undoubtedly, when the film is released, it will be sensational, but reading... Read more
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