After yesterday’s opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, many in the media are taking a look back at the presidency of George W. Bush after a little time to put it in perspective, and the results do a Catholic heart good: Former fierce critics are acknowledging the kindness and accomplishments of the man.

When millions of Catholics see Bush standing in between Presidents Clinton and Obama in those pictures, surely we remember him more fondly than ever.

Because of the abortion extremism of Bill Clinton, pro-life Catholics were rooting for Bush to win. When he did, pro-lifers cheered. When Gore challenged the win, pro-lifers took action.

If you were on faithful...READ MORE

Friday starts to work on you when you are a child.

You wake up, and it’s Friday. You don’t understand why adults say, "TGIF." For a child, a Friday is painful, because it is almost, but not yet, Saturday.

Your lunch bag has a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich in it. You like peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches better, but sometimes you wish it was ham when it’s Friday.

After school comes dinner: fish sticks and rice, with ketchup. You have taught yourself to tolerate and then to like ketchup-y rice. But why is it that fish sticks are always either too burnt or too mushy?

In Lent, Stations of the Cross comes at the worst possible time — in the early evening. You don’t understand why...READ MORE

There are two major threats to Christmas each year: the marketplace and the state.

The marketplace is a threat because it takes everything beautiful, banalizes it, mass produces it and puts a price tag on it. It changes the lovely tradition of gift-giving from a participation in the incarnational generosity of God into a materialistic feeding frenzy.

Today’s ubiquitous state is a threat because Caesar will not tolerate rival gods. As the state gets bigger, it gets more aggressive in its secularizing, pulling society’s institutions into its cult, insisting there is no other view but the state’s that needs be taken seriously, consequently banning Christmas in schools, libraries,...READ MORE

It’s time for Catholics to lead true Democrats to start their own party.

Catholic Democrats are in a terrible quandary. They vehemently disagree with the Republicans’ approach to policy, so they won’t vote for them.

And since the Democratic Party’s leaders stand against religious liberty and for taxpayer-funded abortion, as well as support for stripping marriage of its meaning and endless war, they morally can’t vote for many Democrats either.

The only viable option for a traditional Democrat is to not vote at all.

It’s a terrible travesty that this has come to pass. It is crucially important that we have at least two morally viable parties proposing solutions to America’s...READ MORE

April, 20 years ago on my last night as a single man, I lay in bed staring at the ceiling unable to sleep in the middle of the night. I was afraid you were making a huge mistake by marrying me — one for which I was largely to blame.

You were going to give me everything you had, including your future. You were going to say “Whatever happens to you, I’m going to be involved.” You were going to take all your chips, bet them on “Tom Hoopes,” roll the dice, and live with the consequences.

It seemed like a monumentally stupid thing for you to do.

I wrote a prayer that night and showed you the next morning. We were getting married on the feast of the Assumption, a day that celebrates how...READ MORE