Tuesday 30th January 2018

Recent Articles:

Can You Read Your Diploma?

January 30, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on Can You Read Your Diploma?

By MIKE MANNO

Several years ago, while still teaching college, I usually tried to arrange the semester schedule to include at least three tests, and if the subject lent itself to it, a research paper. That should be enough, I reasoned, to evaluate each student’s understanding of the material.
Not wanting to be an overly demanding professor, and since my students were mostly non-traditional and held jobs and supported families, my tests were usually multiple choice and the questions were taken right from the textbook; sometimes I would intersperse the test with a few short answer questions, but by and large, they were designed so that any student who read the textbook could answer them.
Thus students with extensive family or job considerations who could not make all the classes were not seriously disadvantaged.
One of my teaching tools was to go over each test with each class after the tests were corrected. I would start at one corner of the room, ask the student to read question one, give his answer and why. We would usually take an entire class period for that and I found it to be an extremely helpful teaching tool, since every student had the opportunity to challenge the “correct” answer, and, at times, I found a question misleading and would adjust scores accordingly. … Continue Reading

With Best-Ever Pro-Life Start For A President . . . Trump Shakes Up Settled Order On Abortion

January 29, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on With Best-Ever Pro-Life Start For A President . . . Trump Shakes Up Settled Order On Abortion

By DEXTER DUGGAN

Why does trying to save countless babies’ lives from abortion slaughter draw derision from upper-crusters as being socially embarrassing if not downright, um, deplorable?
But the abortion industry’s full-bladed, bloody attack on the most innocent and defenseless is regarded benignly, if not as outright thrillingly marvelous.
One need only think of the morally upside-down and inside-out world of, say, the radically pro-abortion New York Times to wonder whatever became of journalists’ moral compass.
Donald Trump has a characteristically blunt way of dealing with such elitist delusions. Just brush them aside for being fake news.
Some politicians still seem to think that having a pro-lifer with a rose for life knocking on their doors is bad manners.
However, Trump invited a bunch of the young rose-bearers right into his White House Rose Garden on January 19, so they could surround him on camera as he told the nearby massive national March for Life and the rest of the world not only about his pro-life dedication but also the results being produced. … Continue Reading

MCCL Rally… Pro-Lifers Battle A Blizzard To Continue The Fight For Life

January 28, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on MCCL Rally… Pro-Lifers Battle A Blizzard To Continue The Fight For Life

By PEGGY MOEN

ST. PAUL — Weighted with a heavy snowfall and the Vikings’ crushing NFC loss, Minnesota pro-lifers nonetheless rallied impressively January 22 at the state capitol. They came to defend what makes weather forecasting and football playing possible: being born.
Elaine Hertel, an MCCL volunteer, told The Wanderer, that “it’s amazing” so many turned out during a blizzard.
Diane Springer of Grove City, Minn., said she ventured out because “I just want to protect life, defend life. . . . Today is my birthday.”
From a distance, the bundled-up pro-lifers looked like fleeing refugees as they trudged up the snowy capitol steps. But inside the capitol rotunda, the pro-lifers, arrayed on all three levels, looked like part of a ballroom scene from a classic movie.
Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life has never canceled one of its rallies because of winter weather, but this is the third time they’ve had to move the rally indoors.
In his talk inside the rotunda, Leo LaLonde, MCCL’s president, proclaimed himself “awed at the size of the crowds.”
He pointed out that “states passed more pro-life legislation during the Obama administration than at any other time in history.” … Continue Reading

Shutting Down The Shutdown

January 27, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on Shutting Down The Shutdown

By CHRISTOPHER MANION

The effort by Democrat Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) to use a federal government shutdown as leverage to pass an amnesty bill crashed and burned on January 22, when he caved to President Trump’s demand for a clean short-term spending bill. That bill then passed, but it’s good only through February 17, so we can expect considerable fireworks in early February from the Antifa Left, pro-amnesty forces, and the body of America’s Catholic bishops.
All of these groups are demanding a massive amnesty and immigration bill that will add millions more to America’s legal population, and it’s no secret that many Establishment Republicans support the desire of the unanimous Democrat minority’s efforts to pass a bill. So the standoff is far from over, and the pressure to cave next time will be totally on the president, who will undoubtedly be barraged daily with an Opposition Media propaganda campaign. … Continue Reading

Is Democracy On The Way Down?

