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American Catholics: One Past, Another Future

May 11, 2019 Frontpage Comments Off on American Catholics: One Past, Another Future

By CHRISTOPHER MANION A century ago, American Catholics had borne the brunt of years of fervid anti-Catholicism. In one wave after another, bigots assailed Catholics as unpatriotic papists. These charges came not only from fringe groups like the Ku Klux Klan, but also from many prominent members of Protestant society (and yes, some very prominent Protestants were members of the Klan as well). Yes, Cardinal Gibbons had to convince American Protestants that Catholics could be good Americans. However, in the face of such hostility, he had to convince a lot of Catholics too. Assimilation into American society was not a universal goal among Catholics, but Gibbons strongly endorsed it. And he had been working at it for years. German Chancellor…Continue Reading

Neither Left Nor Right, But Catholic… A Crisis Of Both Justice And Civic Friendship

May 10, 2019 Frontpage Comments Off on Neither Left Nor Right, But Catholic… A Crisis Of Both Justice And Civic Friendship

By STEPHEN M. KRASON (Editor’s Note: Stephen M. Krason’s Neither Left nor Right, but Catholic column appears monthly [sometimes bimonthly]. He is a professor of political science and legal studies and associate director of the Veritas Center for Ethics in Public Life at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He is also co-founder and president of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists and a lawyer. Among his books are: Abortion: Politics, Morality, and the Constitution; Liberalism, Conservatism, and Catholicism; The Transformation of the American Democratic Republic; Catholicism and American Political Ideologies, and a Catholic political novel, American Cincinnatus. This column originally appeared in Crisismagazine.com. The views expressed here are his own.) + + + Even though the Mueller report seemed to bring…Continue Reading

Ethics Upside Down… How Permissive Abortion Spread Its Bloody Curse Throughout Society

May 9, 2019 Frontpage Comments Off on Ethics Upside Down… How Permissive Abortion Spread Its Bloody Curse Throughout Society

By DEXTER DUGGAN Earthquake predictions are a California staple, but a Golden State magazine in 1970 unwittingly foresaw a bloodletting that would take many more human lives than if a temblor were to knock the entire state beneath the Pacific Ocean’s waves nearly 50 years later, when the population would have grown to around 40 million people in 2019. That massive slaughter would be due to the upcoming, often court-imposed Culture of Death. In its September 1970 issue, California Medicine, the official journal of the California Medical Association, noted in an editorial titled “A New Ethic for Medicine and Society” that serious changes had begun in the way individual human lives were viewed. “The process of eroding the old ethic…Continue Reading

Female Deacons: Stalking Horse For Women’s Ordination?

May 8, 2019 Frontpage Comments Off on Female Deacons: Stalking Horse For Women’s Ordination?

By SHAUN KENNEY Rumors abound that female ordination is in the cards in a new document from the Vatican “restoring” the female diaconate. What nonsense…. First and foremost, there has never been and can never be a female diaconate in the Catholic Church. Proponents are quick to point to “abbotesses” as late as the fourth century, but the practice died out because it transitioned into the head of a convent. The nomenclature never gave the title the status of sacramental authority. Second and perhaps more dangerously, it is incredibly naive to think that the proponents of a so-called female diaconate truly believe that it stops with some sort of informal external association with the actual diaconate. Far from it, they…Continue Reading

Ethics Upside Down… How Permissive Abortion Spread Its Bloody Curse Throughout Society

May 8, 2019 Frontpage Comments Off on Ethics Upside Down… How Permissive Abortion Spread Its Bloody Curse Throughout Society

By DEXTER DUGGAN Earthquake predictions are a California staple, but a Golden State magazine in 1970 unwittingly foresaw a bloodletting that would take many more human lives than if a temblor were to knock the entire state beneath the Pacific Ocean’s waves nearly 50 years later, when the population would have grown to around 40 million people in 2019. That massive slaughter would be due to the upcoming, often court-imposed Culture of Death. In its September 1970 issue, California Medicine, the official journal of the California Medical Association, noted in an editorial titled “A New Ethic for Medicine and Society” that serious changes had begun in the way individual human lives were viewed. “The process of eroding the old ethic…Continue Reading

