Bart Stupak faced the defining moment of his career last weekend and, fair or not, he defined himself by it. He had the chance to be a profile in political courage. But he is now the pro-lifer who caved for the paltriest of political cover at the crucial hour.

He voted for a change in the law of our land such that our tax dollars will fund abortion, and got for his betrayal an “executive order,” which is not and will never have the same weight as the law of the land.

Two things this teaches us right away:

1. Sister Carol Keehan was wrong. The sister who earned $856,093 last year as the head of a trade association of hospital conglomerates argued that the bishops were wrong and that the...READ MORE

If you’re a Catholic and you believe the Catechism implicitly then you believe that health care is a right and you’re inclined to support a bill that expands access to health care. You are inclined to hate the skyrocketing costs fueled by lawsuits. You see the scandal of the uninsured as one of the great injustices of our day. It makes you angry that health problems lock people into jobs that aren’t otherwise in their interest.

You have practically memorized Catechism No. 2211: “The political community has a duty to honor the family, to assist it, and to ensure especially, in keeping with the country’s institutions, the right to medical care, assistance for the aged, and family...READ MORE

In honor of Sunday, here are my own coping strategies for giving up Facebook in Lent.

10. Call friends at random and say: “Tom is just hanging out after an exhausting day. Whew! Good to be home! ;-)”

9. (Add, to the friend: “I just winked but you can’t see it because this isn’t Facebook.”)

8. Read a book until I get frustrated by the long paragraphs.

7. Hand out pictures of my kids to strangers.

6. Ask April (my wife): “Is today considered part of Lent?”

5. Update the inappropriate, personally compromising material on my MySpace page.

4. Poke people.

3. Tell people at work: “I friend you. Do you accept?”

2. Talk to my wife and kids until I get frustrated...READ MORE

I’m going to do my best to defend the Extraordinary Form after the onslaught by John Zmirak, but he’s made it hard. I think introducing the world to two of my Extraordinary Form friends will help.

Yes, that’s right, for those who have followed this (for those who haven’t, you might want to check out some of the other fine posts on this site instead). I’m not going to defend the Novus Ordo against him. I’m going to defend the Extraordinary Form to my aghast Novus Ordo friends who have read John Zmirak’s two columns and wonder at the vitriol of it all.

My friend John Zmirak wrote an interesting column Feb. 17 that compared the form of a Mass to a flag and defended his...READ MORE

There are important matters to discuss, but I have no time at the moment! So I discuss this important matter instead ... here are my Top 10 Reasons to for my family of 10 (10 including Mom and Dad).

10. Even when four kids are away, you still have four kids who aren’t.

9. They will cure your obsessive tidiness.

8. On the one hand, there’s the constant wailing and weeping. On the other, there’s the generous per-child federal tax credit.

7. When people say, “Are they all yours?” You can answer, “They belong to the wind, the stars and the burbling brook, and I belong to the moon.” Then watch the look they give you.

6. Like Niagara Falls, the grocery bills are always...READ MORE

My friend and former colleague, John Zmirak — the guy who friends of mine call their favorite writer, even now that I’m eligible for the honor — has written an an explosive article (at the excellent Inside Catholic) about the Mass. 

He’s an Extraordinary Form guy — a 1962 Missal guy, a Tridentine Mass guy. He sets out to address the question he has heard: “Why do you people care so much about externals?” His piece is hilarious, copiously linked to supporting material, clever, and wrong.

Well, ultimately wrong. Three things I know:

1. I know that the Extraordinary Form Mass has been a giant blessing for the Church before the Council and continues to be for many people...READ MORE

You can learn quite a bit about those who consider themselves leaders in the liberal movement by reading The Huffington Post. Now, as of a few weeks ago, you can learn what they think about religion, too.

I look at the Huffington Post to see today what many in the media will be talking about tomorrow. The news aggregator and blog website was founded by former conservative Arianna Huffington, wife of former GOP Senate candidate Michael Huffington. It collects bloggers of every description, from Robert Rubin to Bianca Jagger.  Often, the site anticipate trends, like the “small bank” movement that got some play nationally. Often, the site breaks news stories first.

At its best, the site...READ MORE

The President tried to apply his “beer summit” approach to health care and it very well may have backfired. The difference: This time, the participants were miked.

The beer summit was one of the most successful— indeed, one of the only successful — P.R. efforts of the Obama administration thus far. It was, maybe, too successful.  Successes become a paradigm that we apply to situations that don’t match.

Remember the beer summit? Public outrage boiled for a week after Obama said on national TV that police in Cambridge, Mass., “acted stupidly” when they arrested a black professor, implying a racist motive. As details of the incident became clearer, the police were revealed to...READ MORE