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Culture Of Life 101… “Homosexuality And The Church Crisis”

August 13, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Culture Of Life 101… “Homosexuality And The Church Crisis”

By BRIAN CLOWES Part 4 (Editor’s Note: Brian Clowes has been director of research and training at Human Life International since 1995. For an electronic copy of the complete four-part series on homosexuality and the Church crisis, e-mail him at bclowes@hli.org.) + + + “When these [pedophilia] cases started to be reported, we realized there were a hell of a lot more out there than anyone realized. Offenders exist in literally every faith group” — Child abuse expert psychologist Gary Schoener. Is Celibacy The Cause Of The Problem? Some claim that the sexual abuse crisis would have been either avoided entirely or greatly reduced in scope if the Catholic Church allowed priests to marry. Those who make the assertion that…Continue Reading

Why They Cheer Bernie

August 12, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Why They Cheer Bernie

By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK What is the explanation for the ongoing enthusiasm among younger Democratic voters for the self-described socialist Bernie Sanders? The press reports indicate that he was interrupted repeatedly with loud cheers at a speech at the University of Wisconsin in Madison in early July, as he pressed his case for tuition-free public universities, paid vacations for all Americans, a substantially higher minimum wage, lengthy maternity leave, a breakup of the big banks, and a dramatic reduction in unemployment among young adults to be spurred on by massive government infrastructure spending. A recent CNN poll shows 35 percent of Democrats in New Hampshire favor him in his run for the Democratic Party nomination against Hillary Clinton. We can’t…Continue Reading

A Fortified City?

August 11, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on A Fortified City?

By PHILIP TROWER (Editor’s Note: Philip Trower, a longtime contributor to The Wanderer, is the author of a number of books, including The Catholic Church and the Counter-Faith and A Danger to the State.) + + + All Christians, I am sure, have favorite passages from the Psalms which they recite to themselves from time to time. For many years, one of mine has been from Psalm 30: “I thank you Lord for showing me the wonders of your love in a fortified city.” It tends to spring to mind whenever I think how marvelous it is to have received the gift of faith and membership of the Church, and how different life would be without them. But how far…Continue Reading

A $12,000 Cost For A Family Of Four

August 10, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on A $12,000 Cost For A Family Of Four

By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK In recent editions of First Teachers there have been discussions of whether it would be just and sound policy for the federal government to forgive the student loans that are burdening the lives of so many young people seeking to get started in life. (Which means, of course, having the taxpayers foot the bill.) There is no question that it can be difficult to start a family or buy a first house with tens of thousands of dollars in student loans needing to be repaid. One plan already in place is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. It provides for student loans to be forgiven if the young man or woman with the debt agrees to…Continue Reading

Synod Front Update . . . Some Good Initiatives And Some Troubling Ones

August 9, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Synod Front Update . . . Some Good Initiatives And Some Troubling Ones

By MAIKE HICKSON In the recent days, several news-reports have come from Europe that are worth presenting to the U.S. Catholic world. Some of the indications are encouraging, but some of them are troubling. The most important event, first of all, is the publication in Rome of a new book which contains the presentations of an earlier set of seminars that were hosted — in January, February, and March 2015 — by the Pontifical Council for the Family, which is headed by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia. The title of the book is: Famiglia e Chiesa, un legame indissolubile (Family and Church, an indissoluble bond); and it is part of the Famiglia e Vita series directed by Fr. Gianfranco Grieco. The topics…Continue Reading

Reconnecting With Mary… The Assumption And Mary As The New Eve

August 8, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Reconnecting With Mary… The Assumption And Mary As The New Eve

By DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY The Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady is celebrated on August 15, and commemorates the fact that our Lady was taken up into Heaven body and soul and is now reigning as Queen of Heaven with her Son, Jesus Christ. The Blessed Virgin was privileged in this way because of the holiness of her life and also because she shared so intimately in the Passion and death of Christ. This article will look at that aspect of her life from the point of view that just as Christ was regarded as the New Adam by St. Paul, so, too, later on the Church Fathers frequently compared Mary with Eve, describing here as the “New Eve.”…Continue Reading

The Plot To Destroy Nixon

August 7, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on The Plot To Destroy Nixon

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN In his new biography Being Nixon: A Man Divided, Evan Thomas concedes a point. Richard Nixon, he writes, “was not paranoid; the press and the ‘Georgetown set’ really were out to get him.” Carl Bernstein’s review found Thomas’ book deficient in its failure to chronicle the “endemic criminality” of the Nixon presidency. Yet, recent revelations suggest that “endemic criminality” is a phrase that might well be applied to the newsroom of The Washington Post when Bob Woodward and Bernstein worked there. Consider. In All the President’s Men, Woodward and Bernstein admit that, in collusion with Post editors and with the approval of Post lawyers, they approached half a dozen Watergate grand jurors. Admitting this was a…Continue Reading

“Homosexuality And The Church Crisis”

August 6, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on “Homosexuality And The Church Crisis”

By BRIAN CLOWES Part 3 (Editor’s Note: Brian Clowes has been director of research and training at Human Life International since 1995. For electronic copies of previous articles on homosexual “marriage,” the special rights agenda, and the role of homosexuality in the Church crisis, e-mail him at bclowes@hli.org.) + + + During the height of the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, the mainstream press and liberal groups systematically pilloried the Church and bishops who moved guilty priests from diocese to diocese or covered up for them. Meanwhile, they entirely ignored the well-organized and determined efforts by professional associations and sex educators to decriminalize and normalize child sexual abuse. As early as 1988, a leading American psychological journal, Behavior…Continue Reading

A Book Review . . . The Truth Ever Ancient And Ever New

August 5, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on A Book Review . . . The Truth Ever Ancient And Ever New

By MITCHELL KALPAKGIAN The Seven Deadly Sins, by Kevin Vost, Psy.D. (Sophia Institute Press: Manchester, NH, 2015), 207 pp.; $18.95. Available through www.SophiaInstitute.com. Always a topic of universal human interest, the seven deadly sins — no matter the number of treatises or books on the subject — continue to capture attention because they apply to all human beings both in the past and present. To some degree or another, every person’s moral struggle strives to combat one or several of these sins. Who in positions of power or authority is not prone to pride, or how many people who protest “it’s not fair” are ruled by envy rather than justice? Who is not tempted by avarice, gluttony, or lust in…Continue Reading

Restoring The Sacred… The Fragrance Of Baroque Liturgy And Art

August 4, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Restoring The Sacred… The Fragrance Of Baroque Liturgy And Art

By JAMES MONTI All of us have had at some time or another a special moment in church when we have found ourselves before a particularly beautiful altar, with the Blessed Sacrament enthroned upon it in a splendid gold or silver sunburst monstrance, its molded rays sparkling with the shimmer of candles ablaze around it, as shafts of light descend into the sanctuary from a nearby stained-glass window and a gentle breeze from outside stirs the incense-fragrant air within. The sunburst monstrance as we know it was imparted to our Catholic heritage by that age of liturgy and art known as the Baroque Era, a period that arose following the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and thrived until the second half…Continue Reading