There are three visions of Hell that stand out for me in film. All of them I saw with no intention of catching on to a vision of Hell, but it just seemed to occur.
300 — This isn’t caught by most people, but I refer to the scene that takes place in Xerxes’ Throne […]

This fall’s Presidential Campaign will more than likely feature a new wrinkle. The Catholic Church will be in the crosshairs. Once again there will be a professed Catholic who supports abortion on a major party’s ticket — this time on the number two slot. You might ask why the Church would be in the crosshairs […]

With Michael Phelps swimming in the pool below, a group of young swimmers is listening to a former football player say that good relationships are really the key to success. Returning to the University of Michigan, former Wolverine Chris Godfrey is inviting his audience to not only emulate the work ethic of Michael Phelps, but […]

When Christians write about science, they are imposing their religion on the free pursuit of TRUTH. When scientists pontificate about religion, they are just innocently writing about science with no agenda at all. Nope. None whatsoever. Really.
Case in point: This little bulletin from the Ministry of Truth in the Dictatorship of Relativism called “Are Scientists […]

Richard lived a very normal, happy life in his quiet, rural New Hampshire home. His parents were very devout Catholics and were wonderful parents.
When Richard was nine years old, his ordinary life changed forever. Richard was diagnosed with polio. The disease left him completely paralyzed. His paralysis was so severe he had to breathe by […]

Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska is now the Republican candidate for Vice-president. This news made the women I know — pro-life, fiscally conservative, desperate to have a good female role model in politics for our daughters — extremely happy and proud. When the announcement came I gathered my older daughters around the small kitchen television […]

Life is a precious gift from God, a gift to be cherished and respected from conception to natural death. The Church calls the faithful to be witnesses to the sanctity of life in a society that places little value on the most vulnerable: the unborn, handicapped and the elderly. At some point in […]

Henry Poole is Here is a timely film in many senses of that word. To the ancient Greeks time was represented by chronos and kairos. Chronos was the word that stood for the passing of time. Kairos spoke to the idea of timeliness — as in the right or opportune time. In theological terms, kairos […]

Recently, I wrote about how the linguistic fallacy called ambiguity contributed to the 1839 martyrdom of John Williams — one of my ancestors, and a pioneering missionary to Polynesia. I also related how the religious instruction we often get as Catholics is logically ambiguous, causing many Catholic to believe that in order to live […]

The young people — most of them around 18 years old — have worked from 10 am to 10 pm for six days straight. It’s tedious work — unloading trays of bread loaves, sorting them, roaming from floor to floor of a tall, run-down, abandoned hospital building to pass out food to 1800 frightened, hungry […]

The late, great Pope John Paul II proclaimed the family the “domestic church.” Within the loving embrace of family, strengthened by the sacraments of the Church and guided by her teachings, we receive the graces we need to make it all the way to heaven.
Recently we read at Mass, “The gifts and the call […]

“Mom…are we poor?”
This surprising question was posed by one of my sons several months ago. It was not precipitated by a sudden financial catastrophe. We hadn’t lost our home, there was food in the fridge and payday was just around the corner.
“Why do you ask son? Are you worried about something?” One never knows what […]

Fireproof is the story of two strangers living in the same house. And they’re married. The metaphor of firefighters “never leaving their partner behind” fits perfectly. Caleb (Kirk Cameron) is a fireman married to Catherine (Erin Bethea) for seven years, and their relationship is in serious trouble. On fire. In a bad way.
Caleb, although a […]

“Mary has been made Queen of heaven and earth by God, exalted above all the choirs of angels and all the saints. She is to be called Queen not only because of her divine motherhood, but also because she, by the will of God, had an outstanding part in the work of our eternal […]

We Catholics find ourselves at a very interesting point in history. Once again, presidential elections are upon us and we represent the largest bloc of religious voters at an estimated 25% of America’s registered voting population. Therefore, Senators Obama and McCain are out to get our votes.
On the one hand, signatories of Roman Catholics for […]

Here in Seattle, the Land at the End of History, all you have to do to induce complete credulity in the average Seattleite is preface whatever quack junk you are palming off on our highly sophisticated urban post-Christian crowd with “the Ancient Chinese art of” [insert quack junk]. After all, as we Seattleites all know, […]

Recent decades have spawned an “anything goes” mentality in our culture.  Like cancer spreading through the body, this mentality has spread into every corner of our culture doing damage.  This “anything goes” mentality is dangerous because it can lead us to ignore moral laws and consequences for our actions. 
It is disconcerting but true that this […]

“Are they all yours?”
I get asked that question at least twice a week these days.  It doesn’t bother me very much since I realize that having seven children makes me a bit unique by societal norms. I can’t imagine why anyone would think I would willingly take other people’s children with me to Costco or […]

“America is great because America is good.  When America ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”  These words have been tossed around for decades by presidents and speechwriters.  Although who originally said them is in debate, the statement rings true.  So, are we still great?  Are we still good?  Let’s face it, […]

I have one book that is always in my purse, in my car, or on my person.  It is Heidi Hess Saxton’s Behold Your Mother.  When I was recently editing Teresa Tomeo’s upcoming autobiography, Newsflash, there is a point where Teresa encourages her readers to make a habit of spending at least a few minutes […]

