Random stuff I find interesting and you may not.
When she was writing in opposition to the Illinois assisted-suicide law that was just signed into law, the president of Illinois Right to Life wrote about a least-favorite topic of humans: death — and when preceded by suffering. (Even when death is sudden, I’ve yet to meet a human who has experienced no suffering.) Mary … Read more
She was a refugee from Somalia, where she was subjected to female genital mutilation. A Dutch filmmaker she worked with on a documentary was murdered, and she was warned she would be next. Ayaan Hirsi Ali has seen a bit of the world and the evil that men are capable of. Recently, amid headlines about … Read more
I never encountered Father William Holt, O.P. — Billy Holt, as some who loved him referred to him — without smiling. His joy was contagious. Even after a Confession, he would make me laugh. Maybe especially then. God’s mercy has a way of lifting our spirits and enabling us to remember things that are most … Read more
We need to be more human about it. Politics is the absolute worst place to talk about abortion. And yet that’s the primary arena in which we debate it. Life after Roe v. Wade means that just about every election is about abortion. And that hurts people — because many people have been involved in … Read more
Saint Francis would probably have made most of us uncomfortable. He’s perhaps both the most well-known and domesticated saint. His love for God and His creation has translated into making him a secular patron for pets. But his radical love of God and insistence on poverty sparked renewal in a way that comfort cannot. Father … Read more
Gavin Newsom took to Twitter in recent days with enthusiasm for his ad campaign in states that have post-Roe protections for the unborn. He tweeted at the governor of Mississippi: the people of Mississippi deserve to know they have access to the care you are refusing to provide. This will be launching in your state … Read more
But please consider what the use of abortion as backup birth control has done to our country. We are violent. We do not look at human beings as unique creations with purpose and a plan beyond anything we feel because of pressures all around us. It’s Pride month and the president of the United States … Read more
I’ve learned things in recent days about the pro-life movement that I had no idea about — because they are not true. I’ve read how we’re against abortion because we want more white babies for white couples to adopt. This doesn’t make any sense to anyone who has ever spent time at an abortion clinic, … Read more
For about a half second after the leak of the Supreme Court draft opinion in the Mississippi abortion case that may throw out Roe v. Wade, people who support Roe dropped the talking points and told the truth. Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, tweeted that if men could get pregnant, of course abortion would … Read more
One of the greatest friends to women died suddenly just after Easter Sunday. Vicki Thorn was the founder of Project Rachel, a post-abortion-healing ministry. “She was a voice for us when we were not able to speak yet,” Theresa Bonapartis, who had an abortion and now works with women who have had one. “She heard … Read more
For the relative few paying attention, it seems impossible to keep up with the violence against Christians in Nigeria. A priest is killed, a group is kidnapped. It’s a place of unrelenting terror. I’m glad we care to light buildings in the colors of the Ukrainian flag here in the U.S., but Ukrainians are far … Read more
If you don’t know about Jimmy Lai, you need to. He is one of the heroes of our time. His name should be known the same way we know the names Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. We know of John Paul II not just because he was pope. He knew that the … Read more
Each man should make a decision to have a patron Saint. While there are many more, I offer the names of ten saints with whom each and every Catholic man should become familiar. Next to each saint’s name is is listed the virtue with which he is associated, as well as the sin which opposes … Read more
If you are pregnant and in need, come to the Catholic Church! That was the message of Cardinal John O’Connor 30 years ago when he founded the Sisters of Life in New York. That community of Catholic women religious (“nuns”) was founded to do just that: protect and enhance the sanctity of human life. The … Read more
There is a popular image, very useful to abortion advocates, of anti-abortion protesters screaming insults in the faces of women going into the facilities we insist on calling “clinics” as if what went on in there were health care. I have spent some time on those sidewalks and I have never seen that or anything … Read more
“Love is love.” “Science is science.” Homes and offices in Washington, D.C., must display every politically correct lawn sign there is. Around the corner from St. Matthew’s Cathedral, a full-size mural painted on a building declares that not only do “Black Lives Matter,” but “Black Trans Lives Matter.” Who decides these things? According to the … Read more
Love. Love. Love. So needed and yet so stifled “A father and mother — by loving their children, by loving one another, they are loving God.” “The family that prays together, stays together. But more and more we see that families are not staying together, and this is the greatest destroyer of peace in the … Read more
Did you happen to see the Gail Collins op-ed in the New York Times this weekend? She painted a picture of the Little Sisters of the Poor Supreme Court case as being about Donald Trump. She presented a caricature of the Little Sisters of the Poor as easily used for ideological purposes. She continued the … Read more
When New York State a year ago expanded legal abortion, in a place that had already long been dubbed the abortion capital of the world, some women who had suffered abortions and come to a place of healing through the work of the Sisters of Life or others were astonished that the governor would celebrate … Read more
O Come, All Ye Faithful – Pentatonix Learning real freedom from some joyful, loving women “This time, with freedom!” Sisters Mary Karen and Mary Gabriel implored. It was a rare “off” day for Sisters of Life from different convents getting to be together at their motherhouse in the suburbs of New York. And … Read more