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Restoring The Sacred . . . What “Ash Wednesday Catholics” Can Teach Us About Catholic Worship

February 9, 2016 Frontpage Comments Off on Restoring The Sacred . . . What “Ash Wednesday Catholics” Can Teach Us About Catholic Worship

By JAMES MONTI Ash Wednesday is coming very early this year — February 10. And with it will come the annual return of the “Ash Wednesday Catholics.” We are all familiar with the phenomenon that on Ash Wednesday the Catholic population of almost any given place seems to swell beyond measure as churches that normally see little more than a modest attendance at Sunday and weekday Masses are suddenly flooded with unfamiliar faces all in search of ashes for their foreheads. No sooner do these visitors receive their tiny portion of dust than they disappear, largely not to be seen or heard from in church for the other 364 days of the year — although some will put in one…Continue Reading

The Academic Roots Of The President’s Radicalism

February 8, 2016 Frontpage Comments Off on The Academic Roots Of The President’s Radicalism

By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK I was convinced that the liberal critics were going to jump all over Steve Forbes for his January 18 editorial in Forbes magazine. So far, I haven’t come across that criticism. Maybe it has taken place and I missed it. Maybe it is yet to come. I thought that the critics were going to go at Forbes hammer and tong for describing President Obama’s worldview as one in which the “U.S. has been a force of evil in the world,” and in which the “smaller our role, the better. Most anything bad happening has at its source American and European colonialism.” Forbes contends this view has created in Obama a “mental construct increasingly at odds with…Continue Reading

Ash Wednesday Offers An Opportunity To Evangelize

February 7, 2016 Frontpage Comments Off on Ash Wednesday Offers An Opportunity To Evangelize

  By REY FLORES Do you know why we receive ashes on Ash Wednesday? I asked that question this past week to some of my Catholic friends and thankfully most of them gave me a pretty good answer. One had no clue, but then again, this person, though Catholic, doesn’t pray the rosary every day. One of my favorite aspects of every Ash Wednesday is trying to count how many ashes I’ll see on people’s foreheads throughout the day. It’s especially fun when you’re riding on public transportation or walking down the street in a busy downtown area in a big city. Another thing I enjoyed immensely happened when I worked as a communications specialist in a very non-religious union…Continue Reading

Texas Bishop Tells Red Mass… Public Officials Should Treat People As Family, Not Strangers

February 6, 2016 Frontpage Comments Off on Texas Bishop Tells Red Mass… Public Officials Should Treat People As Family, Not Strangers

By DEXTER DUGGAN PHOENIX — Public officials should treat those they deal with as if they’re family members, not strangers, a Texas bishop told the congregation at the Diocese of Phoenix’s annual Red Mass at St. Mary’s Basilica here. The Diocese of Brownsville’s Bishop Daniel Flores was guest homilist at the January 26 Mass marking the start of the Arizona state legislative session, attended by a few hundred lawmakers, judges, attorneys, and other public officials. Flores, who is one of two bishops asked to represent U.S. bishops during Pope Francis’ visit to Mexico from February 12 to 17, spoke for about 25 minutes in a resonant voice to the Arizona leaders. His full black beard might have made a person…Continue Reading

National Review Versus The Donald

February 5, 2016 Frontpage Comments Off on National Review Versus The Donald

By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK I can’t think of any topic in recent years that has dominated the right-wing talk shows in a manner comparable to National Review’s crusade to put an end to Donald Trump’s campaign for the Republican nomination for the presidency. It calls to mind William F. Buckley’s rendition of the magazine’s mission purpose when he founded it in 1955: that it will be a journal of opinion that “stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.” Buckley was attempting to turn the tide against the regnant liberalism of the middle years of the 20th century. His successors at…Continue Reading

GOP Elite’s Losing Strategy . . . Mirrored In McCain’s Attempts To Suppress Arizona Grassroots

February 4, 2016 Frontpage Comments Off on GOP Elite’s Losing Strategy . . . Mirrored In McCain’s Attempts To Suppress Arizona Grassroots

By DEXTER DUGGAN PHOENIX — One of the mighty “might have beens” is the question of how much further the Republican Party could have advanced the well-being of this nation if the elite GOP establishment worked cooperatively with its energized grassroots rather than fighting and even betraying them as a matter of course. On voting day, Republicans increasingly conquer the Democrats. Then GOP leaders lie down and moan they dare not act while Barack Obama’s Democrat Party dances all over them. The elites know what the voters want because that’s what the GOP promises to deliver. Once the elections are won, though, the Mitch McConnells, Paul Ryans, and that bunch have fainting fits. Witness the bad way this worked out…Continue Reading

At MCCL Rally… Young Pro-Lifers Invigorate The March

February 3, 2016 Frontpage Comments Off on At MCCL Rally… Young Pro-Lifers Invigorate The March

By PEGGY MOEN ST. PAUL — MCCL’s 42nd annual January 22 rally took place under unusual circumstances. Traditionally, the pro-life rally has been held on and below the steps of the state capitol here, with pro-lifers marching on the grounds, in view of a podium set on top of the steps. But, with the capitol undergoing renovation, the march for the second year in a row was held on the lower capitol mall, with pro-life leaders addressing the crowd from a portable platform. Another difference: The temperature was in the 20s — above zero. The capitol’s renovation could symbolize a needed renewal of government, and the warmer weather could be a harbinger of hope for the long battle for life.…Continue Reading

Theological Dimensions Of The March for Life

February 2, 2016 Frontpage Comments Off on Theological Dimensions Of The March for Life

By FR. FRANK PAVONE (Editor’s Note: Fr. Pavone is national director of Priests for Life.) + + + I have been attending the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., since 1976, when I was a senior in high school. I had, at the very same time, begun paying more attention to my faith, to the Scriptures, and to the Church. Since those early years of the March, I have thought and spoken much of the theological dimensions of this massive, annual pro-life event. With some exceptions, the participants in the March for Life are believers, and with a few more exceptions, are Christians. And they are Christians from every segment of the Body of Christ. The March — and…Continue Reading

The Assault On The Traditional Family

February 1, 2016 Frontpage Comments Off on The Assault On The Traditional Family

By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK R.J.K., a reader from Naples, Fla., writes to ask why Church authorities do not make a more concerted effort to defend the traditional family from the attacks being leveled against it by today’s “neo-pagan culture, led by the media.” He is convinced that the media are making a “mockery” of the image of the father as the “breadwinner” and the wife as “a stay-at-home mother.” He argues it will be difficult for the “Second Vatican Council’s teaching (and the headline banner each week for First Teachers) that ‘parents are the first to pass on the faith to their children and to educate them in it’ to be realized if those traditional roles are undermined.” R.J.K. points…Continue Reading

Prelate Notes Unworthy Communions . . . San Francisco Pro-Life Rally Urged To Continue Fight

January 31, 2016 Frontpage Comments Off on Prelate Notes Unworthy Communions . . . San Francisco Pro-Life Rally Urged To Continue Fight

By DEXTER DUGGAN SAN FRANCISCO — As an African pro-life leader saluted U.S. pro-lifers and urged them to continue their fight for babies and moms around the world, two American pro-life strategists told The Wanderer of plans to help keep abortion giant Planned Parenthood in disarray. This was part of the scene January 23 at the nation’s second-largest annual pro-life gathering, the Walk for Life West Coast, which assembles on the broad plaza in front of San Francisco City Hall for speeches, then marches curb-to-curb on major thoroughfare Market Street through downtown. Before the 12:30 p.m. rally, Catholic Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone celebrated a packed 9:30 a.m. Mass at St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral, which looks down from a hilltop…Continue Reading