As the World Turned Over: JFK and the ’60s

  We savvy New York City first graders knew something was up. Sister Elaine, the fun nun, looked worried, and her mouth, usually wide in smile, was taut. We sensed a big, sore secret inside that she couldn’t let out, as much as she wanted to tell us. It was well after lunch,...
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Who Wants to Be a Martyr?

  “I am God’s wheat, and I shall be ground by the teeth of beasts, that I may become the pure bread of Christ.” Today, Oct. 17, the Church remembers a first-century bishop who set a standard for Christian courage in the face of death. St. Ignatius of Antioch, friend of St....
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The Empty Nest

  Grief and relief. Depression and elation. These are some of the back-and-forth feelings I’ve been experiencing since my wife and I dropped off our younger son at college last month. We are now empty nesters—at least until Thanksgiving. It’s been a long time sin...
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A Republic to Keep

  Now that it’s over, I can ask, “How was your July?” I have a certain affection for the month due to the fireworks at the beginning and my birthday near the end. But this one lacked the usual oomph! A pervasive ennui hung in the air along with the miasmic humidity that...
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A Father’s Reflection

  When my two sons were learning their catechism, I would joke that the most important of the Ten Commandments was the fourth: Honor thy father and thy mother. Some 20 years later, as I enter the Medicare phase of life, I recite for them (more seriously) the sage words of...
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It’s Abortion, Stupid!

  The turning point came when Pennsylvania Governor Bob Casey was denied a chance to speak at the 1992 Democratic National Convention in New York. Ordinarily, the ranking elected Democrat from such a large and important state would be a natural choice to address the...
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Marching in Connecticut

  In deep blue Connecticut, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by some 20 percentage points, a sprig of hope surfaced on an early spring day as the 2nd annual state March for Life got under way at the Capitol building in Hartford. Featuring a succession of truly inspiring...
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Always a Helper

  It had never been done before in New York. A Catholic bishop of one of America’s largest dioceses processed through the streets, surrounded by a thousand or more of the faithful, praying the rosary over a loudspeaker as he headed for an abortion clinic on a mid-June...
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Do Chatbots Have Souls?

  Don’t worry. I don’t intend to give examples of the “amazing” artificially generated output of ChatGPT, a chatbot introduced last fall by OpenAI. With true Boomer perspective, and as one who wrote his first simple computer program using Basic language back in the dark age...
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Let’s March with Renewed Life

    This is not the time to stop marching. Though Roe has been overturned, abortion on demand is still the law in many states, and in recent votes even so-called pro-life states have expressed surprising support for pro-abortion legislation and some confusion over bills...
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