Saturday 27th April 2024
By DEACON MIKE MANNO, JD I am not a constitutional scholar. I was a simple next-door lawyer who made my living by helping people out of fixes, purchasing homes, adopting children, and plodding through the vexations of life. Nothing special; I graduated, passed the bar, took all my continuing education classes, and paid my bar membership — when I remembered.But there is something that really scares me about where the law and our courts may be headed. In two and a half weeks, when the election is over, I’ll either feel relieved or on the verge of political despair. So I would like to know the answer to what I consider the most important unanswered question of the year:Mr. Biden,…Continue Reading
By DEXTER DUGGAN How clearly does Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden understand his own thinking when he tackles the traditional Christian stand against permissive abortion? That remains a timely question when his thought processes on public display on many topics have raised eyebrows around the world, although not so much in skewed newsrooms.At the October 7 Salt Lake City vice-presidential debate, running mate Kamala Harris paid Biden the following tribute, although the topic eliciting it wasn’t abortion: “The one thing we know about Joe, he puts it all out there. He is honest, he is forthright.”(Of course, that’s not how Harris viewed Biden when she flattened him at a Democratic candidates’ presidential debate last year, leaving him looking downward like…Continue Reading
By CHRISTOPHER MANION Ten years ago, Dr. Angelo Codevilla wrote America’s Ruling Class — And the Perils of Revolution. His best-seller analysis of our country’s bipartisan elites quickly formed the foundation for the fledgling Tea Party and, later, for the unprecedented coalition that elected Donald Trump in 2016.The Ruling Class has never accepted Trump’s victory. It was — and is — illegitimate, they insist. To employ Thomas Sowell’s term, they view themselves to be “anointed” as our natural betters to tell us how to live our lives. For them, those millions of us whom Hillary Clinton labeled as “Deplorables” belong in the class described by Aristotle as “natural slaves.” Our lives will be better if we are ruled by those…Continue Reading
By PEGGY MOEN The Spider Who Saved Christmas: A Legend, by Raymond Arroyo. Published by Sophia Institute Press in 2020, it is available at amazon.com. Raymond Arroyo’s newest children’s book, The Spider Who Saved Christmas, is great reading for all ages.Few people actually like spiders, but this one, Nephila, is an expectant mother with many children, a skilled artisan, and a hero of the faith.When the Holy Family takes refuge in her cave, fleeing from Herod’s anti-life forces, Joseph is on the alert, looking out for anyone threatening his family. Nephila drops a line to get a closer look at the radiant Baby. Joseph sees Nephila and swings at her, fearing she could harm the Child.He misses, but damages her…Continue Reading
By DEXTER DUGGAN PHOENIX — Thirty-nine years elapsed between a Republican president’s first nomination of a woman to the Supreme Court, Ronald Reagan announcing Sandra Day O’Connor in July 1981, and the second, Donald Trump’s selection of Amy Coney Barrett in September 2020. What a world of difference between the two.In the meantime, liberal Democrat Presidents Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama successfully nominated three pro-abortion women to the High Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.Reagan sprang a surprise on everyone in summer 1981 with the name of Arizona’s pro-abortion O’Connor, despite pro-lifers across the nation having worked their hearts out less than a year earlier to help win the presidency in November 1980 for the former California…Continue Reading
By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK Amy Coney Barrett reignited a new skirmish in a long, simmering conflict within American culture and religion. It was a Protestant American in the Kennedy era who described it best, that peculiar animus that “lives loudly within” his own people and which was brought to the fore once again in Judge Barrett’s recent nomination.Historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. memorably wrote that “anti-Catholicism is the deepest bias of the American people and the last acceptable prejudice” in describing a widespread negative reaction to the political rise of baptized Catholic John F. Kennedy.Those of us who have ventured out of the Catholic bubble long enough to go to college, join the military, or otherwise rub shoulders with…Continue Reading
By FR. RICHARD D. BRETON JR. (Editor’s Note: Fr. Richard D. Breton Jr. is a priest of the Diocese of Norwich, Conn. He is currently the parochial vicar of St. Andrew Parish in Colchester and St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Lebanon. He received his BA in religious studies and his MA in dogmatic theology from Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Conn.) + + We continue our examination of conscience by reflecting upon our participation in the chaos around us. Today we examine the Fifth Commandment: Thou Shall Not Kill. This Commandment touches upon many aspects of killing. Not only will we examine bodily killings, but emotional and spiritual killing. What do I mean by this? Let’s take…Continue Reading