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The Pope’s New Apostolic Exhortation… Seeking Stable Principles Is Not “Rigidity,” But Sanity

April 20, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on The Pope’s New Apostolic Exhortation… Seeking Stable Principles Is Not “Rigidity,” But Sanity

By ROBERT ROYAL (Editor’s Note: This essay by Robert Royal first appeared April 11 on the website The Catholic Thing [www.thecatholicthing.org.] Copyright 2018. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.) + + + Among the many sad consequences of the divisions Pope Francis has exacerbated within the Church, we’re now forced to live with an undeniable reality: Even when he says good things — and there are many such in his new Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate (“Rejoice and Be Glad: On the Call to Holiness in Today’s World”) — they inevitably get drawn into the trench warfare he helped create. His supporters often argue that opposition to the kind of changes he made in a document like Amoris Laetitia stems…Continue Reading

A Movie Review… The Tragedy Of Chappaquiddick

April 19, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on A Movie Review… The Tragedy Of Chappaquiddick

By REY FLORES “We tell the truth, or at least our version of it” — Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, July 1969. These words explain everything about what money, power, and influence can do in the swamp of establishment American politics. These are the words Kennedy shared with the damage control team put together by his father, Joe P. Kennedy Sr. All done to cover up the tragic death of an innocent young woman at the hands of the senator, and an attempt to maintain the sterling Kennedy name untarnished — or so they thought. In American politics, there have been few families who have had the cultural impact of the Kennedys. While most Americans with a basic knowledge of U.S.…Continue Reading

Pastoral Mercy Requires Sound Doctrinal Judgment

April 18, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on Pastoral Mercy Requires Sound Doctrinal Judgment

By SHAUN KENNEY It’s been a whirlwind week for Catholics with news of an apostolic exhortation, some business with the Chilean bishops, a gathering of cardinals in Rome, and a surprisingly orthodox interpretation of Catholic teaching on homosexual acts from none other than James Martin, SJ, in the pages of America magazine no less. Yes, that Fr. Martin. Yes, that America magazine. Interestingly enough, Martin discusses with surprising firmness the Catholic Church’s teaching on the homosexual act as intrinsically disordered. His words, or more accurately, the words chosen by the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Moreover, Martin goes to great lengths to explain the difference between the doctrine of the Church and the pastoral mission of the Church, explaining to…Continue Reading

But It Should Bring A Blush… These Fans Are Taught “Team Pride”

April 17, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on But It Should Bring A Blush… These Fans Are Taught “Team Pride”

By DEXTER DUGGAN PHOENIX — How society has been thrown for a loop was on display April 3 at the sharp downtown arena where the Phoenix Suns NBA franchise plays. On the official program was honor for sexual confusion and dysfunction as the Suns observed their Pride Night. It was a long toss from when the 1968 expansion Suns first played at the concave-roofed Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, looking somewhat like a big saddle, at the state fairgrounds, northwest of downtown Phoenix. Back then, values were just, you know, so square. On April 4, the number-two story on the front sports page of the Phoenix-based Arizona Republic, the state’s largest daily, was headlined, “Suns celebrate equality, inclusion.” Inclusion of whom?…Continue Reading

Unwanted Same-Sex Attraction? Tough Luck, Says California Bill

April 16, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on Unwanted Same-Sex Attraction? Tough Luck, Says California Bill

By MIKE MANNO OK, we’ve crossed this politically correct line once before. California (where else?), New Jersey, and a few other states have banned sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) — sometimes called reparative or conversion therapy — for minors. Reparative therapy is a therapeutic technique used to change one’s sexual orientation from a same-sex attraction to a heterosexual one. The last time I delved into this issue was in the May 25, 2017 edition of The Wanderer (“Gender Confusion Prevails in the Courts”) wherein I reported that the U.S. Supreme Court had declined to hear an appeal from the Ninth Circuit’s decision that banning SOCE for minors was legal. Back in May I described the law thus: “[If a] minor…Continue Reading

Humanae Vitae Takes The Stage

April 15, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on Humanae Vitae Takes The Stage

By CHRISTOPHER MANION After several years of pleas from the pews, the USCCB acknowledged the importance of Humanae Vitae by sponsoring a major conference celebrating the encyclical of Blessed Paul VI, promulgated fifty years ago this July. “Embracing God’s Vision for Marriage, Love, and Life” met for three days at the Catholic University of America during the Octave of Easter, and it was simply thrilling. World-class speakers addressed every aspect of this crucial Church teaching. Philosophers, theologians, historians, scientists, physicians, social analysts, even medical statisticians wove together a fabric of beauty and truth to confront the shredded culture of death that has prevailed in so much of the West. There was no little irony in the fact that Catholic University…Continue Reading

Capitulation Doesn’t Work . . . For Ryan And GOP, Nor For The Pope On Immigration

April 14, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on Capitulation Doesn’t Work . . . For Ryan And GOP, Nor For The Pope On Immigration

By DEXTER DUGGAN Just imagine that a town in a congressman’s district had terrible ambulance-response times. This hypothetical legislator made a big point while campaigning for re-election that if he won, he’d get all the emergency agencies in the area together to improve their coordination. However, after his victory, he staged exactly one lunch for their leaders then dropped the issue entirely. When he lost office in the next election cycle, his foes proclaimed, “See, people don’t care about fast ambulances. Who cares how long it takes them to respond?” Their claims, of course, turned the issue on its head. He didn’t campaign by promising he’d be indifferent to the crisis, but that he’d fight to fix it. It was…Continue Reading

The Pope And Hell

April 13, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on The Pope And Hell

By JACK KENNY A report is circulating that Pope Francis has said there is no Hell. What a relief! Instead of standing in the pews each Sunday, saying “I believe” in a creed that contains a whole lot of messy doctrine about Heaven and Hell, we may now stand and say with a shout of gladness, “I’m off the hook!” Supposedly the Pope said to a journalist in a one-on-one interview that souls who do not repent and therefore cannot be forgiven simply “disappear” and are no more. I doubt there is a bureau of the Vatican candidly labeled, “Office of Damage Control,” but someone has put out a statement that the heretical words were not a direct quotation from…Continue Reading

Catechesis And The Suffering of Souls In Hell

April 12, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on Catechesis And The Suffering of Souls In Hell

By ARTHUR HIPPLER (Editor’s Note: Arthur Hippler is chairman of the religion department and teaches religion in the Upper School at Providence Academy, Plymouth, Minn.) + + + Just before Easter, we were greeted with “Pope Francis Denies the Existence of Hell!” headlines, followed up by clarifications in much smaller font. Those with long memories will recall that years ago John Paul II captured headlines when, in a Wednesday audience, he said that Hell was a “state” rather than a “place,” that is the “state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy” (July 28, 1999). For many, denying that Hell was a “place” amounted to denying its existence. How can…Continue Reading

An “Arab Spring” For Teachers In Oklahoma?

April 11, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on An “Arab Spring” For Teachers In Oklahoma?

By SHAUN KENNEY It’s being called an “Arab Spring for Teachers” by the UK Guardian. Hundreds of striking Oklahoma teachers are marching on their state capitol, where once again teachers unions have parents by the throat. Of course, the one sure loser in all of this are the children. Not only do their parents have to make other accommodations in this hostage-taking scenario, the children themselves simply aren’t being taught regardless as to whether or not teachers remain in the classroom or not. Consider the fact that national standardized test scores have been in a steady decline over the last 15 years. That’s right — in a nation that spends more money per pupil on education than any other industrialized…Continue Reading