Sunday, Jan. 22, is the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Christian Unity

The week of prayer for Christian unity lasts from Jan. 18 to Jan. 25, the feast of the conversion of St. Paul. To find a great package of materials about the week of prayer for Christian unity, do an Internet search for: Vatican Christian Unity Week.

Conversion of St. Paul

Jan. 25 is a great feast day: the conversion of St. Paul. The Apostleship of Prayer created a nice YouTube presentation about this day during the Jubilee Year of St. Paul. To find it, search for: St. Paul conversion apostleship.

Today, share with your children the extraordinary manifestations of Christ you have either heard about or experienced. For...READ MORE

Tomorrow, members of my family and parish community and I will again take part in the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. Why do we go to all the trouble and expense to hire buses, book hotel rooms, bundle up and brave the freezing weather to march yet again in our nation’s capital?

Because we’re not only against abortion — we’re pro-life. There are many different forms of argument in the battle against abortion. There is the sentimental argument: “It is heartbreaking to think of all these dear, tiny babies being slaughtered in their mother’s wombs!” There is the utilitarian argument: “We’re committing societal suicide. Our birth rate is falling, and there will not be enough young...READ MORE

One area in which the young of our world seem to be actually teaching their elders is the respect for human life from conception to natural death. That will be on display most strikingly Jan. 23, as millions of young people turn out from coast to coast to march and pray on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

For years now, the organizers of the March for Life in Washington, D.C., have found that the numbers of youthful attendees have grown exponentially.

“I used to go to the March for Life with my parents in the 1980s,” Maria McFadden Maffucci, editor of Human Life Review, comments in a page-one article in this issue, “and there weren’t all these young people. When I was in college, I was...READ MORE

One of my favorite keepsakes is a little 4×6 framed photo of my Grandpop Lotter and me standing together on the boardwalk of Barnegat Light, N.J.  It was taken in 1978; I am 5 years old, bright-eyed, pasty white and scrawny, but “Pop-Pop” is tan, shirtless and muscular, and — as always — smiling with his eyes. Every time I look at that faded photo, I think of him and his kind, generous disposition, and the time he took me to see The Karate Kid.

The faded colors of the photo, as well as its grainy ’70s-era quality, always evokes strong emotions of awe and melancholy. When I hold that photo, I realize that the years go by, seasons of life come and go, but the only things that truly endure...READ MORE

One might have expected that, after losing the signature religious-liberty case of the past two decades earlier this month with arguments that his own Supreme Court appointees called “extreme,” President Barack Obama would have learned that conscience is something to be taken seriously.

Alas, no. Yesterday, in a statement from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the Obama administration announced it would not reconsider its “contraceptive mandate” — that is, the unprecedented command it issued last August forcing all private health plans to cover contraceptive and sterilization services, including drugs that cause early-term abortions.

From the outset, the...READ MORE

When a relatively unknown bishop of a backwater diocese in Pennsylvania was named archbishop of New York in 1984, he didn’t take long to get himself on the front page of The New York Times.

Even before he took up residence in the city, Archbishop-designate John Joseph O’Connor went on a television talk show and compared abortion to the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews. Father Charles Connor relates the story in John Cardinal O’Connor and the Culture of Life.

Two days later, The New York Times reacted with characteristic negativity. O’Connor was informed that his remarks carried highly offensive implications, and because of that, he might not be as ready for the media capital of the world as...READ MORE

Wealth Inequality “Somebody Else’s Problem” - Anthony S. Layne, Outside the Asylum

Neo-Catechumenal Way Liturgy Not Approved by Pope Benedict XVI - Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, What Does The Prayer Really Say?

The Twilight of Protestant America? - Joe Heschmeyer, Shameless Popery

Gingrich, Media Bias and the Mainstream Media as Morality Police - Donald R. McClarey, The American Catholic

Does Morality Inhibit Freedom? - Kathleen Curran Sweeney Homiletic & Pastoral Review

Liberty or License? - Anthony Esolen, The Catholic Thing

Purpose, Palliative Care, and Respect for Human Life - Adam J. McLeod, Public Discourse

Is Homosexuality Biologically Determined? - Dr. Jeff Mirus, Cthlc Culture/On the...READ MORE

WASHINGTON — As Nellie Gray puts the finishing touches on plans for this year’s March for Life, the founder of the nation’s premiere right-to-life event is thinking of an anniversary: This will be the 39th March for Life, but the day it is being held marks the first day of the 40th year of legal abortion in the United States.

The Supreme Court issued Roe v. Wade, the ruling that legalized abortion, on Jan. 22, 1973. The actual anniversary of the ruling falls on a Sunday, when Washington officials are less likely to be on hand to witness or participate in the March for Life, so the march will take place the following day, a Monday, Jan. 23.

“We must use this time together for this march to...READ MORE