Maria McFadden Maffucci

For those of us who really love summer (I actually thrive in heat and humidity!), the sunny yet cooler days at the end of August are bittersweet. This is especially true for me, as it is a reminder of loss. It has been eight years since my mother died, of cancer, on August 30,... Read More →

Yes, it’s natural to fear intense suffering, and to want control over one’s life. But what we ought to fear is giving doctors — or the state, or anyone! — the legal power to kill us. Read Newsmax: There Are Hidden Threats to All Lives in Assisted Suicide Laws | Newsmax.com Read More →

  The bottom line is that life includes suffering, and all parents will suffer because of their children, to one degree or another. No one escapes that, it’s the flip side of the great love and joy parenthood brings. George and Barbara Bush were spared foreknowledge ... Read More →

Hollywood stars Sarah Silverman, Michelle Wolf, Margaret Cho, and Amy Schumer have become rich and famous for their over-the-top, profane “comedy.” Since they gravitate toward anything perverse, to say their performances are “cringe-worthy” is being kind. This certainly best... Read More →

  Chuck Donovan, President of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, reminded guests gathered at a special luncheon in Manhattan that last week marked the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the first pro-life pregnancy center in North America—Birthright in Toronto, Ontario.... Read More →

  While we mourn the loss of Moy Moy, the dear daughter of our great friend and contributor, Jo McGowan Chopra, we also celebrate her life. Moy Moy was adopted as a tiny, premature baby by Jo and her husband Ravi, who had two biological children at home. She wrote about the... Read More →

On June 9th, at the end of the week in which both designer Kate Spade and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain died by suicide, I wrote a Facebook post: It’s been an emotionally wrenching week in many ways. As a woman who struggles with anxiety, phobias, and once (blessedly only once... Read More →

On the morning of March 20, in freezing rain, opposing groups of protestors held competing rallies at the steps of the Supreme Court to mark the day oral arguments would be heard in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) v. Becerra, a free-speech case involving... Read More →

  In The Story of a Soul, St. Thérèse of Lisieux wrote that God  “set before me a book of nature; I understood that all the flowers He has created are beautiful, how the splendour of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not take away the perfume of the little violet or... Read More →

The story of an abortion survivor is one “that could not be heard, and therefore must not be told.” This was the lesson learned by then-college freshman Melissa Ohden who, in a discussion with new friends about “every kind of abuse, abandonment and human heartache,” found that... Read More →