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A Book Review . . . Christianity’s Gift To The World

January 23, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on A Book Review . . . Christianity’s Gift To The World

By JUDE DOUGHERTY Siedentop, Larry. Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 2014. Pp. viii + 434. Does it still make sense to still talk about the West in what some call a “post-Christian world”? Larry Siedentop, emeritus fellow of Keble College, Oxford, asks, “Can the West still be defined in terms of shared beliefs?” Professor Siedentop answers his own question with a weak “yes.” His answer is qualified because those who live in nations once described as part of Christendom seem to have lost contact with their cultural heritage and certainly with their moral bearings. Yet it remains a fact that Western culture is founded on a set of shared beliefs that are…Continue Reading

Author And Monk Thomas Merton Turns 100

January 22, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Author And Monk Thomas Merton Turns 100

By RAY CAVANAUGH The most famous Trappist monk of the 20th century was not originally a Catholic. Thomas Merton, born 100 years ago this January 31, was baptized first in the Church of England. Both of his parents were artists: His father was from New Zealand and his mother was from the U.S. Merton was born in the French Pyrenees, but as the dark and poisonous cloud of World War I swept over Europe, his family headed across the Atlantic to New York City. When Merton was age six, his mother died of cancer. In the biography, Thomas Merton: The Man and His Work, author Dennis Q. McInerny tells how the mother, upon being hospitalized as a terminal patient, did…Continue Reading

Culture Of Life 101 . . . “Abortifacient Brief: Abortion Pill Reversals”

January 21, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Culture Of Life 101 . . . “Abortifacient Brief: Abortion Pill Reversals”

By BRIAN CLOWES (Editor’s Note: Brian Clowes has been director of research and training at Human Life International since 1995. For an electronic copy of this article with footnotes, contact him at bclowes@hli.org.) + + + The scientific name of the abortion pill RU 486 is mifepristone, which is sold under the brand names Mifegyn, Mifeprix, and Korlym. It imitates progesterone, the hormone that signals the uterus to become receptive to the fertilized egg. Progesterone is necessary for the continuation of a pregnancy; if its levels drop too low, a miscarriage is inevitable. Mifepristone takes advantage of this. It contains a progesterone impostor that “plugs in” to the uterine progesterone receptors, but does not deliver the message that progesterone is…Continue Reading

Pope John II Day For Canada

January 20, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Pope John II Day For Canada

By DONALD DeMARCO Canada has passed legislation making April 2 Pope John Paul II Day. Bill C-266 passed on December 16 and has received royal assent. The law’s preamble praises the long-serving Pope and canonized saint for his “vital role in promoting international understanding and peace,” his inspiration of youth, his visits to Canada (especially for World Youth Day in 2002), and his leadership in the struggle “to end communism in Europe.” Wladyslaw Lizon, a Toronto-based Conservative MP, who introduced the bill, commented that “Pope John Paul II presented a valuable message of courage, a defense of freedom and profound statements of hope and commitment to all people.” Two hundred seventeen members of Parliament supported the bill, while 42 —…Continue Reading

A Book Review . . . The Heart Of The Matter

January 18, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on A Book Review . . . The Heart Of The Matter

By MITCHELL KALPAKGIAN Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching by Anthony Esolen (Sophia Institute Press: Manchester, NH: 2014, 193 pp.), $19.95. Available through www.SophiaInstitute.com or 1-800-888-9344. + + + This book is a welcome contribution to the culture wars and moral relativism of the present day. A careful reexamination of the Church’s social teaching and a fresh reading of the major encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII on the topics of Man, Human Liberty, Marriage, The Family, Social Life, The Church as Society, Work, and The State, it uncovers the riches of Catholic wisdom that address all the economic, political, and cultural problems of modernity with real solutions. As the first chapter explains perfectly, the Church’s entire social teaching rests upon the Christian…Continue Reading

Spouses: More Than Friends

January 18, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Spouses: More Than Friends

By REY FLORES “Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up; is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil” — First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 13:5-6. + + + The above Scripture quotation is more commonly known by its modern “love is patient, love is kind” updated translation; but what is love, but charity? Charity is a benevolent goodwill toward or love of humanity. While traditional marriage is under fire against “gay marriage,” the real enemies of marriage can be the husband and wife themselves. I have never bought into the idea that a husband and wife must be “friends.” Friends are…Continue Reading

The Synod’s Shocking Omissions

January 17, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on The Synod’s Shocking Omissions

By MATTHEW JAMES CHRISTOFF (Editor’s Note: This editorial is reprinted with permission from The New Emangelization, an organization devoted to evangelizing men headed by Mr. Christoff. All rights reserved.) + + + The III Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops met for several weeks in October 2014 and issued the document, Pastoral Challenges to the Family in the Context of Evangelization. There has been much commentary about the ill-conceived interim report, Relatio post Disceptationem, which implied that homosexuality had inherent positive gifts and that divorced and remarried people who were in a state of perpetual adultery could somehow be accommodated to be able to receive Communion. The scandalous nature of these ill-conceived paragraphs created great public scandal. Thankfully,…Continue Reading

“40” Film To Make TV Debut On EWTN

January 16, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on “40” Film To Make TV Debut On EWTN

GLENVIEW, Ill. (Christian Newswire) — 40, one of the most compelling pro-life documentaries ever produced, will make its U.S. and Canada television premiere on Wednesday, January 21 on the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) at 11 p.m. EST. This special television broadcast of 40 will coincide with the annual March for Life coverage on the network the following day on January 22. EWTN will also have an encore presentation of 40 at 10 p.m. EST on January 24 to complement the West Coast March for Life. The issue of abortion is personal for former Fox Sports Net sportscaster and 40 Director John Morales who says, “I’m not only post-abortive but I’m also an adoptive father.” 40 is an inspirational movie…Continue Reading

A Book Review . . . A Story Of A Negligent Pastor And Liberation Theology

January 15, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on A Book Review . . . A Story Of A Negligent Pastor And Liberation Theology

By MAIKE HICKSON Casaroja by Michael Morow. WingSpan Press: 2014. Available at amazon.com: hardcover $26.37; paperback $13.05; 192 pp. “Death, Andre, the prior [Fr. Matthew] thought, as he buckled up his saddlebags for a long journey, and not the sort of death unleashed here [in the village of Casaroja], either. Death in the very oldest Catholic sense, as in St. John’s Gospel and the Didache: death of the soul as opposed to the road of Life. For there are only two ways, dear Fr. Andre…but did anyone ever actually teach you that?” These are the deep reflections of the American prior of a Benedictine Mission in Guatemala about one of his own mission priests, Fr. Andre, whom he had sent…Continue Reading

Culture Of Life 101 . . . “The History Of The RU 486 Abortion Pill”

January 14, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Culture Of Life 101 . . . “The History Of The RU 486 Abortion Pill”

By BRIAN CLOWES (Editor’s Note: Brian Clowes has been director of research and training at Human Life International since 1995. For an electronic copy of chapter 2 of The Facts of Life, “Abortifacients,” e-mail him at bclowes@hli.org.) + + + At one time, the lives of preborn children were valuable to researchers for the pharmaceutical corporations. The scientists worked hard to avoid injuring them as they developed new drugs. But times have radically changed. Big Pharma now spends millions of dollars annually developing drugs and devices that deliberately kill the preborn child as efficiently and as easily (to the mother) as possible. One 1980s political cartoon showed researchers saying, “Our new drug kills unborn children! We’re ruined!” Now they say,…Continue Reading