Catholic Cosplay Goes Mainstream

May 9, 2018 By JoAnna Wahlund

Several Patheos bloggers have written about the recent 2018 Met Gala, an annual fundraiser for The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This year’s event had the theme “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.” Cardinal Dolan and Fr. James Martin attended, and some of the pieces on display were on loan from the Vatican. The big uproar is about the various costumes worn by attendees. I hadn’t realized that Catholic cosplay had gone mainstream! For the benefit of the non-nerds out... Read more

Harry Potter Is Not a Gateway to the Occult

May 7, 2018 By JoAnna Wahlund

I’m a faithful Catholic who also loves the Harry Potter series of books (heck, I met my husband in a web club called Harry Potter for Grown Ups), and as such I get rather annoyed when I see other Catholics insist that Harry Potter is a gateway to the occult — meaning that people who enjoy the books and/or the movies are starting on a path that ends in full-fledged devil worship. I actually converted to Catholicism while obsessively re-reading... Read more

Book Review: “One Beautiful Dream” by Jennifer Fulwiler

May 4, 2018 By JoAnna Wahlund

Disclaimer: this review contains spoilers for the book “One Beautiful Dream” by Jennifer Fulwiler. I have to admit that Jennifer Fulwiler’s new book, “One Beautiful Dream,” was not what I was expected. Based on the description, I thought it would be more of an explicit “how-to” book as opposed to a memoir like her first book “Something Other Than God.” As a result, when I saw the title of Chapter 1 — “Possumgate” — I was a bit taken aback.... Read more

Why Are Abortion Rights Advocates Anti-Science?

May 2, 2018 By JoAnna Wahlund

Biologically speaking, a human being is an organism of the species Homo sapiens. A human zygote is an organism of the species Homo sapiens: A human embryo is an organism of the species Homo sapiens: Embryo: An organism in the earliest stage of development; in a man, from the time of conception to the end of the second month in the uterus. – Dox, Ida G. et al. The Harper Collins Illustrated Medical Dictionary. New York: Harper Perennial, 1993, p.... Read more

A Very Exciting Announcement: I’m Writing a Book!

April 28, 2018 By JoAnna Wahlund

I made a very exciting announcement in the Catholic Working Mothers Facebook group today. Check it out! Text version for those who don’t like video: First off, I want to thank all of you for joining me today on the Feast of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, who is the patroness of our group as well as my personal patron saint. St. Gianna, pray for us! I have a very exciting announcement to make, one that you’ll probably be able to... Read more

How to Outfit a Pumping Room for Nursing Mothers

April 24, 2018 By JoAnna Wahlund

In 2010, federal law mandated that companies who employed more than 50 employees had to provide a room in which breastfeeding mothers could express breastmilk — a regulation that was welcomed by pumping moms everywhere. The law only stipulated that you had to have a room that was not a bathroom and was free from intrusion from other employees and staff. Has your employer instructed you to outfit a room for nursing mothers, but you’re not sure what should be... Read more

This FDA Response Suggests Women Are Too Emotional to Test Their Hormone Levels

April 22, 2018 By JoAnna Wahlund

As a longtime user of Natural Family Planning (NFP), also known to many as Fertility Awareness Based Methods (FABM), I am always watching for the latest developments in technology to help chart my cycle. In April 2016, for instance, I was very excited to read about the new at-home progesterone tests being developed by MFB Fertility, Inc., a company focused on creating new in-home diagnostic tests for fertility monitoring in women. At the time, I was in the midst of... Read more

Dribs and Drabs, Vol. 2

April 20, 2018 By JoAnna Wahlund

I really enjoyed Simcha Fisher’s latest article for America Magazine, It’s O.K. to complain about the demands of faith. But how you vent matters. I’ve noticed the tendency she speaks of in Facebook groups and online forums before. As an admin of a large Facebook group, the “health” of the group is something I try to always be cognizant of — I want my group to be a place of support, encouragement, and affirmation, but I also want it to be a... Read more

My Conversation with Kristen Hatten

April 18, 2018 By JoAnna Wahlund

Media outlets Jezebel and Huffington Post have written hit pieces about former-pro-life-advocate-turned-racist Kristen Hatten that commit outright libel against the pro-life movement in general and New Wave Feminists in particular. I won’t link to them because they don’t deserve the clicks, but you can find them if you Google. But the pieces in question have brought the topic back to pro-life and Catholic conversations on Facebook, and it seems some people are still defending Hatten despite clear evidence of her... Read more

“Tradition in Action” Accidentally Gets Something Right

April 15, 2018 By JoAnna Wahlund

Tradition in Action (TIA) is comprised of Catholics who think that Vatican II was a blight to Catholicism. They like to pretend it never happened and that Catholic doctrine ceased to develop around 1960. They have so many problems that even Women of Grace think they’re sketchy. At any rate, while tooling around the internet, I stumbled upon one of their articles: “The Home-or-Career Dilemma for a Mother” by Marian Therese Horvat, Ph.D. (the founder and president of TIA). Dr. Horvat... Read more