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A Book Review . . . Like A Prophet Warning Of A Nightmare

July 24, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on A Book Review . . . Like A Prophet Warning Of A Nightmare

By MITCHELL KALPAKGIAN Life Under Compulsion: Ten Ways to Destroy the Humanity of Your Child, by Anthony Esolen (Intercollegiate Studies Institute: Wilmington, DE, 2015); 222 pp. Available through www.isibooks.org. When many hear the word compulsion, they think of a totalitarian society or a state of imprisonment or associate the word with some addiction like drugs or alcohol, but the word applies to many subtle, sophisticated, and psychological kinds of coercion that do not appear openly aggressive or threatening. Dr. Esolen’s penetrating book exposes all these updated techniques of manipulation and indoctrination that attack and destroy a person’s humanity by suppressing his inviolable rights, exercise of freedom, religious convictions, and dictates of conscience. This “Life Under Compulsion” assumes many shapes in…Continue Reading

“Homosexuality And The Church Crisis”

July 23, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on “Homosexuality And The Church Crisis”

By BRIAN CLOWES Part 1 (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.) + + + Due to clergy sex abuse scandals centered primarily in the Northern hemisphere, the moral authority of the Roman Catholic Church has been subjected to an opportunistic siege by prominent individuals and organizations who have seized the chance to advance their goals, which include the ordination of women and the suspension of the requirement for priestly celibacy. There is also a defensive element to this strategy: Opponents of the Church…Continue Reading

What To Say To Your Children Concerning Same-Sex “Marriage”

July 22, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on What To Say To Your Children Concerning Same-Sex “Marriage”

By DONALD DeMARCO and JOCELYN POLLARD In the aftermath of the recent Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision legalizing “same-sex marriage,” many Catholic parents will be trying to find appropriate and effective ways of explaining to their children what marriage is and how same-sex couples do not qualify for that noble and time-honored institution. My daughter prepared an explanation in the form of a letter to her four daughters. I, as the grandfather, added my own letter. We hope that what we have written will provide a helpful guide for parents who, in the light of a society that is becoming increasing anti-Catholic, are trying to teach the true nature of marriage to their own children — Donald DeMarco. +…Continue Reading

Restoring The Sacred . . . The Greatest Moment Of Day On Earth — The Consecration

July 21, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Restoring The Sacred . . . The Greatest Moment Of Day On Earth — The Consecration

By JAMES MONTI Many of us have had the happy privilege of offering our respect to a newly ordained priest after receiving his first blessing by kissing his hands. The most important reason why those hands are so sacred is what they have the God-given power to do at the most sublime moment of the Mass (apart from Holy Communion) — the consecration. Fr. Robert Barron, in his popular television series Catholicism (episode 7), aptly likened the power of the priest’s pronunciation of the words of consecration to God’s command in creating the world, “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3). In his treatise on the Mass (chapter 1), the Franciscan Observant priest St. Leonard of Port Maurice (+1751) develops this…Continue Reading

Despite Liberal Media Outrage, Trump Was Right

July 20, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Despite Liberal Media Outrage, Trump Was Right

By DEXTER DUGGAN PHOENIX — Among the topics when Donald Trump announced his Republican presidential candidacy on June 16 in New York City was his comment that Mexico was sending the U.S. its problems, including rapists. Trump added, “I speak to border guards and they tell us what we’re getting.” Dominant liberal media reacted as if Trump had told a monstrous, insulting lie. In fact, he told the truth, but these liberal media reacted by contriving their usual misinformation to turn facts on their heads. “Rape trees” are a fact along the border with Mexico. Dominant media don’t like to admit this real “war on women,” but occasionally word leaks out. Even in the liberals’ beloved New York Times. The…Continue Reading

Anti-Catholicism And The Media

July 19, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Anti-Catholicism And The Media

By DONALD DeMARCO Each Sunday night a radio station operating out of Hamilton, Ontario, brings to its listeners an hour-long show hosted by a man whose calumny of the Catholic Church remains unabated from week to week. On a recent broadcast, after stating that the primary purpose of the Catholic Church is to make money, he took a swipe at Pope Pius XII, accusing him of doing “absolutely nothing” to help the Jews. The fact that the Catholic diocese and the radio station itself allow this host to continue his reckless bashing of the Church is an indication that Catholics may have become inured to what should galvanize them into effective protest. The host does not offer references to his…Continue Reading

A Book Review . . . Marie Curie’s Romanticized Image

July 18, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on A Book Review . . . Marie Curie’s Romanticized Image

By JUDE DOUGHERTY Wirtén, Eva Hemmungs. Making Marie Curie: Intellectual Property and Celebrity Culture in Our Age of Information. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2015; 223 pp. The basic facts concerning the lives of Pierre and Marie Curie are well known. Marya Sklowdowska, born in 1867, arrived in Paris in 1889 to study physics at the Sorbonne. A grant subsequently awarded enabled her to study the magnetic properties of steel. At the university she met Pierre, who was at that time working on his doctorate. Married to Pierre in July 1893, she would continue her research on steel, but two things occurred that directed her attention elsewhere. One was Wilhelm Röntgen’s discovery of what he called “x-rays.” The other…Continue Reading

Just Before Marriage Upheaval… Speaker Shows How Darwinian Theories Evolved Against The Constitution

July 17, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Just Before Marriage Upheaval… Speaker Shows How Darwinian Theories Evolved Against The Constitution

By DEXTER DUGGAN PHOENIX — Shortly before the U.S. Supreme Court invented the alleged constitutional right of homosexual “marriage,” a speaker warned a gathering of international Christian law-school students that ideas from Darwinian theory “have impacted nearly every area of our culture — from the sciences to the humanities to politics to our churches.” John G. West, Ph.D., vice president of the Seattle-based Discovery Institute think tank, said those ideas “have helped reshape our view of ethics, of the family, of the value of human life, of faith in God, and of law.” His talk was entitled, “Darwinism, Progressivism, and the ‘New’ Jurisprudence.” According to the Darwinian redefinition of morality, West said in his prepared text, “Morality is forever in…Continue Reading

Culture Of Life 101 . . . “Is AIDS A ‘Gay’ Disease?”

July 16, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Culture Of Life 101 . . . “Is AIDS A ‘Gay’ Disease?”

By BRIAN CLOWES (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.) + + + “ ‘HIV is a gay disease.’ This is a myth that refuses to die. Misinformation, fear, ignorance and media sensationalism continue to fuel this myth in America. For every one person like me trying to tell the truth about HIV transmission, there seems to be a dozen shrieking, simpleminded, natural-born dullards with a staggering inability to grasp reality. HIV is not a gay disease. Nope” — David Salyer, during the peak…Continue Reading

Peace On Earth

July 15, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Peace On Earth

By MOST REV. CHARLES CHAPUT, OFM Cap. (Editor’s Note: This commentary first appeared on July 6 as the weekly column of Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap., of Philadelphia. It is reprinted here with the kind permission of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. All rights reserved.) + + + “Thomas More is more important at this moment than at any moment since his death, even perhaps the great moment of his dying; but he is not quite so important as he will be in about a hundred years’ time. He may come to be counted the greatest Englishman, or at least the greatest historical character in English history. For he was above all things historic; he represented at once a type, a…Continue Reading