Guest Editorial

It is July 18, 1882. General Charles Pomeroy Stone, an American engineer in the employ of the Khedive Ismail of Egypt, has since July 6 been separated from his wife and their two daughters while the British – with but two days’ warning – bomb Alexandria.

As COVID-19 recedes, the “normal” to which we return will differ from its pre-Corona counterpart. Changes will be good and bad, short-lived and lasting, predictable and unforeseen. Despite the unknowns, we can count on one inevitable truth: other crises lurk. Are we ready for the next one?

At the close of Pope St. John Paul II’s encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), he begins his prayer to the Mother of God by saying, “O Mary, bright dawn of the new world, Mother of the living, to you do we entrust the cause of life.”

In conjunction with the celebration of Christ’s resurrection comes the annual controversy over whether physical evidence exists for a miraculous event that still impacts the world and the foundation of our faith.

According to the 2019 Wealth Engine Millennial Wealth Report, there are currently 700,000 millennial millionaires in the United States. This number is set to increase dramatically because millennials are on track to inherit between $30 trillion and $70 trillion by 2030.

The ordinary experience of a Catholic business traveler provides opportunities for both spiritual growth and evangelization. It also can be a time where we might be tempted to sin and compromise our commitment to virtue.

There is a crisis in the Church, but not the one you are thinking. This crisis is a lack of proper innovation and entrepreneurship in ministry. Pope Saint John Paul II famously called for a new evangelization — new in ardor, new in expression, and new in method.

Christmas is almost here! If ever there was a holiday focused on children—this is it. It seems a good moment to ask: why does childhood seem to be such a sacred, even holy time?

The slow and steady decline of Catholic schools over the last 50 years has been well documented. Enrollment peaked at over 5.5 million K-12 students in 1965, plummeted to below 2 million by 2015, and continues to decline. More students are now homeschooled than attend Catholic school in the U.S.

If we respect people’s liberty, does it follow that we should never put anyone in jail? Is it hypocritical to imprison kidnappers, given that we criticize kidnappers precisely for taking away the freedom of others?

The Supreme Court’s infamous decision in Roe v. Wade (1973) forged a powerful legal weapon for the abortion industry. By fabricating a new constitutional right, the Court allowed pro-abortion activists to invalidate state laws without the political cost of building legislative coalitions.

“How many kids here want to be drag queens when they grow up?” smiles the reader, the groomer. “Drag queens just want to spread love,” said the fellow who did his spiel of enticement at a library near our home. Spread it, deep and thick.

Repeatedly I hear someone being interviewed on radio or television answer the interviewer’s question with the exclamation, “Absolutely!” I find that quite amazing at a time when so many claim there is no absolute truth—only opinions about what is true, relative to one’s point of view.

Shrines and churches that have stood for decades, or even centuries, are being reduced to rubble by an increasingly hostile Communist Party.

For each of the last six summers, our family has traveled from New Jersey to the scenic Lakes region of New Hampshire. There, our daughter has attended Camp Bernadette and our sons, Camp Fatima. These camps, opening in 1953 and 1949, respectively, have enhanced the spiritual formation of our children with a simplistic joy that radiates into our home.

Many beliefs about Jesus’ physical suffering have become firmly transfixed in our minds because of the numerous crucifixes we have seen, homilies we have heard, articles we have read, and movies we have watched.

Entrepreneurs and business people: Have you thought of yourself as a steward of Providence?

What I am about to tell you is something you’ve never seen in the Catholic Church. If you have seen anything like this, contact me. I’d like to learn more.