Every time I leave the house, I have to fight my way through hordes of adoring fans waving their laptops at me. They do this because there’s nothing paper to autograph, because, as several of my sisters in Christ have recently pointed out in an effort to promote more charitable discourse, I haven’t written a book yet. All’s I do is blog, blog, blog, which is no more difficult than taking a seat on the keyboard and bouncing a few times. Blog, blog, blog! Here I go again.

Some people (coughmarksheacough) make this look easy. He can blog with his left hand while writing a book with his right. Heck, sometimes he writes one book with each hand and just lets his beard do the blogging. I may be...READ MORE

How many times have you heard this argument: “Oh, so you don’t like abortion, huh? Well, are you going to take care of all those children? Who’s going to take care of all those unwanted children, huh? It’s all very well and good to have high principles and ideals, but it comes down to logistics. Who’s going to take care of all those children?”

We all know the answer to that. The Catholic Church is going to take care of all those children. Or it’s going to try, anyway, if the state will let them.

Catholic Charities will not send children to live in foster or adoptive homes of unmarried cohabiting couples, including gay couples—so in May, the state of Illinois decided to end its contract...READ MORE

When my oldest daughter was very young, she was recounting the story of Eden and the Fall. When she came to God’s instructions, she told it this way: “... Then God said to Adam and Eve, ‘Stay here, be good, and I’ll be RIGHT BACK.’”

Okay, so it was more involved than that. But she had clearly picked up on the parent-child relationship between God and His creatures—and had noticed that, after all, what he was asking from them was really pretty simple.

It’s nice when kids soak up their catechism and translate it into their own language. But sometimes you have to do the simplifying for them. For instance, when we first start talking about being made in God’s image, the subject of free will...READ MORE

No such thing.

In this topsy turvy world in which we live, there are so few things of which we can be sure.  But there is one truth which endures:  if someone tells you, “The Vatican says,” then it probably doesn’t.  And what do they mean, “The Vatican,” anyway?  And what do they mean, “says?”

The phrase “the Vatican says” doesn’t really mean anything, but it’s used all the time, in two main ways.

First is when the mainstream media latches onto a headline that’s too juicy to verify.  The typical secular reporter knows as much about the teaching of the Catholic Church as I know about the inner workings of the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator, and generally their intention is to...READ MORE

Twenty years ago, new consumer technology was usually easy to understand., like:  Oh, it’s a phone without wires, so you can talk and walk around. Oh, it’s a Datasette for your VIC-20, so you can store Q*bert  for later enjoyment while playing Radar Rat Race.  Oh, it’s a crimper, so your hair will look crimpy. 

Simple, right?  Maybe they weren’t all great products, but they were pretty much self-explanatory.  Even if you didn’t want one yourself, you could at least imagine someone who might.

Nowadays, when I see an ad for something new, I often have no idea what it is.  So my husband explains what it does. Then comes the whole new question:  why would anyone want such a thing?  It’s not...READ MORE

Got kids?  Got summer?  Got no do-re-mi?  As it happens, I’m an expert in all three of these conditions.  So, as the weeks of vacation spread out before us and I contemplate how much longer I can bear to listen to my sons doing what they think is an appropriate way to spend the day, I offer up this list of actual doable activities for the broke, low-energy parent with a houseful of restless kids of various ages.

1.  Mud painting.  I’m probably revealing too much about my standard of living here, but I just don’t care when my kids mix big batches of mud in the driveway and smear it on the van and the shed.  Then they take the hose and wash it all off.  Then they get it all muddy again. ...READ MORE

Corita brought up an interesting idea:  we can behave immodestly while discussing modesty.  I realize that I’m pretty much doing this right now by writing my third straight post about the topic, so—I don’t know, pray for me.  (I’m going to be out of town all day anyway, so if the comment box gets all cluttered up with rabbits and pant suits and whatnot like it did on Thursday, don’t blame me).

Corita said:

I am distressed at least a little by the way that these modesty discussions inevitably draw so much description of the female body, clothed or barely-clothed.
. . . I am totally with you on pants, and modesty being situational.  Is there, though, a limit to how to discuss modesty?  A...READ MORE

Well, that was the most disappointingly reasonable and benign modesty debate I’ve ever seen.  I guess it’s allergy season, and everyone is just too dopey to care.  One point was worth drawing out, though.  One commenter asked why the boys in the article about track uniforms

thought it was appropriate to be ogling and teasing the girl in the first place? Why is it always on the girls and women to cover up, not on the boys and men to behave themselves and act like gentlemen?

She clarified:

I’m the mother of three (soon to be four) boys, and I hope to teach them that no matter WHAT a woman is wearing, it is rude and crass to make comments about her body and make her feel uncomfortable.