The Narthex
Big Money for Abortion
There is a dark side to Warren Buffett's money
By Barbara Rose | January 18th 2022 3:16 PMBillionaire investor Warren Buffett is admired by Americans for his ability to make money. But there's a dark side to all that cash. Hayden Ludwig's "The Big Money Behind Abortion Activism," in The American Conservative (Jan. 18), tells of Buffett's "charitable" foundation, which since 2000 has given $4.7 billion --…
READ FULL BLOG POST'Imprecise Targeting'
Civilian casualties from U.S. air-strikes are not rare occurrences
By Barbara Rose | December 20th 2021 10:03 PMReporters at The New York Times have made public hundreds of confidential reports by the Pentagon on civilian casualties from U.S. air-strikes in Iraq and Syria, covering September 2014 through January 2018. The journalists describe the air-strikes as "marked by deeply flawed intelligence, rushed and often imprecise targeting, and the…
READ FULL BLOG POSTBack to the States
If Roe falls, then trigger laws, pre-Roe bans, & heartbeat laws will stop abortions
By Barbara Rose | December 6th 2021 4:44 PMLast week the U.S. Supreme Court heard the Mississippi case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which many hope will overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling of 1973. Such an outcome does not mean that abortion would automatically become illegal across the United States; rather, the power to make laws on abortion…
READ FULL BLOG POSTNo Reply, Here’s Why
Questions for a Jesuit university president
By James Hanink | November 16th 2021 7:00 PMTen days ago a student group, Women in Politics, hosted a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood of America. Loyola Marymount University (LMU) provided the venue. The University did so despite a nationwide protest and Los Angeles Archbishop Gomez’s expression of deep disappointment. In the sponsoring group’s estimation, the event—a semi-formal party…
READ FULL BLOG POSTLet’s Invite the Pope
If Francis does not know the full U.S. story on abortion, he should
By James Hanink | November 2nd 2021 12:26 PMWhat’s wrong with the world? Chesterton famously asked this and also confessed that he himself was a major part of the problem. In light of his meeting with President Biden, I ask myself what’s wrong with Pope Francis? I’ve asked that question before with regard to his muddled treatment of…
READ FULL BLOG POSTSpeak up, Francis
Mother Teresa spoke the harsh truth to a U.S. president. Can the Pope do it?
By James Hanink | October 27th 2021 7:26 PMRecently New York’s Timothy Cardinal Dolan, in discussing the synodal process, spoke of seven “non negotiables.” Jesus, he said, intends each of them. One is that "mercy, love, invitation, humility, joy, selfless generous service, and good example are our only tools, never harshness, condemnation, or pride.” Sadly, we sometimes obscure…
READ FULL BLOG POSTAn American One-Child Policy?
A recent Senate confirmation hearing tested tolerance for hardline population control
By Jason Morgan | October 5th 2021 1:40 PMOn September 30, 2021, the United States Senate confirmed Tracy Stone-Manning as the new director of the Bureau of Land Management (WashingtonTimes.com, Sept. 30). Choosing someone to fill the Bureau of Land Management director position is not normally cause for a national furor, but this time was different. In a…
READ FULL BLOG POSTInfantilizing the People
Sweden has achieved good results with a policy of voluntary, not enforced, isolation
By David Daintree | September 22nd 2021 2:13 PMI have now had both vaccine doses; I’m neither an “anti-vaxxer” nor a conspiracy theorist. But I have good, intelligent, well-informed, and rational friends who strongly oppose the vaccine, and I do not like to see them punished by the infliction of civil disabilities or verbal abuse. Some Christians and…
READ FULL BLOG POSTA Profile in Courage
A New Orleans archbishop used his authority to confront the evil of his time
By Barbara Rose | September 6th 2021 9:10 PMArchbishop Cordileone of San Francisco continues his bold leadership on issues of national importance with a Sunday op-ed in the Washington Post (September 5). In "Our duty to challenge Catholic politicians who support abortion rights," Cordileone says bishops must call out the "self-professed" Catholic politicians who are "on the wrong…
READ FULL BLOG POSTFinding a Way
John Paul II & John XXIII offer models of how to evangelize in a context of political upheaval
By James Hanink | August 19th 2021 2:17 PMIn the last week or so I’ve had two friends ask me the same hard question about evangelizing, though in different ways. What follows is how I answered them. If nothing else, I got some practice in answering questions that Catholics, as strangers in a strange land, need to address.…
READ FULL BLOG POSTEndless War Machine
Lawless U.S. airstrikes in the Iraq-Syria border region merely keep the cycle going
By Barbara Rose | June 28th 2021 6:11 PMOn Sunday the U.S. conducted airstrikes in the Iraq-Syria border region. Judging from U.S. media coverage of it on Monday, the country had already yawned and moved on. By lunchtime both the Apple News and Google News aggregators showed one short news item each, way down in the scroll. One…
READ FULL BLOG POSTOutrage and Serenity
Serenity is the hard won fruit of trust in God
By James Hanink | June 3rd 2021 2:35 PMFrom time to time, I’ve told people that outrage is the proper response to the outrageous. After all, ignoring the outrageous would be an outrage, wouldn’t? And it’s outrageous that we so often ignore the outrages of the day. Sounds plausible, or at least it did to me. But I…
READ FULL BLOG POSTA True Pastor
On Archbishop Cordileone's Pastoral Letter on the unborn, Communion & Catholic politicians
By Magdalena Moreno | May 28th 2021 4:39 PMArchbishop Cordileone’s May 1st letter, "Before I Formed You in the Womb I Knew You: A Pastoral Letter on the Human Dignity of the Unborn, Holy Communion, and Catholics in Public Life" (https://sfarchdiocese.org/inthewomb), is pastoral in the truest sense of the word: the archbishop is tending his flock,…
READ FULL BLOG POSTA Final Howler, on Torture
Past practices were not in conformity with the legitimate rights of the human person
By James Hanink | May 18th 2021 3:17 PMFrank Sheed, of Sheed & Ward, was a publisher, theologian, and Hyde Park Catholic apologist. When critics debated with him, citing the wrongs of the Inquisition, he would reply, “It was worse than that.” Then he would fill in the gaps. The Church was and is the home of sinners…
READ FULL BLOG POSTSuffering with Christ
The crucified Jesus refused to dull His excruciating pain or to shorten His misery
By Richard DellOrfano | May 17th 2021 12:41 PMIn the late 1940s, when I was a kid living in predominantly Irish and Italian East Boston, people practiced silence on Good Friday from noon to 3pm, respecting the three hours that Christ hung dying on the Cross. Business traffic slowed way down and cobblestone streets were silent of auto…
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