Epiphany 2022

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...
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Herod Revisited

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...
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Toughen Up

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...
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Death by Mail: Chemical Abortions Require a New Pro-Life Approach

  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...
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Rejoice!

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...
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Mary Immaculate

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...
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Advent Courage and Confidence

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...
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Thoughts on the Dobbs Oral Arguments

(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...
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Dobbs v. Jackson: Folly—and Furor

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...
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Grieving With Hope

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. (1...
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