Last week I had the pleasure of chatting with Father Frank Hoffman (a.k.a. “Father Rocky”) on the Relevant Radio network. We were talking about Church teaching on human sexuality, and he brought up a perspective I’d never considered before: how these teachings impact Catholic children. I’d done a lot of thinking and writing about how these ideas impact married couples, but I had never considered how it all extends to the children conceived in those marriages. The implications are fascinating.

Father Rocky shared the charming story of how his mother always said that “it takes three” to make a baby: a mother, a father, and God. In his child’s mind, he said, God was always part of the answer...READ MORE

As it has for many people, the news of Osama bin Laden’s death has stirred up a lot of old memories for me: Sitting in front of my television, wiping sleep out of my eyes, seeing a tower with smoke billowing out the side. Seeing the horror-stricken look on a woman’s face as she looked up from a New York street and cried, “Oh no, no! They’re jumping!” Looking at the block of windows where my husband used to work in the South Tower, watching them crumple when it fell, wondering if his old coworkers were okay.

At the time I was an atheist, so the terrible event, as sickening as it was, didn’t trigger a moral conundrum for me. Bad things happen, there’s not much you can do about it, and that’s...READ MORE

This week is Infertility Awareness Week. According to the CDC, over 2 million married women in America are currently experiencing infertility. This is a deeply painful experience for any couple, but faithful Catholics face unique challenges in this department—yet in all the discussions about Natural Family Planning and how and when to avoid pregnancy, the struggles of our brothers and sisters in Christ who are not able to achieve pregnancy often get overlooked. So this week I spent some time chatting with friends who are facing infertility, including a woman whom I’ll call “A.,” who chronicles her journey online at This Cross I Embrace. They shared some of the challenges unique to being...READ MORE

While I was reading news headlines this morning I was struck by how much of the evil that plagues the world is ultimately based on good intentions. Almost everyone has a natural desire to do good. But when we unmoor ourselves from the fullness of truth about what good really is, we can go down paths that seem good if looked at from one angle alone, but are actually quite evil. G.K. Chesterton wrote in Orthodoxy:

When a religious scheme is shattered ... it is not merely the vices that are let loose. The vices are, indeed, let loose, and they wander and do damage. But the virtues are let loose also; and the virtues wander more wildly, and the virtues do more terrible damage. The modern world...READ MORE

One of the advantages of coming to Christianity from lifelong atheism was that I got to read the New Testament like a suspense story. I knew from cultural osmosis that Jesus was born in a manger, that three wise men visited, and that he was eventually crucified, but I that was about it. So I was caught off guard when I learned the details of his conviction and execution. I was particularly shocked that many of the same people who shouted “Crucify him!” had joyously hailed his entrance into Jerusalem just a few days earlier. What could explain such a drastic change of heart?

There were undoubtedly many factors at play, and each person who joined in the shouting had his or her own reasons....READ MORE

A few weeks ago I was in Boston and heard a priest give a great speech about the power of confession. However, at one point he made a comment that confused me: He made a joking reference to the fact that priests don’t like to have too much time to catch up on reading while in the confessional, implying that there are periods when no one comes.

A priest reading in the confessional? I couldn’t imagine such a thing. The main problem I’ve seen priests have with this sacrament is crowd control. Our parish offers the sacrament of reconciliation six days a week, and I’ve never seen fewer than 25 people there, though double that number is not uncommon. And the Holy Week confessions are something...READ MORE