Monday 29th April 2024

Home » Featured Today » Recent Articles:

“Why Euthanasia Is Wrong — From A Secular Viewpoint”

December 21, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on “Why Euthanasia Is Wrong — From A Secular Viewpoint”

By BRIAN CLOWES (Editor’s Note: Brian Clowes has been director of research and training at Human Life International since 1995. For an electronic copy of chapter 23 of The Facts of Life, “Euthanasia,” e-mail him at bclowes@hli.org.) + + + Conclusion We have seen that there are several reasons why physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia are wrong — from a secular viewpoint. To begin with, a very high percentage of people recover from allegedly permanent comatose states. Euthanasia also sets a terrible example for younger people, is a lazy and shortsighted way of dealing with problems, and is the greatest example of succumbing to ultimate despair. However, perhaps the most important reason that self-murder is wrong from a practical standpoint is…Continue Reading

Li’l Evergreen

December 20, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Li’l Evergreen

By DEREK BECHER Li’l evergreen, you sparkle bright, Enlightening dark winter’s night; Your shadows shed upon the walls, And stretch among the house’s halls. For years I’ve set you in your stand At Christmas, with a caring hand, So you could fill my heart with cheer, Making dark midwinter clear. The tiny lights and balls you hold, Glimmer green, red, blue and gold. Your shiny needles — stretching long Wish to dance with Christmas songs. Your branches, some are crooked so, But still, on you, the garland flows. In my eyes, you’re the finest tree To place o’er my nativity. For many days above the gifts Your joy is spread, like snowy drifts; Visitors throughout the season Find your beauty…Continue Reading

A Book Review… Charlemagne: A Medievalist’s Interpretation Of His Life

December 19, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on A Book Review… Charlemagne: A Medievalist’s Interpretation Of His Life

By JUDE P. DOUGHERTY Fried, Johannes. Charlemagne. Translated by Peter Lewis. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2016. xi +673 pp. Charlemagne was born in 748 on an estate somewhere between Paris and Compiègne. The son of Pepin the Short, he ruled from 768 until his death in 814. Johannes Fried is a distinguished historian and medievalist, who until his recent retirement was professor of medieval history at the University of Frankfurt am Main. The present work follows on his authoritative volume, The Middle Ages. Charlemagne is not a biography in the usual sense. Fried calls it a work of fiction, because he has amplified and interpreted what is known of Charlemagne’s life. Although his profile is always warranted by data…Continue Reading

The Second-Greatest Gift

December 18, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on The Second-Greatest Gift

By DEREK BECHER “She’s gone, Thomas. I’m sorry.” With a hug, the words fell softly from Lisa’s lips as she walked out of the operating room, her own eyes reddening from the moisture of salty tears. Yet, despite the enduring empathy that she showed and offered through these past few months, the words still sounded like an alarm to Thomas, and certainly, they felt like tiny daggers, tearing his heart apart. His beloved Annabella, who just a year ago was overflowing with a love for life, and energy, had ultimately breathed her last, succumbing to the disease that she had valiantly fought, despite the pain it caused her. And now, mere days before Christmas, Thomas sat crumpled over in his…Continue Reading

The Importance Of Holidays

December 17, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on The Importance Of Holidays

By DONALD DeMARCO Bishop Fulton J. Sheen fully appreciated the value of humor. He would invariably open his TV show, Life Is Worth Living, which was watched back in the 1950s by an estimated 30 million viewers, with a joke or a funny story. He knew that humor was double-edged. It could make a point as well as make people laugh, appealing both to the mind and to the funny bone. One of my favorite of his one-liners is his reference to the man who was an atheist for a year, but had to give it up because there were no holidays. Sheen’s witticism actually compliments atheists for it implies that they have a sense of the holy and long…Continue Reading

Garlands In The Sky

December 16, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Garlands In The Sky

By DEREK BECHER The winter winds blew early that year, bringing a record snowfall to Jubilee County. By November, the country roads were impassable, as frosty drifts gathered and grew along the roadsides, especially where the woods crept toward their shoulders. A week later, country residents had already assembled their horse-drawn wagons and sleighs for the first trips into town, which became less frequent because of the duration of the roundtrip excursion to Merry Vale. Winter had indeed arrived early, and with the thick blanket of snow that it had brought, it was there to stay. For Marie and her brother, Matthew, that first snowfall brought dreams of Christmas, as always. Before long, their town would be decorated with the…Continue Reading

Reflections Of A Magus

December 15, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Reflections Of A Magus

By JOHN YOUNG It is now some weeks since my companions and I returned from Bethlehem, and we still don’t understand fully the wonderful events that we experienced. No doubt the meaning will become clearer with the passing of the years and the fulfilling of the prophecies. It all started with the appearance of the miraculous star. Clearly this portended some major event in the history of the world, and we received a revelation from God that the star marked the birth of a great King of the Jews who, in some mysterious way, would save the world. We were not surprised that we were inspired to bring Him gifts of gold and frankincense: gold for a king and frankincense…Continue Reading

“Why Euthanasia Is Wrong — From A Secular Viewpoint”

December 14, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on “Why Euthanasia Is Wrong — From A Secular Viewpoint”

By BRIAN CLOWES (Editor’s Note: Brian Clowes has been director of research and training at Human Life International since 1995. For an electronic copy of chapter 23 of The Facts of Life, “Euthanasia,” e-mail him at bclowes@hli.org.) + + + Continued The primary reason that physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia should be banned is that death is forever, and a diagnosis of coma is never a “sure thing.” In fact, as we have seen, studies show that about 40 percent of all people who are diagnosed as living in a so-called “persistent vegetative state” recover and lead lives that are completely normal or close to normal, requiring a certain degree of assistance. Euthanasia Sets a Bad Example. One of our most…Continue Reading

The Invincible Liberal Mind

December 13, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on The Invincible Liberal Mind

By JUDE DOUGHERTY Pat Buchanan, whose syndicated column appears weekly in The Wanderer, is known to have said more than once: “This is not the country into which I was born.” Anyone who reached maturity in the 1950s is likely to concur. The nation has changed radically since the first half of the 20th century, so much so that what the future portends is unpleasant to contemplate. Clearly the nation is divided ideologically, perhaps irrevocably. One is forced to say “irrevocably” because the prospect of honest engagement between left and right is remote. The liberal mind, although always a contender in the nation’s political life since the country’s founding, achieved ascendancy in the mid decades of the last century. Once…Continue Reading

Neither Left Nor Right, But Catholic… Thoughts On The Election And Its Aftermath

December 12, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Neither Left Nor Right, But Catholic… Thoughts On The Election And Its Aftermath

By STEPHEN M. KRASON (Editor’s Note: Stephen M. Krason’s “Neither Left nor Right, but Catholic” column appears monthly [sometimes bimonthly]. He is 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. Among his books is The Transformation of the American Democratic Republic [Transaction Publishers: 2012]. This column originally appeared in Crisismagazine.com.) + + + Much ink has already been spilled about what are the implications, big and small, of the 2016 presidential election. I offer a few thoughts as to its meaning and what we can expect from a new Trump administration.…Continue Reading