Thursday 2nd May 2024

Home » Featured Today » Recent Articles:

ISIS And Other Useful Fictions

August 23, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on ISIS And Other Useful Fictions

By JUDE P. DOUGHERTY Islamic State (ISIS or Daesh) and al-Qaeda are useful fictions. “Islamicist” is another ill-used word. Has anyone ever identified the borders of the so-called Islamic State, identified the site of its central government, attributed to it a president, prime minister, cabinet, parliament, or congress, or anything resembling such? Even the most primitive of the newly arrived nations of the world boast of a Westernized form of government. We are told that U.S. aircraft struck Islamic State vehicles and a tank in the Libyan coastal city of Sirte. Oh! Perhaps ISIS has an embassy or consulate there. In The Washington Post (July 28, 2016) we read about “the Islamic State-inspired attack on a quiet village church in…Continue Reading

The Real Existential Threats Of 2016

August 22, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on The Real Existential Threats Of 2016

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN On September 30, the end of fiscal year 2016, the national debt is projected to reach $19.3 trillion. With spending on the four biggest budget items — Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, defense — rising, and GDP growing at 1 percent, future deficits will exceed this year’s projected $600 billion. National bankruptcy, then, is among the existential threats to the republic, the prospect that we will find ourselves in the not-too-distant future in the same boat with Greece, Puerto Rico, and Illinois. Yet, we drift toward the falls, with the issue not debated. Ernest Hemingway reminded us of how nations escape quagmires of debt: “The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the…Continue Reading

Neither Left Nor Right, But Catholic… A Frontal Challenge To The Left: Taking On The Homosexual Movement

August 21, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Neither Left Nor Right, But Catholic… A Frontal Challenge To The Left: Taking On The Homosexual Movement

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, and two recent edited volumes: The Crisis of Religious Liberty and Challenging the Secular Culture: A Call to Christians. He recently completed a book that critically examines and evaluates current American liberalism and conservatism in light of Catholic social teaching. The column originally appeared in Crisismagazine.com. All rights reserved.) +…Continue Reading

Truths And Trends

August 20, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Truths And Trends

By DONALD DeMARCO Aristotle, in his Metaphysics, declares that “it is right also that philosophy should be called knowledge of the truth.” This statement contrasts sharply with Pontius Pilate’s famous assertion, “What is Truth?” If we cannot know truths, there is nothing to build on and philosophy is a vanity. Pilate, on the other hand, cannot be commended for being tolerant or broadminded. He is, as Jacques Maritain contends, “not a tolerant man but a betrayer of the human race.” He stands at the threshold of reality and has nothing of real significance to offer. He is like the fisherman who abandons his trade, not because there are no fish in the water, but because he has not been able…Continue Reading

Culture Of Life 101 . . . “The Fractured History Of The Hemlock Society”

August 19, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Culture Of Life 101 . . . “The Fractured History Of The Hemlock Society”

By BRIAN CLOWES “A judicial determination should be made when it is necessary to hasten the death of an individual, whether it be a demented parent, a suffering, severely disabled spouse or a child” — former Hemlock Society Executive Director Faye Girsh. + + + The End and the Beginning. British journalist Derek Humphry had a bit of a problem on his hands in early 1975. His wife Jean was suffering from incurable bone cancer, and he could not bear to see her in such pain. So, after much discussion between them, he handed her a cup of coffee loaded with barbiturates and pain killers. She drank this concoction and died within minutes. Less than a year after Jean died,…Continue Reading

There’s Nothing “Pro-Choice” . . . About A Platform Demanding Taxpayer-Funded Abortion

August 18, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on There’s Nothing “Pro-Choice” . . . About A Platform Demanding Taxpayer-Funded Abortion

By MARISSA MAYER (Editor’s Note: LifeSiteNews reprinted this commentary from Alliance Defending Freedom, adfmedia.org. All rights reserved. Marissa Mayer is ADF’s senior web writer.) + + + The official Democratic position of “pro-choice” seems to be a thing of the past these days. And to prove it, I give you exhibit A — the Democratic platform. Tucked away on page 37 of the platform, under the misleading subhead “Securing Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice,” is the party’s abortion agenda. This agenda is problematic to say the least, and a testament to just how extreme the abortion lobby has paid their cronies to become. Case in point: The average “pro-choice” American still believes abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.” Unfortunately,…Continue Reading

HLI Mission To Tanzania . . . “We Are A Life-Loving People”

August 17, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on HLI Mission To Tanzania . . . “We Are A Life-Loving People”

By BRIAN CLOWES “We are a life-loving people. We love children. We love life. We are all out to protect life and our families. . . . Africans need assistance with infrastructure. We need to have good roads. We need to have good hospitals and medicines. We need to have good schools. We don’t need condoms. We don’t need contraception. We don’t need abortion” — Emil Hagamu. + + + Fr. Shenan Boquet, president of Human Life International, and I traveled to Dar es Salaam in mid-July to meet our regional director for English-speaking Africa, Emil Hagamu. The mission had four purposes: 1) to meet with the Anglophone Africa country directors to discuss current challenges and successes as well as…Continue Reading

Trump’s Road Still Open

August 15, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Trump’s Road Still Open

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN At stake in 2016 is the White House, the Supreme Court, the Senate and, possibly, control of the House of Representatives. Hence, Republicans have a decision to make. Will they set aside political and personal feuds and come together to win in November, after which they can fight over the future of the party, and the country? Or will they split apart, settling scores now, lose it all, and, then, after November, begin a battle to allocate blame for a historic defeat that will leave wounds that will never heal. Republicans have been here before. After the crushing defeat of 1964, Governors Nelson Rockefeller, George Romney, and William Scranton, whose principles required them to abandon Barry…Continue Reading

Reflections . . . The Recent Great And Holy Orthodox Council In Crete

August 14, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Reflections . . . The Recent Great And Holy Orthodox Council In Crete

By JAMES LIKOUDIS Various observers and writers have commented on the proceedings and outcomes of the recent meeting in Crete in June 2016 of the primates of 10 of the 14 autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Churches, which resulted from 100 years of gestation and 50 years of preparation. This article will confine itself to focusing on the fundamental and irreconcilable divide in ecclesiology evident among Orthodox prelates and theologians professing to be “followers of uncorrupted truth.” Some Orthodox had early expressed hopes that it would be a true Ecumenical Council, like the first Seven Ecumenical Councils held in the first thousand years of the history of the Church when the Byzantine Greco-Slav Churches were in unity with Rome. An Ecumenical Council…Continue Reading

ALL Statement… Pontifical Council’s Document On Sex Ed Needs To Be Challenged

August 13, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on ALL Statement… Pontifical Council’s Document On Sex Ed Needs To Be Challenged

By WILLIAM MAHONEY (Editor’s Note: William Mahoney is the editor of American Life League’s Celebrate Life Magazine and holds a doctorate in theology and a dogmatic licentiate of sacred theology. The American Life League released this statement on August 1. All rights reserved. See last week’s News Notes column in The Wanderer for more on this.) + + + The Catholic Church has authority in spiritual matters to teach, govern, and sanctify. The Church’s authority in spiritual matters is preserved from error only when teaching on topics of faith and morals. The Church’s authority to teach, govern, and sanctify is directed entirely toward the salvation of souls (salus animarum suprema lex — “the salvation of souls is the supreme law”).…Continue Reading