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A Book Review . . . Liberalism Has Deprived Society of Accepted Moral Standards

January 3, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on A Book Review . . . Liberalism Has Deprived Society of Accepted Moral Standards

By JUDE DOUGHERTY Safranek, John P. The Myth of Liberalism. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2015. xvii + 270 pp. This is a timely volume by an author who is both a practicing physician and a philosopher. Drawing upon both his professional experience and the perennial philosophy of Aristotle and Aquinas, he challenges the liberal zeitgeist which prevails in centers, high and low, throughout the Western world. In the opening pages of his book, Safranek shows clearly that liberalism is not a coherent philosophy but is, rather, “a collection of causes marshalled under the banner of personal liberty by powerful social and political interests.” Liberty, equality, right, and nearly all other ephemeral liberal values, he says, are…Continue Reading

Accelerating The Culture Of Death . . . France Passes Law Expanding Abortion And Contraception

January 2, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Accelerating The Culture Of Death . . . France Passes Law Expanding Abortion And Contraception

By JEANNE SMITS PARIS (LifeSiteNews) — The French Assembly voted France’s new Health Act into law on December 17, after several months of parliamentary discussions in which the Senate opposed the text on many points. The Assembly, which is heavily dominated by the left, had the final word. Many aspects of the new organization imposed on France’s health services are socialist in nature, such as the introduction of universal “third party payments” that will exempt social security beneficiaries from making direct payments when visiting the doctor. But even worse are the dispositions of the text that aim to promote abortion and contraception, particularly among minors. And for the first time in French law, organ donation will be presumed and mandatory…Continue Reading

Call Me Ishmael

January 2, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Call Me Ishmael

By DONALD DeMARCO The Ontario Human Rights Commission defines gender identity as “each person’s internal and individual experience of gender. It is their sense of being a woman, a man, both, neither, or anywhere along the gender spectrum.” The commission defines gender expression as “how a person publicly presents their [sic] gender,” which can include behavior and outward appearance such as dress, hair, make-up, body language, and voice, as well as a person’s name and the pronouns they use. The list of pronouns is extensive, including options such as “ze,” “zie,” “hir,” “xe,” “xem,” “zyr,” “e,” “ey,” “em,” and so on. How many genders exist along the “gender spectrum”? Individuals living in New York City can choose from a minimum of…Continue Reading

Is the West Disintegrating?

January 1, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Is the West Disintegrating?

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN On January 1, 2002, the day that euro coins and banknotes entered into circulation, my column, “Say Goodbye to the Mother Continent,” contained this pessimistic prognosis: “This European superstate will not endure, but break apart on the barrier reef of nationalism. For when the hard times come, patriots will recapture control of their national destinies from Brussels bureaucrats to whom no one will ever give loyalty or love.” The column described what was already happening. “Europe is dying. There is not a single nation in all of Europe with a birth rate sufficient to keep its population alive, except Muslim Albania. In 17 European nations, there are already more burials than births, more coffins than cradles.…Continue Reading

A Book Review . . . The Handiwork Of A Creator, Artist, And Storyteller

January 1, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on A Book Review . . . The Handiwork Of A Creator, Artist, And Storyteller

By MITCHELL KALPAKGIAN God Is In the Details, by William J. Casey, Ph.D. (W&S Publishing, Lewisville, NC, 2016), 156 pages. Available by calling 336-945-5384. A great work of art lifts the mind to a luminous vision of the whole, but also evokes wonder at the intricacy of the parts that order and create the harmony of unity and variety. As the whole abounds in the richness of its parts, the parts themselves radiate a splendor of their own as they add to the greater glory of the universal. This book contemplates the perfect design of the Holy Bible, God’s great masterpiece, written by its inspired writers under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It gives special attention to the smallest…Continue Reading

A Book Review . . . Affirming Church Teaching Against The Sexual Revolution

December 31, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on A Book Review . . . Affirming Church Teaching Against The Sexual Revolution

By MITCHELL KALPAKGIAN Living the Truth in Love: Pastoral Approaches to Same Sex Attraction. By Janet E. Smith and Father Paul Check, eds. Ignatius Press: San Francisco, 2015; 355 pp. $24.95. Available from www.ignatius. com or 1-800-651-1531. A collection of scholarly essays and personal testimonies that deal with some aspect of same-sex attraction, this volume also defends and affirms the teaching of the Church on many aspects of the sexual revolution that have deconstructed the family, redefined marriage, legalized divorce for any reason, and victimized children by policies that violate their most basic needs and subject them to harms casually ignored by adults who place their own individual agendas or desires above the emotional, psychological, and physical well being of…Continue Reading

Birth And Choice

December 26, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Birth And Choice

By DONALD DeMARCO Choice has been elevated to philosophical heights. It allegedly captures the essence of the human being as an autonomous agent who is free to make choices concerning his personal life. Yet “choice” hardly characterizes the human being. People do not choose to be born. Nor do they choose their parents, their time or place of birth, or their genetic inheritance. Nor do they choose their gender or their ethnic background. In addition, parents do not choose to have a child. Two people may choose the means that is congenial to the procreation of a child, but they do not choose to have a child or this particular child directly. It is God who is the great chooser.…Continue Reading

Christmas: The Canary In The Coal Mine

December 25, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Christmas: The Canary In The Coal Mine

By LAWRENCE P. GRAYSON Christmas is the single most significant religious, historical, and cultural event in world history. The Son of God assumed our human nature, came into the world, redeemed us from the guilt of our sins, and provided teachings for the way we should lead our lives. Christian beliefs, which formed the thinking and values of America’s founders, were reflected in the Declaration of Independence, in the way the government was organized, and in the nation’s laws and ordinances. As the people were of many different Christian denominations, the state and religion were made separate, but complementary. Religion would form the virtue and morality of the people necessary in a republic, while the government protected the right of…Continue Reading

When God Was A Newborn Baby

December 24, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on When God Was A Newborn Baby

By JOHN YOUNG “God became man that man might become God.” That’s a startling assertion. Should it be seen as similar to the lie told by Satan when he assured Eve that after eating the forbidden fruit, “You will be like God”? Is it an assertion that one might hear from a monomaniac who imagines he is God? Actually the statement was made by fathers of the Church, and is perfectly and profoundly orthodox. In fact, it is implied by St. Peter’s statement that God has enabled us to “become partakers of the Divine Nature” (2 Peter 1:4). The Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 460, quotes St. Athanasius: “For the Son of God became man so that we might…Continue Reading

Worship At The Manger And At Fatima

December 23, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Worship At The Manger And At Fatima

By DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY One of the most beautiful aspects of the Nativity story is that it is an invitation to the silent worship of the earth-shattering fact that the God who created the universe, in all its dazzling complexity, chose to become a feeble little Babe cradled in the arms of His Mother Mary. We are not specifically told that the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph worshiped the newborn Redeemer, but surely they did and we cannot really imagine the depth of love and devotion that that worship involved. What we are told by St. Luke is that after the shepherds came to see the Child Jesus, following the vision of angels they saw in the sky over Bethlehem,…Continue Reading