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Culture Of Life 101 . . . “Goals And Strategies Of The Pro-Euthanasia Movement”

August 27, 2016 Frontpage Comments Off on Culture Of Life 101 . . . “Goals And Strategies Of The Pro-Euthanasia Movement”

By BRIAN CLOWES Part 1 (Editor’s Note: Brian Clowes has been director of research and training at Human Life International since 1995. For an electronic copy of chapter 23 of The Facts of Life on euthanasia, e-mail him at bclowes@hli.org.) + + + “Oh, for more Quality and less Quantity in Generation/ Oh, for less Suff’ring and more Wisdom in Termination” — Robert H. Williams, MD, “My Life Prayer.” + + + The Four-Step Strategy. There can only be one possible ultimate outcome of the utilitarian thinking that brought us contraception and abortifacients, sterilization, population control, and abortion. Once society compromises the paramount right to life in any way, once it sets aside certain classes of human beings and declares…Continue Reading

The Need For Apologetics

August 26, 2016 Frontpage Comments Off on The Need For Apologetics

By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK First Teachers has received many letters in recent weeks regarding the secularization taking place at modern Catholic colleges. Some of the correspondents point to the honorary degrees given to pro-abortion politicians, others to performances of the play The Vagina Monologues, others to the official status given to LGBTQ student groups and activities, others to the large numbers of graduates of these schools who no longer practice the faith. J.R.B., Ph.D., points to something else: the absence of courses in apologetics at these colleges. He writes, “I’m accepting your invitation to comment on why so many of our Catholic colleges are and have been ineffective in cementing religious loyalty to the faith in their graduates. “In my…Continue Reading

Three Kinds Of Human Beings

August 25, 2016 Frontpage Comments Off on Three Kinds Of Human Beings

By DONALD DeMARCO The American humorist, Robert Benchley, once remarked: “There may be said to be two classes of people in the world; those who constantly divide the people of the world into two classes, and those who do not.” In so saying, Benchley logically and amusingly placed himself in the first class. He went on to point out, however, that it would be “extremely unpleasant” for members of these two classes to meet socially. On this point, he may have been more inadvertently wise than intentionally witty. It is a dangerous thing to divide people into two classes. Opposites oppose, whereas complementarities complete. Dividing people into two classes is a recipe for making enemies. For Karl Marx, one is…Continue Reading

As Biden Widens The Whirlpool… Consider How Hierarchy Has Made Catholics Head For Lifeboats

August 24, 2016 Frontpage Comments Off on As Biden Widens The Whirlpool… Consider How Hierarchy Has Made Catholics Head For Lifeboats

By DEXTER DUGGAN Three conservative Christian public figures lamented the lack of courage by national Catholic leaders when The Wanderer asked their reaction to a widening social whirlpool whose velocity increased when Vice President Joe Biden performed a “same-sex marriage” of two homosexual White House staffers at his residence as August began. The Wanderer noted Biden’s defiance in last week’s August 18 hardcopy issue, under the front-page headline, “Soft Treatment for Clinton, Biden — But Media Boast Over Hostile Coverage of Trump.” This week we follow up with observations from three laypeople about the failure of bishops over the years to prevent the U.S. Church’s foundational moral authority from slipping away, until one day it may vanish. It seemed to…Continue Reading

Smearing Donald Trump

August 23, 2016 Frontpage Comments Off on Smearing Donald Trump

By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK I suspect that there are many in the same boat with me, uncomfortable with the idea of coming down on all fours in support of Donald Trump’s run for the presidency, but who will vote for him anyway. The prospect of the Clintons back in power closes the discussion for me. That said, I have to admit backing Trump requires that I eat a lot of crow. I can remember saying to myself (fortunately for me, I didn’t get in anyone else’s face about it) that Catholics who backed Bill Clinton’s run for the presidency were selling out; that they were willing for partisan political motives to back a sleazy pro-abortion candidate with the personal morals…Continue Reading

