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By now the entire country has seen a video of a supposedly racist confrontation, in front of the Lincoln Memorial, between a grinning young high school student and a Native American elder, chanting and beating a drum.
Category: Columns
New York, abortion, and a short route to chaos
It was the celebration that was particularly galling. On the 46th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, signed into law a protocol that gives practically unrestricted access to abortion, permitting the killing of an unborn child up until the moment of delivery.
Heeding God’s call in a time of darkness
One winter four years ago, I hit bottom. I was a mother of four little ones close in age, and years of exhaustion and isolation were beating me.
With the constant care of my children controlling all of my thoughts and actions, I was becoming a shell, a shadow of my former self, and I needed help.
After the March for Life — keep working!
In the more than 30 annual Washington, D.C., Marches for Life I have participated in, I always think the current march is the largest ever. But since accurate figures are hard to come by, it usually comes down to taking a good guess.
Birdbox and engaging in spiritual warfare
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Spoiler Alert! This column reveals details of a newly released film.
The film Birdbox, based on a British novel of the same name, started streaming on Netflix around Christmas time. Starring Sandra Bullock and John Malkovich, it is a taut thriller that manages, perhaps despite itself, to shed considerable light on the parlous spiritual condition of contemporary culture.
Catholic schools are different where it counts
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In 1974, Catholic Schools Week was established as the annual celebration of Catholic education in the United States. This year it occurs from January 27 to February 2. Its theme is “Catholic Schools: Learn. Serve. Lead. Succeed.”
Young Jesuits, justice, and evangelization
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While I was in Chicago for the Christmas break, I had a wonderful meeting with around 30 young Jesuits, all in their “pre-tertianship” period of formation. This means that these men had already passed through their lengthy education in philosophy and theology and had been involved for some time in a ministry of the Jesuit order.
The group I addressed included high school teachers, university professors, journal editors, and doctoral students — and almost all of them were ordained priests. After a simple lunch of soup and sandwiches, we plunged into conversation.
Celebrating Catholic schools
Happy Catholic Schools Week! This coming Sunday marks the beginning of a national, week-long celebration of Catholic schools.
In the Diocese of Madison, each one of the 43 Catholic elementary and high schools will be celebrating their students, teachers, parents, and all of the incredible success and achievements of their students as they learn and grow academically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually.
Roe v. Wade and the damage done by abortion
In his speech to Catholic health care professionals and gynecologists on September 20, 2013, Pope Francis said, “Every child who is condemned unjustly to being aborted bears the face of Christ, who even before he was born, and then just after birth, experienced the world’s rejection.
Foiling Spinoza as path to evangelization
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During this Christmas holiday, I’ve been reading Anthony Gottlieb’s breezy and enjoyable history of modern philosophy, entitled The Dream of Enlightenment.
Throughout his treatment of such figures as Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, and Voltaire, Gottlieb reveals his own rather strong bias in favor of the rationalism and anti-supernaturalism advocated by these avatars of modern thought.