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Angels And Christmas

December 23, 2013 Frontpage Comments Off on Angels And Christmas

By MARIA J. CIRURGIÃO In preparation for this Christmas 2013, many of us will have engaged in traditional decorating — strings of lights, green trees, candles and pine cones, elaborate Nativity scenes. Certainly not forgotten are the angels, those celestial creatures we delight in visualizing as bridging the great divide between Heaven and Earth on a pair of wings. We know better, of course. “Angel,” from the Greek angelos, means simply “messenger.” There is no mention in the New Testament of celestial messengers equipped with celestial wings to navigate Earth’s atmosphere. (I’m excluding here the Book of Revelation, or Apocalypse, as best left to trained exegetes.) It is also worthy of notice that when, in her mature years, Sr. Lucia…Continue Reading

Garlands In The Sky

December 22, 2013 Frontpage Comments Off on Garlands In The Sky

By DEREK BECHER The winter winds blew early that year, bringing a record snowfall to Jubilee County. By November, the country roads were impassable, as frosty drifts gathered and grew along the roadsides, especially where the woods crept toward their shoulders. A week later, country residents had already assembled their horse-drawn wagons and sleighs for the first trips into town, which became less frequent because of the duration of the round-trip excursion to Merry Vale. Winter had indeed arrived early, and with the thick blanket of snow that it had brought, it was there to stay. For Marie and her brother, Matthew, that first snowfall brought dreams of Christmas, as always. Before long, their town would be decorated with the…Continue Reading

What Became Of Emperor Obamus . . . After He Closed The Inn That Wouldn’t Kill Babies?

December 21, 2013 Frontpage Comments Off on What Became Of Emperor Obamus . . . After He Closed The Inn That Wouldn’t Kill Babies?

By DEXTER DUGGAN Mary and Joseph, tired from their wintry trip, were glad they had their confirmed reservations firmly in hand as they looked at the street signs to find 25 Bethlehem Avenue. Many travelers on the road for the census would be elbowing for room at the inns. With the worship of so many false gods spreading in the land, it was best to seek shelter at a six-star inn you could trust. “Look, Joseph, there it is,” said Mary, as the Child stirred in her womb. “But innkeeper Joshua is nailing his doors shut! What could be wrong?” “See here, we have proof of our reservations,” Joseph told the innkeeper.

Catholics Must Reject Common Core

December 20, 2013 Frontpage Comments Off on Catholics Must Reject Common Core

By REY FLORES I always found it amusing how the Archie Bunker character in the old All in the Family TV sitcom used to refer to the adherents of modernist culture as either a “pinko” or a “commie.” The very liberal television producer Norman Lear presented the Bunker character as a bigoted and angry lout who represented the dying, intolerant, and ugly past, while his liberal son-in-law, the Meathead, represented a just new world, tolerant and diverse. While the Bunker character was neither Catholic nor even a practicing Protestant, Lear presented him as an out-of-touch Christian who hated anyone who wasn’t a WASP. While we are certainly no Archie Bunkers, the proponents of the new federal education curriculum known as…Continue Reading

Christmas: Peace Or Passivity?

December 19, 2013 Frontpage Comments Off on Christmas: Peace Or Passivity?

By DONALD DeMARCO Peace, although universally desirable, remains intellectually problematic. I recall inviting a group of 25 or so university students to give me a working definition of peace. Despite their sincere and studied attempts, they could not offer me a single image of peace that was positive. Peace, for them, was the absence of war, strife, conflict, problems, interruptions, frustrations, and so on. Peace, according to their provisional definitions, was indistinguishable from anesthesia. It was a synonym for Requiescat in pace. Christmas is about peace in its positivity. Mary is the Queen of Peace. Her Child is a bearer of peace. At Christmastime, our hearts should be filled with peace. We may begin our understanding of the positive quality…Continue Reading

The Story Of The Star Of Bethlehem

December 18, 2013 Frontpage Comments Off on The Story Of The Star Of Bethlehem

By DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY Around this time of year, articles and stories appear in the media on the subject of the Star of Bethlehem. Quite often they focus on the astronomical state of the heavens at the time of Christ’s birth and try to show that some natural phenomenon can be held to be responsible for the appearance of the star — a comet, a supernova, or a conjunction of stars or planets. If we examine the biblical text, however, it becomes clear that it isn’t quite so easy to categorize the Star in this way, and that the truth may well turn out to be far more intriguing. The references to the Star are found in St. Matthew’s Gospel,…Continue Reading

In The Beginning . . .

December 17, 2013 Frontpage Comments Off on In The Beginning . . .

By GEORGE A. KENDALL When we think about the beginnings of things, something those of us with philosophical predilections tend to spend a lot of time doing, a sense of deep mystery comes over us. That is especially the case when it is our own personal beginnings that we contemplate as we reflect on our memories of early childhood, something that we become more and more prone to in old age — paradoxically, as the end gets closer, so does the beginning. That kind of reflection can easily degenerate into an exercise in self-absorption, a kind of navel-gazing. Yet, done rightly, it can also lead to real insight into who we are and what our relationship is to the reality…Continue Reading

The People In Charge Matter

December 16, 2013 Frontpage Comments Off on The People In Charge Matter

By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK Over the past few months the debate among correspondents to First Teachers over the federally mandated guidelines known as Common Core has centered on the language and specific provisions of the program: on, for example, whether Common Core takes too much power away from local school boards and whether its guidelines promote a secular humanism hostile to traditional values. These things are important, to be sure. But it is also important to know who will be in charge of implementing Common Core. Programs that sound unobjectionable, even high-minded, on paper can take on a different character if they are under the control of individuals with an animus against traditional values.

Culture Of Life 101 . . . “The Abortion Situation In Europe”

December 15, 2013 Frontpage Comments Off on Culture Of Life 101 . . . “The Abortion Situation In Europe”

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 chapter 18 of The Facts of Life, “The Worldwide Abortion Situation,” e-mail him at bclowes@hli.org.) +    +    + Many American pro-lifers wonder what the long-term impacts of abortion will be on the United States. We have been making significant progress against the Culture of Death over the past decade, but if our progress is reversed and abortion strengthens its hold on our society, what will happen to our country? With Obamacare’s funding of abortions and the related economic problems, what will happen if the abortion rate rises even higher, and we add millions more to…Continue Reading

Bishop Conley… Counters Dismissals Of Pope’s Economic Warnings

December 14, 2013 Frontpage Comments Off on Bishop Conley… Counters Dismissals Of Pope’s Economic Warnings

LINCOLN, Neb. (CNA/EWTN News) — Critics of Pope Francis’ warnings about capitalism are reducing him to a “cartoonish socialist” to diminish the seriousness of his message, Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Neb., said. “The Pope affirmed that markets must be understood and administered in justice, with due regard for the sovereignty and solidarity of families and human dignity,” Bishop Conley stated in a December 2 column for the Republican-leaning web site National Review Online. He added that the Pope’s November 26 document Evangelii Gaudium did not reject capitalism, but instead rejected “idolatry of any economic system” and “called Catholics to human solidarity in the context of public policy.”