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Conservatism And Its Discontents

January 9, 2019 Frontpage Comments Off on Conservatism And Its Discontents

By CHRISTOPHER MANION Since 1980, the same party has controlled the House, the Senate, and the White House for about 25 percent of the time. Democrats (four years) used their control to wreak serious damage on the republic: tax hikes (Clinton), Obamacare, and the takeover of student loans (Obama) — all of which led to a continual expansion of the powers of the federal government and a reduction in individual freedom. Republicans used their control in a different fashion during the George W. Bush years (four years four months). On the domestic front, they launched “Big Government Conservatism,” expanding Medicare, intruding more into education, raising the debt ceiling four times; on the foreign front, launching two wars that divide Republicans…Continue Reading

Christmas-Night Encounter . . . Leads To Thoughts On Entrants Stretching Help Beyond Its Limits

January 8, 2019 Frontpage Comments Off on Christmas-Night Encounter . . . Leads To Thoughts On Entrants Stretching Help Beyond Its Limits

By DEXTER DUGGAN PHOENIX — Walking home with a neighbor after Midnight Mass last month, I noticed a person bundled up on the bus stop bench just a block north of the church. Even the desert gets chilly on a winter’s night, and it was about 1:30 a.m. I said “Merry Christmas” and walked a few more steps before I stopped and remarked to my neighbor about her being at the unlighted bench. Was she expecting a city bus here in the middle of the Christmas night? It’s a middle-class neighborhood, but the wealthy aren’t so far away. Nor the poor. “She’s homeless,” he instantly replied about the stranger. If a stranger walks up to me in a daytime parking…Continue Reading

Report: Top Colleges Fail To Provide Due Process For Accused Students

January 7, 2019 Frontpage Comments Off on Report: Top Colleges Fail To Provide Due Process For Accused Students

By MIKE MANNO A month ago, in our December 6 edition, this column explored the questions surrounding the concept of due process on college campuses, and especially in investigations of sexual abuse claims (Is Due Process An Outdated Concept? p. 4A). We evaluated the U. S. Department of Education’s proposed new rules establishing, not only substantive, but procedural due process rights for students accused of wrongdoing by college administrators. Secretary Betsy DeVos has proposed the new rules after making some troubling findings about the unevenness of college disciplinary procedures; procedures that could result in suspension or expulsion of a student. Some of the problems Secretary DeVos is trying to alleviate include the lack of due process for accused students, the…Continue Reading

How The Long March Of Pro-Life Sometimes Seems More Of An Obstacle Course

January 6, 2019 Frontpage Comments Off on How The Long March Of Pro-Life Sometimes Seems More Of An Obstacle Course

By DEXTER DUGGAN U.S. Catholic bishops plan to “emphasize words instead of deeds in dealing with Catholic politicians who support legalized abortion,” a newspaper report said, going on to summarize a U.S. cardinal’s interview as saying that “the bishops would rather talk than punish.” The report added that critics said “the difficulty with the ‘persuasion’ line . . . is that, up to now, there is no evidence of the bishops persuading anybody. In fact, most Catholic politicians who have changed their position on abortion in recent months have switched from pro-life to pro-choice.” That newspaper report was published nearly a full 29 years ago, on April 29, 1990, back when the U.S. House of Representatives actually had dozens of…Continue Reading

New Year’s Revolutions

January 5, 2019 Frontpage Comments Off on New Year’s Revolutions

By CHRISTOPHER MANION “I’ve lied all my life” — Bill Clinton Intern Monica Lewinsky. + + + Democrat Elizabeth Warren, the senior senator from Massachusetts, has finally come clean: She is not an Indian. She is not even a Native American. All those years that she sought minority status in order to achieve positions of honor dishonorably — they’re all history now. Fauxcahantas has finally come clean. Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr, who bestowed the “Fauxcahantas” sobriquet on Ms. Warren years ago, is finally vindicated — but don’t expect to see him applauded in the Fake News Media. No way they’re gonna go there. Warren, their crabby, petulant, pompous socialist darling, has betrayed them. They defended her “Native Americanism” for…Continue Reading

Reasons For Hope

January 4, 2019 Frontpage Comments Off on Reasons For Hope

By SHAUN KENNEY With all the problems going on in the Catholic Church today — perceived and otherwise — it is perhaps useful to take stock of the things that are going well. For instance, the permanent diaconate is a wonderful start. The diaconate a much older institution than the priesthood, coming from a time when bishops themselves were able to conduct the Holy Mass while deacons, subdeacons, “deaconesses” (which were really equivalent to a prioress of nuns and don’t let anyone tell you different), religious brothers and sisters, and a host of laity performed the charitable and at times sacramental work of the Church. This sacramental work was limited to deacons, of course, and limited to what in modern…Continue Reading

The Revised Catechism Section 2267 . . . What The Latin Text Actually Says

January 3, 2019 Frontpage Comments Off on The Revised Catechism Section 2267 . . . What The Latin Text Actually Says

By FR. GEORGE WELZBACHER (Editor’s Note: Fr. George Welzbacher taught Ancient Mediterranean History for 21 years at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. This article first appeared in The Catholic Servant, December 2018, and is reprinted here with the kind permission of its publisher, John Sondag.) + + + This past August at Pope Francis’ command section 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church was officially revised. This is the section that deals with capital punishment. On August 2, 2018, the Holy See’s Press Office announced that the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Luis Cardinal Ladaria, SJ, had issued a Rescriptum from an audience of the Most Holy Father introducing the…Continue Reading

To Further The Aim Of Vatican II… Phoenix Parish Reintroduces An Ad Orientem Mass

January 2, 2019 Frontpage Comments Off on To Further The Aim Of Vatican II… Phoenix Parish Reintroduces An Ad Orientem Mass

By DEXTER DUGGAN PHOENIX — A large parish church of the Diocese of Phoenix reintroduced an ad orientem Mass to be one of its Sunday morning services in hopes this would help achieve the conscious, active participation in the liturgy called for by Vatican II. The reintroduction of this Mass, in which the priest and people both face toward the Lord instead of facing each other, was explained in two letters in parish bulletins of St. Thomas the Apostle Church before this form of Eucharistic Celebration began on the Feast of Christ the King, November 25. The chief aim of the Second Vatican Council in proposing a reform of the liturgy “was that ‘all the faithful should be led to…Continue Reading

Winter Reads

January 1, 2019 Frontpage Comments Off on Winter Reads

By CHRISTOPHER MANION Regnery Publishing has emerged as a leading publisher in providing Catholic as well as conservative best-sellers. The Wanderer has already reviewed Henry Sire’s Dictator Pope, which has since become a Regnery classic. This time around, we look at several Regnery offerings that are also worth our while. John Zmirak’s Politically Incorrect Guide to the Catholic Church explores the history of the Church as well as its current vicissitudes. Zmirak has a keen eye and a sharp tongue, and he brooks no nonsense as he surveys the past 2,000 years with a clearly Catholic eye. On Calvary, the Good Thief knew the day and the hour, and asked for forgiveness — one of many good arguments, Zmirak argues,…Continue Reading

The Coddling Of The American Mind

December 31, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on The Coddling Of The American Mind

By MIKE MANNO Over the Christmas break I got to catch up on my reading. I had an eye infection this fall and it put a halt to my book reading; I could do the Liturgy of the Hours, brief newspaper articles and the like, but book reading, more than a few pages at a sitting, was out of the question. After a trip to the eye doctor, all was made better. One of the books that I had been wanting to read was written by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind; How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting up a Generation for Failure. I recommend it to you. I first heard of the…Continue Reading