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  What’s in a name? I was enjoying a nature show on television when the narrator said something that made me sit up, squint, grab the kindle I keep next to my easy chair, and go for Google. With orangutans swinging wildly through the branches, the speaker blithely informed... Read More →

  Long before Pope Leo XIV spoke of the mixed blessings of artificial intelligence and was named by Time a Top 100 figure on the hot topic, the Catholic Church had expounded on another AI, i.e., artificial insemination. The two AIs have more in common than might seem at... Read More →

  A speaker from Harvard, whose name I have long forgotten, recited to us the only poem he ever penned. The last two lines of his sole poetic effort linger in my memory: “It’s just the reverse of what Darwin said/We are going back to the quadruped.” The lines are comical, but... Read More →

  In the summer of 2021, a 108-page report entitled “Tip of the Iceberg: Religious Extremist Funders Against Human Rights for Sexuality and Reproductive Health in Europe, 2009-2018” was published in Brussels. It was produced by the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and... Read More →

  I often commute to Tokyo for work. There are many train lines in Japan, and in the capital, they weave and tangle like cat’s-cradle strings. Some evenings, on the long ride home, my train ends up running parallel for a few moments with some other train on some other track... Read More →

  Last week,  the New York Post reported that an Illinois man had been charged with intentionally drugging his pregnant girlfriend with chemical abortion drugs, which resulted in the loss of her 7-week-old preborn baby. The perpetrator, Emerson Evans, has since been charged... Read More →

  It was early last March, the day after my Aunt Marie’s funeral. My cousin Amy and I were returning to our hotel after spending a few hours clearing out her mom’s apartment at the assisted living facility where she had lived. It’s always a big job, and Amy had set a modest... Read More →

  A long time ago, when I attended community college, I’d show up for classes I liked and either drop or take “incompletes” for those I didn’t. Later, I drifted over to State U, where, bolstered by stupidity and pride, I tried to fashion a degree program unaligned with... Read More →

  I have the privilege of composing this reflection while residing in Tanzania. A colleague and I are working on a series of projects for the Archdiocese of Mwanza, which is on the shore of Lake Victoria, in the north-central part of the country. Like many Africans,... Read More →

  When Jesus, asked about inheriting eternal life, affirmed the need for the Great Commandment to love God before all things and your neighbor as yourself, the expert in Jewish law (“wishing to justify himself”) then asked, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:25-29). Jesus... Read More →