Christians are heirs of a 2,000-year tradition of proclaiming God’s word, seeking justice in our societies, resisting tyranny, and reaching out with compassion to the poor, oppressed and suffering. While fully acknowledging the imperfections and shortcomings of Christian institutions and communities in all ages, we claim the heritage of those Christians who defended innocent life by rescuing discarded babies from trash heaps in Roman cities and publicly denouncing the Empire’s sanctioning of infanticide… . Continue Reading »
Roman Polanski was arrested for the decades-old rape of a child”and a bunch of Hollywood types defended him. Old news, at this point. But the interesting thing about the case is not that some people defended him but how quickly the tide turned against his defenders. The most leftist magazines and websites in America, which had once published pieces in praise of child sex, were among the most relentless at hammering Polanski… . Continue Reading »
Jeffery Toobin, staff writer at the New Yorker and senior legal analyst for CNN, continues a well-worn liberal tradition in his latest Talk of the Town column, “Not Covered””that of accusing his conservative opponents of hypocrisy. Toobin, a fully credentialed abortion-supporter, is unsurprisingly distressed about the Stupak-Pitts Amendment that was added at the last minute to the final version of the House healthcare bill… . Continue Reading »
After she died, it was as if I had broken my arm. A part of me ached all the time, and something that had been functional was now useless, and everything about my daily routine needed to be navigated differently. It was difficult, for instance, to stand in line at the post office or buy groceries or make dinner. Nothing seemed to matter anymore… . Continue Reading »
Mary I, Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon’s only surviving child, was the first Queen Regnant of England, Ireland, and Wales, acclaimed, crowned, and anointed in spite of an attempt to change the succession after Edward VI’s death. Yet John Foxe indirectly gave her a nickname that has obscured her achievement as Queen Regnant, highlighted in two of the titles listed below, for centuries: “Bloody Mary.” … Continue Reading »
The latter half of the nineteenth century was a time of crisis for Christian belief. In part, this was simply the result of a long process of secularization”political, social, and intellectual”and in perhaps larger part the result of new theories and new discoveries in the sciences… . Continue Reading »
Last week I was introduced to the work of the late Karen Laub-Novak (1938“2009), on exhibit at the John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. Only vaguely familiar with her and her work, I was curious to see how her art relates to the deeper questions of life and faith, and to see a collection from a successful, contemporary Catholic artist… . Continue Reading »
“Thank you for your service,” they say, as they shake our hands and pat our backs. We smile and thank them for their gratitude and try to think of something else to talk about. These encounters with strangers happen from time to time, though always on Veteran’s Day. It’s the one time we can count on civilians”a group from which we came but can never fully return”to think about us… . Continue Reading »
On Saturday night the Democrats narrowly passed a monstrosity of a health-care bill that will cut doctors’ Medicare payments, raise taxes on entrepreneurial medical device manufacturers, and ultimately lead to rationing of care. Some conservatives blamed the National Right to Life Committee. How is that possible? … Continue Reading »
That the House of Representatives managed not to fund abortions while passing the new health-care bill is the good news. That it managed to pass the health-care bill without funding abortion is the bad news, too. In an odd way, it’s maybe even worse news than if the leading Democrats in the House had succeeded at including abortion funding, which is clearly what they wanted to do… . Continue Reading »
