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The Devil Ain’t Lazy

June 29, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on The Devil Ain’t Lazy

By REY FLORES “Welcome to the jungle, we’ve got fun and games. We got everything you want, honey, we know the names. We are the people that can find whatever you may need. If you got the money, honey, we got your disease.” That above set of lyrics is from the 1987 song Welcome to the Jungle from the now-defunct rock band Guns N’ Roses. The song is an ode to hard living in the big city and it also conjures up visions of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Perhaps you’ve had someone ask you, “What’s your poison?” when offering to buy you a drink. Well — what is your poison? We all have one; don’t we? Is…Continue Reading

Is There Still A Particular Judgment?

June 28, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on Is There Still A Particular Judgment?

By JAMES LIKOUDIS Yes, in answer to the above question, there is. But silence regarding this dogma from all too many pulpits together with funeral Masses that focus on celebrating the life of the deceased and are replete with eulogies (amounting to instant canonization) have tended to make the Particular Judgment disappear from the mental horizon of many Catholics who, steeped in sin, sit comfortably in the pews of their parishes, forgetful of the “hard sayings” of Christ regarding eschatology. Eschatology is the area of doctrine and theology that deals with the “Last Things” (the “eschata”): death, judgment, Purgatory, Heaven, and Hell. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches as an article of Catholic faith that “the New Testament…repeatedly affirms…Continue Reading

A Book Review… A Brilliant Achievement With Fascinating Historical Details

June 27, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on A Book Review… A Brilliant Achievement With Fascinating Historical Details

By DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY How the West Won: The Neglected Story of the Triumph of Modernity by Rodney Stark (ISI Books: 2014), 432 pages; hardcover $27.95. Available through ISI Books, isibooks.org. Rodney Stark is a professor of social sciences at Baylor University and the author of a number of books on the sociology of religion. He describes his latest work as a “remarkably unfashionable book” and it is certainly the case that he is not in the business of just going along with the crowd in his analysis of the rise of Western civilization. He puts forward some challenging ideas in claiming that the rise of Western civilization was something unique, but backs up his positions with facts and figures…Continue Reading

Glass Half-Full? Half-Empty?

June 26, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on Glass Half-Full? Half-Empty?

By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK The old explanation of the difference between an optimist and a pessimist came to mind when I read S.M.’s letter in response to the May 29 edition of First Teachers. That was the column where we listed the colleges and universities that are complying with the Church’s call to be faithful to Catholic theology and the Church’s moral teachings. The column included portions of an article by Tom Hoopes in the National Catholic Register expressing his gratitude for the role that an “authentically Catholic college” played in his intellectual and moral development. “I commend Tom Hoopes,” writes S.M., “for recognizing the elements of a truly Catholic education. His willingness to ‘pay even more in tuition for…Continue Reading

Culture Of Life 101 . . . “You Aren’t Really Pro-Life Unless You Oppose War”

June 25, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on Culture Of Life 101 . . . “You Aren’t Really Pro-Life Unless You Oppose War”

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 session 6 of The Pro-Life Basic Training Program, “Winning Pro-Life Debates,” which shows how to debunk the 40 most common pro-abortion slogans, e-mail him at bclowes@hli.org. +    +    + “Abortion is the greatest destroyer of peace today. Because if a mother can kill her own child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing between!” — Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. Pro-abortionists sometimes allege that pro-lifers are concerned only about preborn children but are perfectly willing to send other people’s sons and daughters to far distant nations to…Continue Reading

Another Pointless War?

June 24, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on Another Pointless War?

By ANDREW P. NAPOLITANO As we watch the collapsing government in Baghdad surrounded by a highly disciplined and serious force of Sunni-oriented fighters that has taken control of the most populous third of the country, we must, in John Adams’ words, resist the temptation to slay the world’s monsters. This time around, the monsters are the Sunni — who ran the government of Iraq in the Saddam Hussein years and who are the ancient and persistent enemy of the Shia, who run the government today. The political and military force that is aiming at Iraq’s capital calls itself the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Its fighting force consists of about 8,000 men, yet it has marched through Iraq…Continue Reading

Two Ordinations And A Funeral… The Tears And The Joys Of The FSSP

June 23, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on Two Ordinations And A Funeral… The Tears And The Joys Of The FSSP

By REY FLORES “O God, Thou didst raise Thy servant Fr. Kenneth Walker, FSSP, to the sacred priesthood of Jesus Christ, according to the Order of Melchisedech, giving him the sublime power to offer the Eternal Sacrifice, to bring the Body and Blood of Thy Son Jesus Christ down upon the altar, and to absolve the sins of men in Thine own holy Name. We beseech Thee to reward his faithfulness and to forget his faults, admitting him speedily into Thy holy presence, there to enjoy forever the recompense of his labors. This we ask through Jesus Christ Thy Son our Lord. Amen.” By the time you read this, the late Fr. Kenneth Walker, FSSP, will already have been buried,…Continue Reading

Their War, Not Ours

June 22, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on Their War, Not Ours

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN As the Islamic warriors of ISIS rolled down the road from Mosul, John McCain was an echo of French Premier Paul Reynaud, when word reached Paris that Rommel had broken through in the Ardennes: “We are now facing an existential threat to the security of the United States of America,” said McCain. But nothing that happens in Mesopotamia is going to threaten the existence of the United States. As for the terrorist threat from ISIS, for us it is neither greater nor less than it was a week ago. The existential threat here is to Iraq. Its survival as one nation is now in question, with the possibility it could be torn apart in a civil…Continue Reading

Of Cabbages And Kings

June 21, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on Of Cabbages And Kings

By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK “The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things: Of shoes — and ships — and sealing wax — Of cabbages — and kings.” Have you seen John Kerry and Al Gore lately? They look like villains from an old James Bond movie. What did they do to themselves? Is it just plastic surgery and Botox gone wild? Or does it have something to do with George Orwell’s observation about everyone getting the face he deserves by the age of 50? I can understand why conservative commentators make the point that Martin Luther King would not agree with modern black leaders like Al Sharpton and Charles Rangel. It is a way to score…Continue Reading

Some Encouraging Votes, But . . . Burwell’s OK To HHS Shows Politicians Still Need Pressure

June 20, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on Some Encouraging Votes, But . . . Burwell’s OK To HHS Shows Politicians Still Need Pressure

By DEXTER DUGGAN Week after week, the exposure of Obamacare’s outrages continues to fuel the national fire against this grimly partisan, unpopular, anti-religious takeover of everyone’s medical care. It would seem that installing a new head of the Department of Health and Human Services, which runs this death-panel dictatorship, would inspire fiery U.S. Senate hearings featuring demands that the new HHS secretary bring Obamacare to heel and also undo the anti-conscience reproductive “mandate.” However, after Sylvia Burwell on June 5 easily was confirmed by senators to succeed Kathleen Sebelius at HHS, a Washington conservative activist noted how eager many Republican senators were to make things easy for Barack Obama. Obama has richly earned his reputation as a lying, scandal-drenched lawbreaker…Continue Reading