Matthew Schmitz

Via Mark DeGirolami at Mirror of Justice, I see that Italy is contemplating a ban of veils worn by Muslim women: An Italian parliamentary commission on Tuesday approved a draft law banning women from wearing veils that cover their faces in public. The draft passed by the constitutional affairs . . . . Continue Reading »

As Rusty Reno recently observed  in these pages, the poorest have been hit the hardest by the rise of out-of-wedlock birth, cohabitation, divorce, and remarriage. But Harold James , an economic historian at Princeton University and senior fellow of the Witherspoon Institute, notes in his . . . . Continue Reading »

New on the site today is an article by Charles J. Chaput, the newly designated leader of Philadelphia’s Catholics. If you haven’t seen it already, you can read it here . It’s a follow-up to an article last week on the same topic, which you can find here . I’ve . . . . Continue Reading »

David Brooks’ column today on life and death is thought-provoking but ambiguous at several important points. It’s not clear whether, along with Dudley Clendinen , Brooks denies the value of life with diminished capacities or whether he simply thinks patients should sometimes choose to . . . . Continue Reading »

Last week Joe highlighted Matt Franck’s Public Discourse article ” Is Sex Just Like Race? ” Matt was responding to the law professor who claims that the Catholic University of America is practicing segregation by returning to single-sex dormitories. But readers should also take . . . . Continue Reading »

The approval of same-sex civil marriage by the New York state legislature did not bring on the end of the world, or of history. It did not even mark, as Michael Potemra claimed in a post at National Review, “the end of the long road” for those who advocated it. The path to same-sex civil marriage still must go through many more states that are far less susceptible to the emotional bullying of the SSM lobby than was New York, and it is by no means certain that advocates will ever reach their destination. More importantly, it is far from clear”even to them”what that destination is… . Continue Reading »

Many of my friends have been disappointed with the response to the NY marriage vote at some conservative outlets, and I can hardly blame them. It’s difficult to imagine a similar response if one of the other legs of the conservative “stool” suffered such a setback. That said, . . . . Continue Reading »

CosmoGirl magazine was founded in 1999 in order to advance female empowerment (and, of course, sell ad space) by promoting a sexually assertive femininity that was stripped of scruple. Well, CosmoGirl folded in 2008, less than a decade after its founding, and in today’s column , David Mills . . . . Continue Reading »

What are the stakes in the New York state legislature’s upcoming vote on whether or not marriage is between a man and a woman? Via  Kathryn Jean Lopez , one state senator offers an answer: “What we’re about to do is redefine what the American family is,” [Carl] Kruger [of . . . . Continue Reading »

Not yet a fan of  First Things on Facebook? Didn’t know First Things was on Facebook? Well, it is, and you can become a fan  here . You also can become a fan of Richard John Neuhaus and some members of the First Things family: Robert P. George John Haldane David Bentley Hart Richard . . . . Continue Reading »