January 26, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on Is Democracy On The Way Down?

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN

“The Western democratic system is hailed by the developed world as near perfect and the most superior political system to run a country,” mocked China’s official news agency.
“However, what’s happening in the United States today will make more people worldwide reflect on the viability and legitimacy of such a chaotic political system.”
There is a worldwide audience for what Beijing had to say about the shutdown of the U.S. government, for there is truth in it.
According to Freedom House, democracy has been in decline for a dozen years. Less and less do nations look to the world’s greatest democracy, the United States, as a model of the system to best preserve and protect what is most precious to them.
China may be a single-party Communist state that restricts freedom of speech, religion, and the press, the defining marks of democracy. Yet Beijing has delivered what makes the Chinese people proud — a superpower nation to rival the mighty United States. … Continue Reading

Enthusiasm Strong . . . Media Doomsaying Doesn’t Perturb Annual GOP Meeting

January 25, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on Enthusiasm Strong . . . Media Doomsaying Doesn’t Perturb Annual GOP Meeting

By DEXTER DUGGAN

PHOENIX — The dominant media’s growing drumbeat that Republicans are headed for electoral disaster this November didn’t perturb the annual business meeting of GOP precinct committeemen for Arizona’s most populous county, Maricopa, whose county seat is Phoenix.
Despite predictions of doom by the same media that confidently said Hillary Clinton would thrash Donald Trump for the presidency in 2016, a veteran GOP local strategist told The Wanderer, “It is an unusually large number of tables and candidates” on sidewalks outside the meeting hall, where more than 800 committeemen carrying more than 600 proxies gathered.
As committeemen listened to talks and voted on amendments, resolutions, and selection of at-large members on January 13, backers of candidates for various political offices staffed tables with literature and petition sheets outdoors along two sides of the hall, while food trucks nearby prepared to offer a sunny alfresco lunch including barbecue, hamburgers, and Mexican fare. … Continue Reading

Tonic For Conservatives . . . Trump Tries To Heal A Sick Dominant Media, But Patient Fights Back

January 24, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on Tonic For Conservatives . . . Trump Tries To Heal A Sick Dominant Media, But Patient Fights Back

By DEXTER DUGGAN

As the first anniversary of President Trump’s inauguration approached on January 20, the dominant media, which desperately wanted to free the world from him, themselves had become his captives.
He dominated and shackled their every hour as they helplessly fixated on what rumors, leaks, gossip, and exaggerations they could inflate into the destruction of his presidency, the sooner the better.
Trump’s presidency also provided a certain tonic to strengthen those causes whose news coverage had been anemic, like pro-lifers’.
When Trump’s White House physician, Dr. Ronny Jackson, explained the glowing results of the 71-year-old president’s full physical examination during a January 16 media briefing, reporters felt deathly ill. You mean he’s not on the verge of a fatal disease? He’s not a drug addict or demented or certifiably insane? He might even outlive some of us?
They peppered Jackson with desperate questions hoping to find some thrilling chink in the man who wants to build that sickening border wall. If this had been Barack Obama’s optimistic physical-exam report they’d heard, they would have white-toothy smiled a mile wide. But, being Trump’s, this news was like deep drilling by a dentist without pain killer. … Continue Reading

The Third World And The Third Rail

January 23, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on The Third World And The Third Rail

By CHRISTOPHER MANION

“The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death” (Mark 3:6).

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Senate Democrat Whip Richard Durbin (D., Ill.) told the media that President Trump used a dirty word when describing Third World countries, and American prelates quickly joined in the chorus of manufactured outrage.
Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski found the Catholic Durbin’s report “disappointing,” and then added a curious observation: “[Trump’s] remarks laid bare the true motivation of those that want to close the doors of our nations [sic] to immigrants and hopefully his remarks have also discredited the restrictionists’ position and freed Congress to move ahead and ignore the restrictionists.”
Archbishop Wenski’s remark to a USCCB news site reveals what Dr. Charles Kenny, the bishop conference’s lead pollster, calls a “right-brain” moment — in layman’s language, a surprisingly candid and honest response, not about the question, but about something else. … Continue Reading

Appeals Court… Upholds Clinic’s Right Not To Promote Abortion

January 22, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on Appeals Court… Upholds Clinic’s Right Not To Promote Abortion

