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Ross Douthat And The Catholic Academy

November 11, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Ross Douthat And The Catholic Academy

By THE MOST REV. ROBERT BARRON (Editor’s Note: Bishop Robert Barron is an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. This article was published by ZENIT News Agency and posted on ZENIT’s website on October 29. All rights reserved. (Bishop Barron is responding to a letter some members of the Catholic academy wrote to the New York Times, objecting to columnist Ross Douthat’s writings on the recent Synod of Bishops. Douthat has argued that Pope Francis sides with the liberal resolution of some of the key controversies within that Synod. (The academics complained, in part, that Douthat lacked the “professional qualifications” to be commenting on such matters — that is,…Continue Reading

Culture Of Life . . . “What Are You Afraid of?”

November 10, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Culture Of Life . . . “What Are You Afraid of?”

By BRIAN CLOWES (Editor’s Note: Brian Clowes has been director of research and training at Human Life International since 1995. For the complete Culture of Life series on homosexuality [with footnotes], e-mail him at bclowes@hli.org.) + + + “Everything you desire lies on the other side of fear.” + + + You would never know it from this series of articles, but I am an incurable optimist. But even I must admit that the situation looks grim lately, what with the nationwide legalization of ersatz homosexual “marriage,” enactment of a “right to die” act in California, and increasing pressure on faithful Christians to conform to the elite’s concept of the glorious socialist future that inevitably awaits us all. Occasionally, I…Continue Reading

To Live And Die In L.A. Revisited

November 9, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on To Live And Die In L.A. Revisited

By REY FLORES Survivors — aren’t we all? If you are reading this, you are a survivor of the abortion holocaust. We must go beyond just surviving abortion ourselves, and now commit ourselves to do battle against the diabolical enemy known as Planned Parenthood. Two years ago, I visited the city of Los Angeles to do on-the-ground pro-life organizing with some of southern California’s top pro-life warriors. At that time, The Wanderer published my column about the experience titled, “To Live and Die in L.A.” Once again, I come back to the City of Angels where the war against family and life has gotten worse than ever. While Planned Parenthood’s abortion mills are on the decline across the United States,…Continue Reading

War in Syria? Where Is Speaker Ryan?

November 8, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on War in Syria? Where Is Speaker Ryan?

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN “The United States is being sucked into a new Middle East war,” says The New York Times. And the Times has it exactly right. Despite repeated pledges not to put “boots on the ground” in Syria, President Obama is inserting 50 U.S. special ops troops into that country, with more to follow. U.S. A-10 “warthog” attack planes have been moved into Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, close to Syria. Hillary Clinton, who has called for arming Syrian rebels to bring down Bashar Assad, is urging Obama to establish a no-fly zone inside Syria. Citing Clinton and Gen. David Petraeus, John McCain is calling for a no-fly zone and a safe zone in Syria, to be policed…Continue Reading

Christians Oppressed For Their Faith… Two Reports Point To Widespread Persecution

November 7, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Christians Oppressed For Their Faith… Two Reports Point To Widespread Persecution

By FR. JOHN FLYNN, LC (Editor’s Note: Fr. John Flynn, LC, wrote this commentary for ZENIT News Agency. Fr. Flynn, a regular ZENIT contributor, holds degrees from the University of New South Wales and from the Pontifical Gregorian University. All rights reserved. Last week’s Wanderer carried a news item on the Aid to the Church in Need report.) + + + Christians continue to face fierce opposition in many countries and two recent reports provide ample evidence of this. The first one, published by the UK’s office of the organization Aid to the Church in Need was titled, “Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report on Christians Oppressed for Their Faith 2013-2015.” The report examined 23 countries of concern. It accused Islamic…Continue Reading

Culture Of Life 101 . . . “What Does The Bible Say About Homosexuality?”

November 6, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Culture Of Life 101 . . . “What Does The Bible Say About Homosexuality?”

By BRIAN CLOWES (Editor’s Note: Brian Clowes has been director of research and training at Human Life International since 1995. For the complete culture of life series on homosexuality [with footnotes], e-mail him at bclowes@hli.org.) + + + “The explicit root-and-branch rejection of morality by gays has been real, pervasive, and baleful in its effect on both the quality of life that we create for ourselves within the [gay] community, and our P.R. [public relations] with straights. . . . There’s a simpler, darker reason why many gays choose to live without morality: As ideologies go, amorality is damned convenient. And the mortal enemy of that convenience is the value judgment. . . . Without morality, there can be no…Continue Reading

The First Irish Saint (Hint: It Ain’t Patrick)

November 5, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on The First Irish Saint (Hint: It Ain’t Patrick)

By RAY CAVANAUGH If asked to name the first Irish saint, there’s a good chance someone would say St. Patrick. As it turns out, though, Patrick wasn’t even born in Ireland. He was born in Britain, and brought to Ireland against his will, having been taken captive at age 16 by a band of pagan-Irish marauders on the hunt for slaves. The first canonized saint who actually hailed from Ireland was St. Malachy, whose canonization was authorized by Pope Clement III on July 6, 1199, according to The New Catholic Encyclopedia (second edition). Malachy’s feast day would have been on November 2, the date of his death, but it was fixed at November 3, so as not to conflict with…Continue Reading

America In Search Of A Cause?

November 4, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on America In Search Of A Cause?

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN “If the Cold War is over, what’s the point of being an American?” said Rabbit Angstrom, the protagonist of the John Updike novels. A haunting remark, since, for 40 years, America was largely united on the proposition that our survival depended upon our victory over Communism in the Cold War. We had a cause then. By and large, we stood together through the crises in the first decades of that Cold War — the Berlin blockade, Stalin’s atom bomb and the fall of China to Mao, the Korean War, the Hungarian revolution, the Cuban missile crisis, and on into Vietnam. We accepted the conscription of our young men. We accepted wars in Asia, and, if need…Continue Reading

Boehner’s Saddest Surrender

November 3, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Boehner’s Saddest Surrender

By TERENCE P. JEFFREY (Editor’s Note: Terence P. Jeffrey is the editor-in-chief of CNSnews.com. Creators Syndicate provided this column. All rights reserved.) + + + “This attack by the federal government on religious freedom in our country must not stand and will not stand.” So said John Boehner in a speech on the House floor — on February 8, 2012. It was the rhetorical high point of his speakership. “My colleagues, in recent days, Americans of every faith and political persuasion have mobilized in objection to a rule put forward by the Obama administration that constitutes an unambiguous attack on religious freedom in our country,” Boehner said. “This rule would require faith-based employers, including Catholic charities, schools, universities, and hospitals,…Continue Reading

Always Wrong To Gloat?

November 2, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Always Wrong To Gloat?

By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK We are told it is bad form to be smug, to gloat, to “rub it in” when someone who has been critical of us is proven wrong. It can also be counterproductive, especially when we are dealing with political adversaries. Gloating too openly can lead them to dig in their heels. Our goal should not be that. It should be to use the moment when we have been proven right to get our opponents to change their minds, perhaps even vote our way in the future. So maybe we should not crow too openly at the progressives in New York City whose double-standard has been pointed out in a column by Reihan Salam in the September…Continue Reading