Maria McFadden Maffucci

The Matter of Life is what the pro-life movement needs: an intelligent, eminently reasonable and persuasive look at what is really involved in the matter of abortion.  Featuring activists who break the sterotypes and pro-life leaders who exude compassion and common sense,  it... Read More →

The world has just lost a prolife hero: Vicki Thorn, founder of Project Rachel, died suddenly, on April 20, at 72 years old. Although I did not know Mrs. Thorn personally, I had massive admiration for her, ever since I wrote about the ministry she founded, Project Rachel,  for... Read More →

Today is the  17th anniversary of the murder of Terri Schiavo. Terri endured a 14-day, agonizing death when the court ordered that her feeding tube be removed, and forbid any hydration. Terri was not terminally ill–or even critically–ill; she was disabled due to a... Read More →

Just out in our new issue, William Doino Jr’s engaging portrait of Gloria Purvis, who, he writes, is: one of the best-known lay Catholic evangelists in America. Although she never set out to become one, her resounding affirmation of Catholic teaching, especially its defense of... Read More →

THE FAMILY ROE: AN AMERICAN STORY Joshua Prager (W.W. Norton and Company, 2021, hardcover, 655 pages, $35) Reviewed by Maria McFadden Maffucci _______________________________________________ Norma McCorvey, the “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade, died in 2017 at the age of 69. In 2020,... 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 →

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 →

We were surprised to see a New York Times headline this week:  His Reasons for Opposing Trump Were Biblical. Now a Top Christian Editor Is Out. A clash over culture and politics comes to World, a groundbreaking journalistic that covers evangelical Christians. Marvin Olasky, our... Read More →

You may have seen or read about the recent Saturday Night Live Weekend Update skit ridiculing the Texas Heartbeat Act. Longtime cast member Cecily Strong appeared as “Goober the Clown” to talk about the “clown abortion” she had when she was 23 years old, saying: “It’s a rough... Read More →

Pro-life feminist scholar Erika Bachiochi has written a brilliant new book, The Rights of Woman: Reclaiming a Lost Vision. In it, she sheds new light on the eminently deserving but under-celebrated thinker, the English philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, whose 1792 book A... Read More →