Friday 26th April 2024

Home » Frontpage » Recent Articles:

John Paul II Revisited . . . Teaching Marriage And Sexuality To The Young

December 12, 2015 Frontpage Comments Off on John Paul II Revisited . . . Teaching Marriage And Sexuality To The Young

By LOUISE KIRK One of my favorite images of St. John Paul comes from the first decade of his reign, in December 1988. Speaking without a note he searches for deep words which have an urgency that goes beyond time. “Holy Church of God, you cannot accomplish your mission in the world except through the family and its mission.” As he speaks, his quiet voice and gentle demeanor are transformed with a passion which brings his whole person alive. He cries out, “Tell everyone, go out through the entire world and tell them” that the regeneration of every aspect of life, cultural, social, economic, comes “through the family, not at the cost of the family,” and he repeats, “through the…Continue Reading

Reform-Minded Muslims . . . Discuss How They Seek To Make Their Faith A Good Neighbor

December 11, 2015 Frontpage Comments Off on Reform-Minded Muslims . . . Discuss How They Seek To Make Their Faith A Good Neighbor

By DEXTER DUGGAN The frightening dimensions of Islamist radicalism were emphasized when a young suburban mother and father willingly orphaned their baby daughter on December 2 after shooting down the father’s innocent southern California co-workers who’d held a gift shower for the baby. The slaughter of fellow health-department employees occurred amid Christmas decorations in a conference room in San Bernardino, leaving 14 dead and 21 wounded. Although it appeared the young couple planned further Islamist-inspired attacks because of the weapons they’d stockpiled, they couldn’t have been surprised that police caught up with them later the same day and killed them in a gun fight when they tried to escape. Completely by coincidence, the Washington, D.C.-based conservative Heritage Foundation already had…Continue Reading

Hijacking The Little Sisters’ Religion

December 10, 2015 Frontpage Comments Off on Hijacking The Little Sisters’ Religion

By TERENCE P. JEFFREY (Editor’s Note: Terence P. Jeffrey is the editor-in-chief of CNSnews.com. Creators Syndicate distributes his column. All rights reserved.) + + + When President Barack Obama addressed the nation Sunday night, December 6, about the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, he was careful to build a wall of separation between the terrorists who had murdered 14 Americans and the religion they claimed to embrace. “But it is clear that the two of them had gone down the dark path of radicalization, embracing a perverted interpretation of Islam that calls for war against America and the West,” Obama said. Were the president to exhibit this same zeal in defending the integrity of Christianity, he would drop his administration’s…Continue Reading

Europe Is The Faith

December 9, 2015 Frontpage Comments Off on Europe Is The Faith

By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK Not every admirer of Hilaire Belloc’s work thinks it was wise for him to write, “Europe is the faith, and the faith is Europe.” But whatever one’s position on Belloc’s words, what is happening in Europe these days calls them to mind. Am I the only one who suspects that the people of Europe, whether or not they have ever heard of Belloc, are pondering one version or another of his statement about the centrality of Catholicism to Europe’s identity as they witness the flood of Muslim refugees pouring across their borders? My guess is that Europeans are longing for a leader to come to the forward and state openly and unapologetically, “This flow of refugees…Continue Reading

A Time For Mercy, For Born And Unborn

December 8, 2015 Frontpage Comments Off on A Time For Mercy, For Born And Unborn

By FR. FRANK PAVONE (Editor’s Note: Fr. Pavone is the national director of Priests for Life. To follow the connections between the Jubilee of Mercy and the pro-life movement, see www.JubileeOfMercy.net.) + + + As the Jubilee Year of Mercy begins, we are living at a special moment for the Church and the world, and mercy is as needed today as it has ever been. The world is suffering from the grief and fear that stem from terrorism, while at the same time too many public officials are blind to the evils of the abortion industry, in which the key player is Planned Parenthood, and so countless lives continue to be taken and countless lives devastated by abortion. We need…Continue Reading

The Laity’s Role In The Sex Abuse Scandals

December 8, 2015 Frontpage Comments Off on The Laity’s Role In The Sex Abuse Scandals

By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK I have yet to come across a member of the Catholic laity who is not deeply disappointed and angered by the cases of sexual abuse in the Church. Even if in percentage terms it was a small number of priests who were guilty, and even if the percentages were no higher than among Protestant ministers, rabbis, and public school teachers, we were saddened. We expected more of our priests. That is why Frank Bruni was off the mark when he argued in early November in The New York Times, in an article entitled “The Catholic Church’s Sins are Ours,” that ordinary Catholics were guilty of “complicity” in the scandals; that they ignored “an epidemic right before…Continue Reading

Are School Suspensions Racist?

December 7, 2015 Frontpage Comments Off on Are School Suspensions Racist?

By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK Critics of Catholic schools often argue that their success can be attributed not to superior teaching but to their exclusion of slow and “difficult” minority students. In many ways it is an unfair charge. But not entirely. I frequently point to the successful Catholic high schools in New York City that include large numbers of minority students among their student bodies. But admission to those schools requires success on a competitive entrance examination. And the schools’ enforcement of standards leads to some students being expelled. How should this trade-off of achieving a successful and safe school at the expense of excluding difficult minority children be judged? Michael Petrilli wrestled with the issue on the website Bloomberg…Continue Reading

Restoring The Sacred . . . Mary Most Pure, Fair As The Dawn

December 6, 2015 Frontpage Comments Off on Restoring The Sacred . . . Mary Most Pure, Fair As The Dawn

By JAMES MONTI Advent, as Pope St. John Paul II observed, is a liturgical journey that we make in the company of Our Lady. Our Advent each year lasts on average about three and a half weeks, but hers, the very first, lasted nine months, beginning with the Angel Gabriel’s visit to her. In the eternal Providence of God, how very fitting it is that the annual commemoration of the Blessed Virgin’s own dawn of existence, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, should come in the heart of Advent. Here in the United States as in Mexico the Marian motif of Advent is further amplified by the December 12 Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. One could say that the…Continue Reading

An Advent Reflection . . . The Sanctification Of Time

December 5, 2015 Frontpage Comments Off on An Advent Reflection . . . The Sanctification Of Time

By JULIE ASH (Editor’s Note: Julie Ash writes from Cherokee County, Okla., where she is a novice oblate of Clear Creek Abbey.) + + + The classic poem If, Rudyard Kipling’s optimistic ode to growing up, makes the unlikely promise that “If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it — and which is more — you’ll be a man, my son!” While this frenzied definition of success may accurately depict modern life in ways Mr. Kipling couldn’t possibly have imagined, we Catholics must take a radically different approach to time management. We must order our days by the careful, prayerful use of the time that…Continue Reading

Pro-Aborts Exploit Any Opportunity To Smear Pro-Lifers

December 4, 2015 Frontpage Comments Off on Pro-Aborts Exploit Any Opportunity To Smear Pro-Lifers

By REY FLORES “I think it’s fair to have a legitimate, honest debate about abortion. . . . How we talk about it, making sure that we’re talking about it factually, accurately, and not demonizing organizations like Planned Parenthood I think is important.” These are the words of our dear leader Barack Obama. He thoroughly enjoys being the head cheerleader for the abortion giant, and it is a role he embraced long before he occupied the White House. If Barack Obama tells me to go high, I’ll go low. If Barack Obama tells me to go left, I’ll run right . . . every time. If Barack Obama does not want anyone to demonize Planned Parenthood, then perhaps the organization…Continue Reading