By MIKE MANNO

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals delivered a double rebuke to the City of Baltimore’s attempt to enlist a crisis pregnancy center to promote abortions, with the final blow delivered January 5.
Concern by city officials that women seeking abortions might be confused by advertisements and misled into visiting pro-life pregnancy centers rather than an abortion clinic which might cause a delay in their ability to terminate their pregnancy, the city council passed an ordinance in December of 2009 that required any “limited-service pregnancy center” to post a disclaimer notifying clients that it “does not provide or make referral for abortion or birth-control services.”
In short, the ordinance forced crisis pregnancy centers to either refer for abortions or display a pro-abortion message, drafted by the government, on its walls. In response, the Greater Baltimore Center for Pregnancy Concerns, Inc., filed a federal lawsuit against the city to block enforcement of the law.
The Center, housed rent free in a Catholic church, provided pregnant women with counseling, pregnancy tests, sonograms, prenatal vitamins, diapers, and other assistance, all free of charge. It did not, however, refer for abortions.
The Center initially won in the district court which granted summary judgment for the Center on the basis that the ordinance violated its right of free speech and because it was not narrowly tailored to seek a compelling state interest. … Continue Reading

Trump: In Immigration Debate, Race Matters

January 21, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on Trump: In Immigration Debate, Race Matters

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN

President Trump “said things which were hate-filled, vile and racist. . . . I cannot believe…any president has ever spoken the words that I . . . heard our president speak yesterday.”
So wailed Sen. Dick Durbin after departing the White House.
And what caused the minority leader to almost faint dead away?
Trump called Haiti a “s—hole country,” said Durbin, and then asked why we don’t have more immigrants from neat places “like Norway.”
With that, there erupted one of the great media firestorms of the Trump era. On Martin Luther King Day, it was still blazing.
Trump concedes he may have disparaged Haiti, which, at last check, was not listed among “Best Places to Live” in the Western Hemisphere. Yet Trump insists he did not demean the Haitian people.
Still, by contrasting Norway as a desirable source of immigrants, as opposed to Haiti, El Salvador, and Africa, Trump tabled a question that is roiling the West, the answer to which will decide its fate.
Trump is saying with words, as he has with policies, that in taking in a million people a year, race, religion, and national origin matter, if we are to preserve our national unity and national character. … Continue Reading

Cardinal Eijk Asks Pope to Clarify Questions About “Remarried” Divorcees

As Katholisch.de, the official website of the German bishops, reports today, Cardinal Willem Eijk, the Dutch cardinal and Metropolitan Archbishop of Utrecht, requested that Pope Francis bring light into the confusion concerning the question as to how to deal with…Continue Reading

Where are all the Catholics at the nation’s largest Catholic school

When Selena Miller, a practicing Catholic, applied to DePaul, she had no idea it was a Catholic university. Damita Meneves, another practicing Catholic, said she has met only one other Catholic student in her first year at DePaul. DePaul is…Continue Reading

Cardinal Burke: It is a “source of anguish” to hear suggestions “that I would lead a schism”

His Eminence, Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, spoke recently with Thinking with the Church, hosted by Chris Altieri, who is also a regular contributor to Catholic World Report. Cardinal Burke responds to questions regarding the interpretation and reception of the post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris…Continue Reading

Trump declares Roe v. Wade abortion anniversary to be ‘Sanctity of Human Life Day’

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 22, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – President Donald Trump proclaimed Monday, January 22, 2018, “National Sanctity of Human Life Day.” The proclamation comes on the 45th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that legalized abortion in the…Continue Reading

Nikki Haley blasts Venezuela for targeting Catholic bishops

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s denunciation of a pair of Roman Catholic bishops is the latest example of a government turning to tyranny, according to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. “Maduro’s reign of violence, repression, corruption, and bankruptcy…Continue Reading

Wedding on Pope’s airplane not as spontaneous as it appeared, evidence indicates

January 19, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – A wedding ceremony presided over by Pope Francis on a recent flight in Chile and portrayed as spontaneous by the couple appears in fact to have been planned well in advance. In the website of the Chilean…Continue Reading