Racism Then . . . Manufactured Racism Now

August 22, 2016 Frontpage Comments Off on Racism Then . . . Manufactured Racism Now

By REY FLORES Man’s inhumanity to man is just another part of our fallen nature. We have brutalized each other in so many different ways. Today we are rediscovering that brutality and trying hard to find new ways and worse ways to hurt each other. There is no excuse for any kind of racism, given that as Catholics we all believe we are made by the same Creator. And even the worst of us deserve to be treated with human dignity since we are made in His image and likeness. Systemic slavery and institutional racism are realities we cannot erase from man’s history. There are countless examples throughout the ages of how certain cultures and people have become the slaves…Continue Reading

Blind Lead Blind?. . . Campaign Peeks At Polls, Precipices, Lesbian Farms, And McCain

August 21, 2016 Frontpage Comments Off on Blind Lead Blind?. . . Campaign Peeks At Polls, Precipices, Lesbian Farms, And McCain

By DEXTER DUGGAN The story of the blind men who reached conflicting conclusions about what an elephant is because they touched different parts of the beast’s body doesn’t apply to the blind folks of the hostile dominant media trying to size up the Donald Trump Republican pachyderm. Can the elephant fly because the flapping ears are like the wings of a huge nocturnal bat? Is the beast immobile because its stout legs are like deeply rooted trees? Does the coiling trunk suggest the creature resembles a boa constrictor? However, assorted media left-wingers don’t arrive at differing interpretations of this GOP beast. No matter what part they touch, they cry out, “Awful! Terrible! Monstrous! Ghastly!” Zoo elephants may be behind signs…Continue Reading

Cardinal Burke… Shows Way To Hope For A Suffering Church

August 20, 2016 Frontpage Comments Off on Cardinal Burke… Shows Way To Hope For A Suffering Church

By DEXTER DUGGAN (Editor’s Note: Below is Dexter Duggan’s review of and commentary on Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke’s new book Hope for the World: To Unite All Things in Christ. An Interview with Guillaume d’Alancon. Ignatius Press, San Francisco, ISBN 978-1-62164-116-2, 123 pages paperback, $14.95, 2016. Visit ignatius.com or call 1-800-651-1531. (We are featuring the review on our editorial page because of the book’s importance.) + + + Hope, rightfully one of the seven virtues, ultimately looks toward the reward of everlasting Heaven, for which God created everyone. But some people, whose numbers are unknown to us now, choose to reject this bliss. Why would anyone refuse to accept unbounded joy when the alternative is the everlasting deep suffering of…Continue Reading

A Squandered Patrimony

August 19, 2016 Frontpage Comments Off on A Squandered Patrimony

BY JAMES K. FITZPATRICK Recent editions of First Teachers have featured letters from readers who are unhappy with the drift toward secular liberalism and politically correct cultural views at Jesuit universities. This week we offer a different perspective, not from parents of students at Jesuit colleges but from a Jesuit priest. We will identify him only as a “Jesuit correspondent” to preserve his anonymity. You will have to take my word that he is who he says he is. This priest does not pull his punches: He says the critics of Jesuit higher education who wrote to First Teachers are “on the money,” that modern Jesuit educators have “squandered the patrimony donated by Irish, German, Italian, and other European immigrants…Continue Reading

Rio Olympics Mask Truth About Brazil

August 18, 2016 Frontpage Comments Off on Rio Olympics Mask Truth About Brazil

By REY FLORES About 20 years ago I learned a fact about the city of Rio that has stuck with me ever since. At that time, I learned that Rio had the highest number of homeless children who were addicted to huffing inhalants. That is, using anything in an aerosol can, like household cleaning products, insecticide, glue, paint thinner, nail polish remover and lighter fluid, in order to get high. These kids weren’t just rebelling or trying to have fun. These children as young as five years old were trying to mask the starvation and pain that stalked them for their entire short lives. Like any other injustice which I have learned about, I cannot unlearn it. These injustices are…Continue Reading