A Nation At War With Itself

May 7, 2019 Frontpage Comments Off on A Nation At War With Itself

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN President Donald Trump has decided to cease cooperating with what he sees, not incorrectly, as a Beltway conspiracy that is out to destroy him. “We’re fighting all the subpoenas,” Trump said April 24. “These aren’t, like, impartial people. The Democrats are out to win in 2020.” Thus the Treasury Department just breezed by a deadline from the House Ways and Means Committee to deliver Trump’s tax returns. Thus the White House will invoke executive privilege to deny the House Judiciary Committee access to ex-White House counsel Don McGahn, who spent 30 hours being interrogated by Robert Mueller’s team. Thus the Justice Department is withholding from the Oversight Committee subpoenaed documents dealing with the decision to include…Continue Reading

More Bad News On The Adoption Front

May 6, 2019 Frontpage Comments Off on More Bad News On The Adoption Front

By MIKE MANNO Is there truly a campaign to eliminate Catholic adoption agencies, as we’ve reported in this space before? It was only a few weeks ago that I reported on the case in Michigan and also mentioned a case out of Philadelphia where the city had discontinued its contract with Catholic Social Services (CSS) to provide foster-care services due to CSS’s policy — in accord with Catholic teaching — not to place children with unmarried cohabitants or same-sex-couples. And the city’s move came after it had announced the need for more foster families due to over 6,000 children swamping the system. After the city’s human services commissioner, Cynthia Figueroa, had announced her plan to drop its contract with CSS…Continue Reading

Synagogue Attacked, Church Burns . . . Has Spiritual Aridity Fed Anti-Religious Outbursts?

May 5, 2019 Frontpage Comments Off on Synagogue Attacked, Church Burns . . . Has Spiritual Aridity Fed Anti-Religious Outbursts?

By DEXTER DUGGAN The image of southern California as a Mediterranean-style garden spot is, like a Hollywood studio’s false fronts, only what the eye first sees. It’s true the territory looks lush along the temperate narrow band of land that abuts the huge, cooling Pacific Ocean, but go beyond the coastal mountains and there’s a lot of downright aridity. Headed west toward coastal San Diego, Interstate 8 rolls through the California desert, even dropping below sea level near El Centro, before starting a sharp climb of more than 4,000 feet with switchbacks up the mountains. The land no longer is desert but still dry. No ocean in sight yet, but its promise lies ahead. Descending toward the Pacific Coast, Interstate…Continue Reading

Ruminations Amidst The Ruins

May 4, 2019 Frontpage Comments Off on Ruminations Amidst The Ruins

By CHRISTOPHER MANION A group of Catholics, among them some esteemed theologians, have addressed an open letter to the prelates of the Church. “The words and actions of Pope Francis amount to a comprehensive rejection of Catholic teaching on marriage and sexual activity, on the moral law, and on grace and the forgiveness of sins,” they write. We “respectfully request the bishops of the Church to investigate the accusations contained in the letter, so that if they judge them to be well founded, they may free the Church from her present distress, in accordance with the hallowed adage, Salus animarum prima lex (‘the salvation of souls is the highest law’).” This is a serious business. The particulars of the letter…Continue Reading

Why I Didn’t Sign The Open Letter Accusing The Pope Of Heresy

May 3, 2019 Frontpage Comments Off on Why I Didn’t Sign The Open Letter Accusing The Pope Of Heresy

By FR. BRIAN W. HARRISON, OS (Editor’s Note: Fr. Brian W. Harrison, a noted theologian, offered the following comments about the open letter denouncing Pope Francis as a heretic. See page 1 of this week’s issue for more on this issue.) + + + I was one of those invited to sign this new statement publicly denouncing Pope Francis to the world’s Catholic bishops as a formal heretic. However, I declined, because I don’t think you can judge someone — especially a Pope! — to be a formal (i.e., pertinacious or obstinate) heretic without first hearing what he might have to say in his self-defense. That’s an elementary question of due process! The Church (via the Congregation for the Doctrine…Continue Reading