NEW SURVEY: CATHOLIC WOMEN “DISENGAGED & DISENGAGING” — AND DON’T LISTEN TO US BISHOPS

Nearly five years into Pope Francis papacy, with its great expectations for a revival of Catholicism among the flagging faithful, a new large-scale survey of American Catholic women finds the flock faithful but disengaged from the rituals of the church…Continue Reading

‘Catholic’ Georgetown to Offer LGBT Housing to Students

Georgetown University, founded in 1789 and ostensibly a “Catholic” school, will offer a “gender & sexuality” housing complex for students starting in the 2018-19 academic year, which will operate as a residential center for homosexual, transgender, and “q

Catholic Bishop: “Abortion is a Uniquely Intimate Form of Violence With Bitter Public Consequences”

The “March for Life” this January, like every January over the past several decades, reminds the nation that killing an unborn child is never a private matter. Abortion is a uniquely intimate form of violence – but violence with bitter…Continue Reading

Vikings quarterback lists winning pass as 3rd best life-moment, behind finding Jesus

January 15, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) –  Vikings Quarterback Case Keenum said throwing the game-winning pass in the last few seconds of Sunday’s championship game against the New Orleans Saints was only the third best moment in his life. Keenum’s first best…Continue Reading

On the purpose of politics and the salvation of souls

“Beloved, our Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal creator of all things, today became our Savior by being born of a mother. Of his own will he was born for us today, in time, so that he could lead us to…Continue Reading

Don’t let fear keep you from welcoming the stranger, Pope says

Vatican City, Jan 14, 2018 / 04:45 am (CNA/EWTN News).- At a special Mass Sunday for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, Pope Francis said that while it is normal to be afraid of the unknown, we can’t let…Continue Reading

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Interview With Cardinal Burke . . . Discriminating Mercy: Defending Christ And His Church With True Love

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  By DON FIER (Editor’s Note: His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and Founder of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wis., graciously took time out of his busy schedule to grant The Wanderer a wide-ranging interview during a recent visit to the Shrine. Included among the topics…Continue Reading

Developing Lives Of Peace After The Heart Of Mary

By RAYMOND LEO CARDINAL BURKE (Editor’s Note: His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke delivered the address below at the 32nd Annual Church Teaches Forum, “The Message of Fatima: Peace for the World,” Galt House, Louisville, Ky., July 22, 2017. The address is reprinted here with the kind permission of Cardinal Burke. All rights reserved. This is part one of the…Continue Reading

Catechism

Today . . .

Is Latin America still Catholic?

One of the major reasons why a Latin American was elected the first pope from the New World almost five years ago is the long-term decline of the flock in the most Catholic region on earth. Just five decades ago, in 1970, Latin America was 92 per cent Catholic. Mexicans, Argentines and Brazilians, for example, were born into the Church and lived out their lives as Catholics, althoug

Fr. Martin’s pro-LGBT propaganda is creeping into the Church and the pro-life movement. Reject it.

January 25, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – As a same-sex attracted man, I can say categorically—explicitly and unambiguously: Pay no attention to the purveyors of gay liberation theology who promote the infiltration and metastasization of LGBT ideology within the Church. Fr. James Martin, S.J., is perhaps its most visible proponent, interpreting Scripture—and more broadly, all Church teaching—in li

Just When You Thought You’d Heard Every Lame Excuse in the Vatican Book…

I’m pretty sure most of us are fed up with hearing about Lilianne Ploumen  and her award from the Vatican. I know I am. But there’s been a development that is just too amazing not to share. And I’ll get to it, but I’m going to leave you hanging for just a minute because first I want to share some additional background from my colleague in Rome, Marco Tosatti. We’ve translated one of his reports…Continue Reading

From Lifesitenews . . . The best signs at the 2018 March for Life

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WASHINGTON, D.C., January 20, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The photos below show some of the many signs LifeSiteNews saw at the 2018 March for Life. They range from funny to cute to inspirational to sobering and heartbreaking. All photos belong to LifeSiteNews.

