One of the more unhinged criticisms of Sarah Palin flirts with accusing her of anti-Catholicism. “Is Sarah Palin anti-Catholic after attacks on JFK, Nancy Pelosi’s religious beliefs?” a writer for the Irish Voice asked by way of critiquing Palin’s new book, America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag.

Instead of grief, the former vice-presidential nominee and governor of Alaska deserves some credit for legitimately taking on a sacred cow of American civil religious history: John F. Kennedy speaking to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on Sept. 12, 1960.

“In the best American tradition, he nobly defended religious tolerance and condemned official governmental...READ MORE

DUBLIN — A turnout of 250 or so men of all ages was considered a good start for Ireland’s first Catholic men’s conference, held Nov. 21 in Dublin.

There is a common popular misconception here that prayer is only for women and that attendance patterns at many churches prove it. This conference has turned that idea on its head.

“In the midst of all the situations that have taken place in the past two years in Ireland, one of the key elements in the heart of the Church has been How do we reach men?” Tim Nicholls, one of the organizers, said. “At the moment, men are bleeding out of the Church. So, we’re making a small start to begin to turn the tide.”

Ireland recently saw the faith of many...READ MORE

A few weeks ago, I reviewed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 from the perspective of someone who hadn’t read the book and found the film confusing. A few days ago I reviewed The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader as a lover of the book who not only grew up with it but has read it aloud countless times to my children.

Despite my very different experiences of these two films and my very different relationships with their source material, my guiding principle in both cases is the same:

The filmmakers’ job is to make a good film that can be judged on its own. The book may be a useful point of comparison, but is not the standard by which the film is judged....READ MORE

Is it possible that the makers of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader have made the best film in the series to date while charting a course even further from the book? I think it is. Perhaps it’s even because the film diverges from the book to the extent that it does that I’m able to regard the film more for what it is than for what it isn’t.

Not that incoming director Michael Apted (replacing Andrew Adamson) and his screenwriters have jettisoned the book. There is still a magical painting that transports Edmund, Lucy and their record stinker cousin, Eustace Clarence Scrubb, into the Narnian world. There is still a ship called the Dawn Treader commanded by their friend King Caspian of Narnia,...READ MORE

The Vatican and the Palestine Liberation Organization have resumed diplomatic talks and agreed to establish a working group dedicated to drafting a comprehensive agreement between the two parties.

The talks are aimed at establishing “a comprehensive international agreement regulating and promoting the presence and activities of the Catholic Church in the Palestinian territories, so strengthening the special relations between the Holy See and the PLO,” said a joint statement released by the Vatican Dec. 9.

The statement was issued at the end of initial talks, which were held Dec. 7 “in a cordial atmosphere” at the headquarters of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of...READ MORE

SAN FRANCISCO — A case that could become the Roe v. Wade of marriage marched steadily along its course this week toward the U.S. Supreme Court.

In Monday’s televised proceedings before the U.S. 9th District Court of Appeals in San Francisco, marriage defense lawyers fought valiantly in their attempt to save the 2008 ballot-box initiative that defined marriage in California as the union between one man and one woman.

Challenged in court by two same-sex couples, the initiative known as Prop. 8 was struck down in August by Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker. 

Walker held that the time when “the genders” were seen as having distinct roles in marriage “has passed.”

Theodore Olson and...READ MORE

The Catholic Church in the United States has extra reason to celebrate on this particular December 8 feast of the Immaculate Conception.

After a special morning Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help at Champion, Wis., Bishop David Ricken concluded two years of investigation by officially approving the authenticity of the Marian apparitions that took place on this site in 1859.

As Bishop of Green Bay, his official decree and proclamation makes Our Lady of Good Help the very first and the only site in the United States of an approved apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Citing in his decree the continuous streams of faithful who have come to the shrine for over 150 years to pray...READ MORE

OMAHA, Neb. — Late-term abortionist Dr. LeRoy Carhart has been forced by Nebraska’s tough new anti-fetal pain law to expand his practice to three less restrictive states.

But in a kind of reverse-domino effect, pro-life activists in Indiana and Iowa are already working with supportive legislators to enact l¬aws as tough as Nebraska’s Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.

Both state and national pro-abortion groups remain tight-lipped on the expansion. Six such groups contacted repeatedly over several days would not comment on Carhart’s announced move.

Iowa Right to Life’s executive director, Jennifer Bowen, thinks the pro-abortion groups do not see Carhart as their best advocate in...READ MORE