David Poecking

    [This reflection was written and filed in the interregnum between Pope Francis’s death and Pope Leo XIV’s election.] ___________________________________________________________________________________   It has long been observed that the Church is not a museum... Read More →

  “Love them both”—I have long appreciated the way this pro-life slogan acknowledges the sincerity in pro-choice expressions of concern for women’s welfare while inviting everyone to consider the humanity of the child as a subject of our love. When I input the slogan, my... Read More →

    Persuasive people are logical, passionate—and credible. And undergirding credibility is the virtue of integrity. If prolifers want to win people over to the pro-life cause, we should be in the habit of building and repairing our own integrity. A lack of integrity... Read More →

  On the Sunday before Christmas, many Christians will hear an excerpt from the “Visitation” of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-56). The story climbs the heights of pro-life philosophy, so I quote a portion here: Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste... Read More →

    The editors at Human Life Review asked me to prepare this entry for November 4, the day prior to the election. In addition to affecting the country at all levels, federal, state, and local, our elections attract the attention of nations around the world, inasmuch as... Read More →

    I wish to remind Christians that acknowledging the humanity of the unborn child is at the heart of what it means to follow Jesus. In the Roman Lectionary for Sunday, September 22, 2024, we encounter what could serve as the signature pro-life passage of the New... Read More →

    All too often, prolifers have reason to feel as if our efforts have been futile. With Dobbs v. Jackson, we took one step out of the pro-choice hole our country has dug for itself, but since then it seems we’ve slipped three steps back. We’re barely two years past... Read More →

    In recent years, I’ve become fascinated with the use of “extravagance” as an expression of Christian spirituality. While the word has negative connotations of waste or indulgence, Jesus often invokes fiscal extravagance positively: the forgiveness of great debts,... Read More →

    “It is not enough that I succeed; everyone else must fail.” Google attributes this quote to a Mongol conqueror of the 12th and 13th centuries, though how Google would know baffles me: I can’t find one blog or social media post signed Genghis Khan. Seriously, the... Read More →

  When Jesus says at his death, “It is finished” (also translated “It is accomplished”), he refers not only to his earthly ministry, but to the purpose for which man and woman were created: to love God and neighbor wholeheartedly for as long as we live. With Jesus’ victory... Read More →