When the Pope Meets The President

BY PAUL KENGOR

April 13-19, 2008 Issue

On April 16, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI will mark his 81st birthday with, among other things, a visit to the White House — only the second such visit by a pope in American history.

There, he will sit down with President George W. Bush, who will have welcomed him the day before at Andrews Air Force... READ MORE

Christ, Not Rules

BY Mark Shea

April 13-19, 2008 Issue

If you consult the mainstream media, you’d swear that all Benedict (aka “God’s Rottweiler/The Enforcer/Former Hitler Youth”) did is concoct new rules and then “lash out” or “crack down” on people for not keeping them.

Given this view of the faith, discussions in the press... READ MORE

The Soul of the Democratic Party Is Still Secular

BY Mark Stricherz

April 6-12, 2008 Issue

Democrats’ religious outreach is only skin-deep. Are Democrats reaching out to religious voters?

Party officials recruited pro-life candidates to run for Congress in 2006, most of whom won their elections.

Hillary Clinton appointed an outreach group to Catholics. Barack Obama suggested that he... READ MORE

Myth 2: Religion Does More Harm Than Good

BY FATHER THOMAS WILLIAMS, LC

A Theologian Answers the Atheists

April 6-12, 2008 Issue

In their attacks on God and religion, the neo-atheist authors such as Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris are especially vehement in their accusations concerning the effects of religion on the public order.

The atheists charge that religion is a net evil for civilization, and... READ MORE

Blaine On Trial

BY Gerald J. Russello

April 6-12, 2008 Issue

Ever hear of the Blaine amendment? It’s sort of obscure, but it remains one of the last remnants of bigotry in the statute books. Some court cases are finally beginning to tackle this shameful legacy.

First, a little history: James G. Blaine (1830-1893) was a Republican congressman from Maine.... READ MORE

The Great Epidemic: Divine Mercy Is the Cure

BY Robert R. Allard

March 30-April 5, 2008 Issue

Pope John Paul II often reminded us of the loss of a sense of sin and the need for a return to the practice of frequent confession.

The moral relativism that is causing much of this loss of a sense of sin in our world has also been characterized by our current Pope, Benedict XVI, as perhaps the... READ MORE

Vindicated

BY DONALD DEMARCO

The Courageous Man Who Saw How Faith Gave Birth to Science

March 30-April 5, 2008 Issue

St. Augustine, St. Albert the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Thomas More are living testaments to the compatibility of scholarship and sanctity.

In the modern era, however, we witness a disjunction between the two.

There are great honors and material rewards for outstanding scholarship these... READ MORE

More Big Truths For Kids

BY Mark Shea

March 30-April 5, 2008 Issue

Last week, we began our discussion of how to speak the truths of the faith to a new generation of kids, hungry to know the answers to life’s deepest questions.

This week, we continue that discussion, with the focus on the place of the Church in a very pluralist world.

If God is everywhere, why... READ MORE

My Grandfather’s Catholic Son

BY Jennifer Roback Morse

March 23-29, 2008 Issue

My Grandfather’s Son, the autobiography of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, will be a classic American memoir. It is a rare combination of timeless saga and period piece.

Thomas’ autobiography is the archetypal American rags to riches story that is so much a part of our national... READ MORE

Easter Answers

BY MARK SHEA

Big Truths for Little Kids, Part One

March 23-29, 2008 Issue

As we noted last week, the root problem in a lot of bad catechesis is ultimately not ignorance, but pride.

The cure for the sin of pride, as with all sin, ishese questions are, by the way, real ones taken from a recent poll by Dorling-Kindersley. They are as ancient as humanity and as current as... READ MORE

Myth 1: Atheists Are Smarter

BY Legionary Father Thomas D. Williams

Part of a Series

March 23-29, 2008 Issue

It is a common myth of our day, not surprisingly propagated by atheists, that religious believers are undereducated folk who have abandoned the use of reason in favor of blind faith.

So in his book Letter to a Christian Nation, Sam Harris writes that because of the religious belief of its... READ MORE

Baby Brits Challenge Law

BY Cathy Ruse

March 16-22, 2008 Issue

The pro-life movement in the United States is young and getting younger.

This is an inconvenient fact for media types who’d prefer a different image and an especially bitter pill for the aging abortion lobby to swallow.

But now there’s a group of very young pro-lifers making big headlines in... READ MORE

Planned Parenthood Files on YouTube

BY Paul Kengor

March 16-22, 2008 Issue

There is a shocking series of videos and related articles soaring around cyberspace right now.

They stem from a jaw-dropping research project displayed on the website, YouTube, by pro-life students at UCLA, led by a student named Lila Rose.

The students caught on tape representatives of... READ MORE

Beyond Tribal Faith

BY Mark Shea

March 16-22, 2008 Issue

 Recently, Newsweek ran a piece by Kathleen Deveny in which she lamented the fact that she didn’t know how to talk to her daughter about God.

Several things struck me about the piece.

First, and most arresting, was her opening remark: “Sometimes I think it is easier to talk to my daughter... READ MORE

Can McCain Take Up the ‘Catholic’ Mantle?

BY Brian Burch

March 9-15, 2008 Issue

After Toni Morrison infamously declared Bill Clinton, “America’s first black president,” some Catholics, most notably former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, took to calling George W. Bush America’s “first Catholic president.”

The title was an affront to the legacy of JFK, but... READ MORE

Your Spiritual Workout

BY FATHER DWIGHT LONGENECKER

March 9-15, 2008 Issue

I have to admit, one of my favorite verses from the Bible is 1 Timothy 4:8, which says, “Bodily exercise is of little value.”

Going to the gym and taking physical exercise simply doesn’t interest me. I’m not really a couch potato; I just get bored running on a treadmill or lifting weights... READ MORE

Engaging Paganism

BY Mark Shea

Connecting the Dots

March 9-15, 2008 Issue

Whether we are talking about pre-Christian or post-Christian paganism, the task of the Catholic is always the same: to bear witness to Jesus Christ.

The question is: How?

In the New Testament, different approaches to pre-Christian paganism are evident. Paganism is a search, but it is a search... READ MORE

A Theologian Answers the Atheists

BY Father Thomas D. Williams, LC

March 2-8, 2008 Issue

Unless you’ve spent the last few years in a mountain hermitage, you have almost certainly run into the latest rash of anti-God books.

And a rash it is, since the very mention of a Supreme Being makes these professional atheists break out in hives. But they are scratching all the way to the bank,... READ MORE

License Plates Put Money Where Motto Is

BY MARYBETH T. HAGAN

March 2-8, 2008 Issue

The beauty of a “Choose Life” license plate lies in its beneficiaries.

All proceeds from these automobile accessories support women with unplanned pregnancies who choose adoption plans, rather than abortions, for their unborn babies.

A Florida grassroots group with an all-volunteer... READ MORE

Return To Paganism

BY Mark Shea

Part of a series

March 2-8, 2008 Issue

I used to be a pagan. Not a neo-pagan with phony stilted semi-Tolkienesque speech (“Bright blessings! Merry meet!” “An it harme noone do as thou wilt”). Nor was I an adherent of some recently minted group of Gaia-worshippers playing dress-up in their Society for Creative Anachronism... READ MORE

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