A Pastor’s Reflections was created in 2015 by Reverend W. Ross Blackburn, Rector of Christ the King, an Anglican Church in Boone, North Carolina, and longtime contributor to the Human Life Review. Now the feature, renamed Pastoral Reflections, will carry contributions from a variety of clerics and religious who, along with Rev. Blackburn, will meditate on abortion and other grave moral transgressions that not only hurt individuals but deform the culture and threaten religious liberty.

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The Charity of Speaking Truth against Relativism

  Pope Leo XIV addressed the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See on January 9th. He spoke forcefully about the need to defend the truth against manipulations which make language not a means of honestly engaging with our fellow man,...
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Holding Christmas Every Day

  Early in December of 2025, our youngest son and his wife welcomed their newborn son into their arms. Her pregnancy had been difficult. “How difficult?,” you ask. While carrying the baby, she passed kidney stones on multipl...
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Film Life

  Over the past few years, I have occasionally written in this space about films in which we see the persistence of pro-life concerns. These are worth noting, for the film industry, like most of our high culture, subsists within a largely...
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The Cost of Independence: A Christmas Meditation

    [This text has been slightly adapted from Rev. Blackburn’s Pastoral Reflections meditation published Dec. 22, 2017.]   And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger (Luke 2:12)....
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All Under Judgment; All Needing Mercy

  The readings for the third Sunday of Advent in the Catholic lectionary include this passage from the Letter of James: “Do not complain, brothers and sisters, about one another, that you may not be judged. Behold, the Judge is standing before...
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Prolife Karma & Grace

  Students of religion often characterize the Hindu principle of karma and the Christian principle of grace as opposites, but this is not strictly the case. And both can serve as compatible motivations for the pro-life cause. Consider...
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