Most Catholic audiences are familiar with Abby Johnson, the pro-life speaker and author who resigned as director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in 2009 after she witnessed an ultrasound of a 13-week-old baby being aborted.
By the last day of school, we were well on our way with plans for our summer vacation. Freedom rang while swinging from willow branches into the cool waters of the Mississippi. We fished from the sandbar, captured crawfish behind Mamere’s, and caught river shrimp during the June Rise, the second annual flood of the spring.
The two men bonded over this common goal — and, in the end, they triumphed, having exerted significant influence in such victories as the rise of the Solidarity movement in Poland, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the end of the Cold War.
Cleverly titled for a time of pandemic, this book by the founder of Catholic Missionary Disciples strives to train Catholics in the strategies and self-confidence necessary to share their faith effectively.
It is claimed that Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke, Charles Montesquieu, and Jean Jacques Rousseau and the theories of government “by the people” that they developed profoundly influenced the framers of the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights. Robert R. Reilly not only denies this assertion, but turns it on its head.
As Catholics, we may love our faith and even know it rather well, but there are times when we are challenged by a denominational Christian who cites Bible verses to counter our beliefs. We might not immediately have the words to refute the challenge, so we are left stammering while our questioner senses victory.
On May 8, 2020, a document titled Appeal for the Church and the World: to Catholics and all people of good will was published [which this author signed]. Its initial signatories included, among others, three cardinals, nine bishops, 11 doctors, 22 journalists, and 13 lawyers.
Pope St. John Paul II provided Holy Mother Church with a great corpus that inspired, reaffirmed and evangelized Catholics in an era when everything seemed up for revision. Since then, the Church has moved forward with the New Evangelization, which isn’t so different from the first.
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 Independence Day arrives in this year of the coronavirus, we begin to taste again the basic freedom of personal interaction with friends, family, colleagues, and with our Blessed Lord in the Most Holy Eucharist. Yet as public health restrictions are cautiously eased, a question of life and liberty looms on the horizon: the COVID-19 vaccination.
Two recent crises have tested the mettle of our nation, revealing much about our citizens and government. The emergence of the coronavirus challenged our public health response. Experts recommended measures to slow transmission and avoid overwhelming our critical care capacity. Government officials deftly responded with restrictions that also disrupted economic and social life, including cherished liberties.
With months of many not going to work, to school, to play sports, to socialize, to visit family, to beaches or parks, or even to church, the fuse began to burn.
Pier Giorgio Frassati, “The Man of the Beatitudes,” was born in 1901 in Turin, Italy to an influential family. From his youth, the handsome and personable Frassati showed a devout nature, attending daily Mass, and joined the Marian Sodality and the Apostleship of Prayer.
As we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, we have much to think and pray about. There has been a lot of talk about the long-term effects of this crisis on our economy, society, and the Church.