Catholic bishops side with labor unions in Supreme Court case

WASHINGTON (RNS) — U.S. Roman Catholic bishops are backing public sector unions in an upcoming Supreme Court case, pitting church leaders against the Trump administration and conservatives in a legal battle over how organized labor is financed. In an amicus brief filed on Friday (Jan. 19) in the case of Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sides with the union, which is being challenged by…Continue Reading

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A Book Review . . . Delineating China’s Desire For World Dominance

By REY FLORES Bully of Asia: Why China’s Dream Is the New Threat to World Order by Steven W. Mosher; Washington, D.C., 2017; hardcover; available at amazon.com, $18.89. Also available on Kindle. When I was offered the opportunity to review Bully of Asia, I felt somewhat intimidated by its heavy subject matter. The story of…Continue Reading

A Book Review . . . Msgr. Knox: A Fearless Thinker And Writer

By MITCHELL KALPAKGIAN The Wine of Certitude: A Literary Biography of Ronald Knox, by David Rooney (Ignatius Press: San Francisco, 2009), 427 pp. Available through www.amazon.com as a paperback or on Kindle. A comprehensive account of the life, works, and apologetics of one of the great Catholic controversialists of the first half of the twentieth…Continue Reading

Milwaukee Archbishop In Phoenix . . . Officials At Red Mass Told To Be Risk-Takers Against Suffering

By DEXTER DUGGAN PHOENIX — Christians should be “risk-takers” in society, as illustrated by the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the archbishop of Milwaukee told the 48th annual Red Mass at St. Mary’s Basilica here to mark the beginning of the Arizona legislature’s session. Archbishop Jerome Listecki delivered the guest homily to a congregation including…Continue Reading

A Note Of Good News

By DONALD DeMARCO Hostility against pro-life students on college campuses has been escalating. This is not only troubling, but difficult to comprehend. Abortion is a violent act that ends an innocent life. It is, as a matter of fact, the country’s most egregious act of domestic violence. Why, then, is so much animus directed against…Continue Reading

YAL Lawsuit Against Pierce College . . . Motion To Dismiss Lawsuit Against Free Speech Zone Rejected

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Central District Court of California rejected a motion to dismiss Young Americans for Liberty’s lawsuit against Los Angeles Pierce College over their free speech zone which consists of only .003 percent of the campus. The court ruled January 17 that the open spaces of public colleges like LA Pierce are open…Continue Reading

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Our Catholic Faith (Section B of print edition)

A Leaven In The World… The March For Life Is Not Enough

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK Republicans and presidents are using pro-life support to get elected. President Trump even addressed the Washington, D.C., March for Life this year via live feed from the Rose Garden. Wonderful. But it wasn’t enough. It was a beautiful day in Washington for the March this year not only because the weather cooperated with unseasonably warm…Continue Reading

The Sacraments Instituted By Christ… The Holy Eucharist — God With Us!

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM Part 13 Perhaps what makes me feel really sorry for Protestants is the tragic reality that they believe in Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, but do not have Him in their midst in the marvelous Sacrament of His Love for us: The Holy Eucharist. They claim to believe in the Bible, and yet do not believe…Continue Reading

Preparation For The Sacrament Of Marriage

By DON FIER When questioned by the Pharisees regarding the permanence of marriage and the possibility of divorce under the New Covenant, the response of our Lord Jesus Christ was unequivocal: “They [husband and wife] are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matt. 19:6). Therefore, as the Catechism of…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

Q. Which works of mercy are more important, the corporal or spiritual? I ask this because I seldom hear the spiritual works mentioned. — M.B., via e-mail. A. They are equally important, although you wouldn’t know it from the lack of attention given to the spiritual works. In our modern culture, we can understand why the main focus is on…Continue Reading

Find Fulfillment In Charity

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Fifth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR B) Readings: Job 7:1-4, 6-7 1 Cor. 9:16-19, 22-13 Mark 1:29-39 In the first reading today, Job, in the midst of his suffering, calls man’s life on earth a drudgery and his days those of hirelings. When one is feeling crushed under the weight of various troubles, it feels hopeless,…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes… St. Jeanne De Lestonnac

By CAROLE BRESLIN Is it possible to have two vocations? There are men who have become priests after their wives have died. There are also women saints who, after their husbands died, became religious, such as St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Jane Frances de Chantal, and St. Jeanne de Lestonnac. Jeanne was born on December 27, 1556 in Bordeaux, France.…Continue Reading

St. Polycarp Of Smyrna

By CAROLE BRESLIN Researching Church history usually begins with studying the fathers of the Church. Many rely heavily on the writings on spirituality, traditions, and the development of doctrine of these men, including St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. John Chrysostom, and St. Jerome. Who are these men and why are they called fathers of the Church?…Continue Reading