Protecting the Weak from the Strong

    In the natural world stronger animals defeat and often eat weaker ones. In oceans and rivers, on mountains and hills, across deserts and plains, throughout the air and sky—this deadly story plays out again and again with different actors. The dead rabbit on the suburban...
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 “Abortion Care”

    Here is a short and simple exercise that could be done by anyone at just about any time: Take something written in support of abortion and strip it of euphemism. For example, here is the opening paragraph of an op-ed on cnn.com by abortionist Amna Dermish: I am an...
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Thy Will Be Done

  The expression “he has the patience of a saint” is fitting praise for someone who puts up with difficulty, displaying noteworthy calm and grace when most of us succumb to exasperation and anger. In the way they live their lives, saintly people teach us that it is possible...
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Mary’s Month

    A cartoon by Erika Sjule in the New Yorker magazine of May 8, 2023, shows a man and woman sitting at a table and the man declaiming, “If only every summer were autumn, and every autumn spring, and every late spring summer, and every winter only the holiday season,...
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Pro-life Priests

    I’ve always admired the title of the organization “Priests for Life”—let’s not go into the controversies or scandals—as an ingenious name because it is a fundamentally priestly role to be for life. And what I mean by a “priestly” role here is not specifically...
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Children Are Not the Future (They Are the Present)

  “We need to take care of the children; after all, they are the future.” Lots of people say this—you may have said it yourself. It’s a common sentiment in the church, I’ve found. When talking about Sunday school or catechism (or whatever a particular church calls it),...
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Leadership for Life

    Whatever a community requires, but lacks, it discusses and seeks. Consider, for example, leadership. Good leadership is essential for all communities—large and small, nations and cities, corporations and sports teams, congregations and families—to flourish in their...
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The Poor and the Barren

  Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. He gives the barren woman a home,...
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Easter Triumph, Easter Joy!

  At the Lamb’s high feast we sing, praise to our victorious King, Who has washed us in the tide flowing from His piercèd side. Easter triumph, Easter joy! This alone can sin destroy; From sin’s power, Lord, set us free, newborn souls in You to be.  The beautiful...
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The Passion of Christ and the Pandemic

    In his account of the first Good Friday, St. Matthew tells us that “from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour.” (Mt. 27:45) And in his Life of Christ, Bishop Sheen says that the last judgment was prefigured on Calvary. The darkness can...
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