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On the Sacrament of Penance

February 26, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on On the Sacrament of Penance

VATICAN CITY (ZENIT) — Here is the translation of the Holy Father’s continuing catechesis on the sacraments to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his February 19 general audience. Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning! Through the Sacraments of Christian initiation — Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist — man receives new life in Christ. Now we have this life “in earthen vessels” (2 Cor. 4:7), we are still subject to temptation, to suffering, to death and, because of sin, we can even lose this new life. This is why the Lord Jesus wished His Church to continue His work of salvation to her members, in particular with the Sacrament of Reconciliation and that of the Anointing of the…Continue Reading

Culture Of Life 101 . . . “How Catholics For A Free Choice Pushes Its Agenda”

February 25, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on Culture Of Life 101 . . . “How Catholics For A Free Choice Pushes Its Agenda”

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 his updated 400-page book Catholics for a Free Choice Exposed, which includes detailed financial information on CFFC and hundreds of quotes from its leaders, e-mail him at bclowes@hli.org.) +    +    + Since its founding in 1970, Catholics for [a Free] Choice has launched numerous public initiatives designed to advance its ultimate objective of forcing the Catholic Church to accept contraception, abortion, homosexual activity, and married and homosexual priests, among other evils. The group hopes to accomplish this by proxy, by working to change the Church from within by a process called “infiltration and subversion.” In…Continue Reading

An Unconscionable Silence

February 24, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on An Unconscionable Silence

By ANDREW P. NAPOLITANO The political philosopher Edmund Burke once remarked that all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good folks to do nothing. A glaring example of the impending triumph of a constitutional evil that could be stopped by folks who have been largely silent is the tyranny coming from the White House. And the folks who can stop this and are doing nothing about it are our elected representatives in Congress. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. It established the three branches of government, and it delegated “all legislative powers” to Congress. American law rarely uses the word “all.” Yet the Framers chose that word precisely to confine law writing to…Continue Reading

The Shriver Report: No Cigar

February 23, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on The Shriver Report: No Cigar

By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK Now that the dust has settled on her break-up with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver is back working at NBC News. She is also the force behind a think-tank called the Center for American Progress and The Shriver Report, a web site that describes itself as “a multi-platform nonprofit media initiative led by Maria Shriver that seeks to modernize America’s relationship to women.” Its goal is to “convene influential voices and bold ideas from across the cultural spectrum” in order to “document the most significant societal trends and transformations in American life and the impact they have on women.” W. Bradford Wilcox observes, in the online edition of National Review on February 22, that the latest edition…Continue Reading

“Peace Pope’s” First Encyclical . . . Still Resonates One Century Later

February 22, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on “Peace Pope’s” First Encyclical . . . Still Resonates One Century Later

By PAUL LIKOUDIS Elected one month after the Great Powers of Europe declared war against each other in August 1914, Pope Benedict XV issued his first encyclical Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum on November 1, after nearly a million men had died at the Battles of the Marne and Ypres and in the Austro-Hungarian invasion of Serbia. It was clear to the young Pope — Giacomo Cardinal della Chiesa was only 59 at the time of his election on September 3, 1914 — that the war would not “be over by Christmas,” as the optimistic rulers — all cousins, all of them — in Germany, Russia, France, and England believed. Pope Benedict XV saw the war, as most modern historians do today,…Continue Reading

Should The Generations Overlap?

February 21, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on Should The Generations Overlap?

By DONALD DeMARCO In his novel, The Way of All Flesh, 19th-century satirist Samuel Butler, raised a curious question: “Why should the generations overlap one another at all? Why cannot we be buried as eggs in neat little cells with ten or twenty thousand pounds each wrapped round us in Bank of England notes, and wake up, as the sphex [mud-dauber wasp] does to find that its papa and mamma have not only left ample provision at its elbow but have been eaten by sparrows some weeks before we began to live consciously on our own accounts?” Butler’s question may seem utterly facetious, but it does, perhaps not surprisingly, have contemporary relevance. It should be apparent by now, that children…Continue Reading

Is The Tea Party’s Dream An Illusion?

February 20, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on Is The Tea Party’s Dream An Illusion?

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN “There is no education in the second kick of a mule,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. With some such thought in mind, Speaker John Boehner strode to the floor of the House to offer a “clean” debt ceiling bill and relied on Nancy Pelosi’s Democrats to pass it. They did. “Surrender” and “betrayal” are among the epithets coming the speaker’s way. Yet Boehner was holding a losing hand. Had he added a GOP wish-list bill to the debt ceiling, Harry Reid’s Senate would have rejected it. President Obama would have denounced it as putting at risk the full faith and credit of the United States. Big Media would have piled on. The markets would have…Continue Reading

Translator Predicts . . . Benedict XVI Will Be Remembered As A Great Teacher

February 19, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on Translator Predicts . . . Benedict XVI Will Be Remembered As A Great Teacher

ROME (CNA/EWTN News) — A former translator of Benedict XVI has predicted that the retired Pontiff’s legacy will only grow, given the “wonderful freshness” and clarity of his writings. “I think the judgment of history will be very kind, very generous, because once all the topical controversies have moved into the past, people will see what he said in all of its luminous clarity,” Msgr. Philip Whitmore, rector of the English College in Rome, told Catholic News Agency on February 10. He said the retired Pontiff will “really be admired and respected for the great man, for the great teacher that he was.” Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation from the papacy on February 11, 2013. He said that he…Continue Reading

Neither Left Nor Right, But Catholic… The Supreme Court: Activism And Abdication

February 18, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on Neither Left Nor Right, But Catholic… The Supreme Court: Activism And Abdication

By STEPHEN M. KRASON (Editor’s Note: Stephen M. Krason is a professor of political science and legal studies and associate director of the Veritas Center for Ethics in Public Life at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He is also cofounder and president of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists. He is the author of several books, including The Transformation of the American Democratic Republic [Transaction Publishers: 2012], and most recently published an edited volume entitled Child Abuse, Family Rights, and the Child Protective System [Scarecrow Press: 2013]. (This column originally appeared in Crisismagazine.com and the Krason column appears monthly in The Wanderer. All rights reserved.) +    +    + Serious Catholics and political conservatives since the 1950s have strongly criticized the Supreme…Continue Reading

Culture Of Life 101 . . . “Profile: Catholics For [A Free] Choice”

February 17, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on Culture Of Life 101 . . . “Profile: Catholics For [A Free] Choice”

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 his updated 400-page book Catholics for a Free Choice Exposed, which includes detailed financial information on CFFC and hundreds of quotations from its leaders, e-mail him at bclowes@hli.org.) +    +    + Catholics for Choice, formerly Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC), is a Washington, D.C.-based organization whose objective is to convince lawmakers, the popular media, and Catholics that there can be an authentic “Catholic pro-choice” philosophy. CFFC was founded in 1970 by three members of the virulently pro-abortion group National Organization for Women (NOW). Its first public act was to ridicule the Catholic Church by…Continue Reading