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(This first appeared on our site on January 23, 2017. The visual is an original Nick Downes cartoon created for  Hentoff’s Great Defender of Life Award, in 2005) He shocked his friends, and lost a good many of them. He said something no one in his circles would say. In... Read More →

I don’t like it when the Church moves feast days. Today, January 6, is the feast of the Epiphany—even though the Church celebrated it last Sunday. January 6 is special in my family of origin because it’s the birthday of my parents’ first born, Robert—who died, 27 years ago, at... Read More →

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (John 3:17).  During Christmas week the church commemorates the Feast of the Holy Innocents, honoring the infant victims of Herod’s effort to wipe out the... Read More →

If the United States Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade next June (in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization), violent protests across the nation could very well surpass those that followed the May 25, 2020, killing of George Floyd. It is also likely that the fanatical... Read More →

  In light of the very sad news that the FDA has permanently lifted restrictions on “abortion pills by mail,”  I am sharing again a blog first published on our site in January, 2019.  Joe Bissonnette’s blog rightly focuses on the developing baby. But this... Read More →

In the Roman liturgical calendar, this is Gaudete Sunday, “Rejoice Sunday,” a break in the (formerly) stark fasting and penance of the Advent season in favor of a little anticipatory celebration of Christmas. If, like members of monastic orders, you’ve been steeped in self-denial... Read More →

Today is the Catholic feast of the Immaculate Conception. It is often misunderstood: many think it refers to the conception of Jesus and the Virgin birth. But it is Mary’s conception in the womb of her mother we celebrate. Mary’s conception was immaculate because God ordained... Read More →

Advent is a time of expectation and preparation for the Christmas celebration of Christ’s first coming into our world. It is also a time to meditate upon the prospect of his second coming at the end of time. “No one knows the day or hour” (Mt. 26:34) when the Lord will return to... Read More →

(Reprinted with permission from Stepping out of the Boat, Ed Mechmann’s public policy blog, December 2, 2021. Image thanks to Feminists Choosing Life of New York.) Ed Mechmann is a life-long New Yorker, a graduate of Columbia College and Harvard Law School, and a former... Read More →

Every day, the beneficence and wisdom of our public “expert” class look less beneficent, and certainly less wise. There’s Covid; there’s public schooling and job opportunity; there’s race relations; there’s government spending. To which well-known topics, let’s join abortion and... Read More →