As I explained in part one, when the sacrament of holy matrimony is consummated, the husband and wife need to be open to the possibility of having a child.  I also mentioned that because we live in a culture that is so birth control oriented, even some couples using Natural Family Planning use it with […]

Here’s a really cool site called Paleo-Future, devoted to chronicling the History of the Future. I’ve often thought such a subject would make a great book. After all, people have been making predictions forever. So, it would really be fun to see how the Assured Prophecies of Yesterday have panned out.
Browsing through Paleo-Future, I note […]

Had the National Population and Family Planning Commission not rescinded its invitation, I would be in China right now as the Olympics opened. But the Commission, which is responsible for enforcing the one-child policy, belatedly realized that I was a well-known critic of that policy–and of that country’s human rights record in general– and barred […]

You may be surprised to learn that prior to 1930 every Christian denomination agreed in their opposition to artificial birth control. In 1930, the Anglican Church, motivated by increasing social pressures, stated that artificial birth control could be allowed in some circumstances. Shortly thereafter the Anglicans gave in, allowing contraception. Since then, all other […]

I don’t like flying in airplanes. What makes flying even worse for me is when I have to fly in a puddle-jumper. Even worse is flying in a small plane to go somewhere I don’t want to go.
Recently, all of these, and more, happened. I was called to testify in a murder trial in the […]

As busy professionals with compounding responsibilities, isn’t it becoming more and more difficult to find time just to … think? Commiserating with colleagues and friends, we share how our work days are filled with an almost obsessed focus on getting as much work done as possible, countless meetings and squeezing every bit of air out […]

I suppose it was because it was the 1960s. That might have been the reason. College and university students around the country were up in arms, literally. There were sit-ins, break-ins, love-ins, and shoot-outs. Trustees, administrators, police, and sometimes the National Guard were called in to deal with rebellious students. Yes, there were reasons for […]

In early August 2006, the Global War on Terror reached a new and disturbing phase when it was discovered that Terror has now recruited certain Liquids as deadly new allies in its bloodthirsty campaign to wipe out our freedom. As this dramatically heightened threat shows, Terror knows no bounds in its resourceful ability to find […]

This column concludes my series of reflections on Pope Paul VI’s document Humanae Vitae, which we have been reviewing in light of its fortieth anniversary [Part one, Part two, Part three, Part four, Part five]. In the last installment we examined the difference between rendering sex sterile with contraception and choosing to abstain from intercourse […]

For several columns now we’ve been reflecting on the Church’s teaching on contraception in commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s letter Humanae Vitae [Part one, Part two, Part three, Part four]. We’ve observed that sexual intercourse is meant to incarnate the marriage commitment itself, and that an integral part of that […]

America! America!
God mend thine ev’ry flaw
Confirm thy soul in self-control
Thy liberty in law! — Katharine Lee Bates, America the Beautiful
You might think of America’s national hymn, “America the Beautiful” as a poetic look at the nation’s landscapes but it’s actually a patriotic cry from the heart to live up to God’s expectations. […]

July 25th marks the fortieth anniversary of Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI’s famous re-affirmation of the Church’s constant teaching on contraception. In commemoration, we continue our reflections on this critical issue [Part one, Part two, Part three].
I ended my last column by asking: How healthy would a marriage be if spouses were regularly unfaithful to […]

We continue our series [Part one, Part two] commemorating the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae. Pope Paul VI released this oh-so-controversial encyclical on July 25, 1968, re-affirming the constant teaching of the Church on the immorality of contraception. To this day it remains a “thorn in the side” of many. It was once a thorn […]

People with limited horizons tend to go for small and utterly implausible conspiracy theories. Blokes with some theory about the assassination of JFK are a dime a dozen. And for just that reason, they tend eventually to cancel each other out, leaving me simplistically thinking Lee Harvey Oswald was a trained marksman and a jerk […]

A new Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin will be dedicated by its Founder this week. Most Reverend Raymond L. Burke, Archbishop of St. Louis and former Bishop of La Crosse, will dedicate the shrine which memorializes Our Lady of Guadalupe’s apparitions to St. Juan Diego in Mexico in 1531 and […]

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver Colorado recently addressed a group gathered in  Sydney, Australia. The topic was, “Mission Possible: This Double Life Will Self-Destruct.” In a chillingly honest fashion, Archbishop Chaput shares his thoughts on our lives today, as Catholics, and how we ought to realize our need to live wholly and completely for Christ:
We […]

The Dark Knight has brought in more money at the box office in its first eight days of release than its predecessor, Batman Begins, did it its entire domestic run. Some point to actor Heath Ledger’s untimely death as a factor, others to his Oscar-nomination-worthy performance as The Joker. Both certainly play a role. Either […]

But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us –Romans 5:8.
Wiping tears from our eyes, we viewers read these last words as they rolled off the screen for the movie premiere of, Fireproof, a powerful, worthwhile movie on Christian marriage.
I can remember, many moons ago, learning […]

When I came into Catholicism, a number of non-Christians and Protestant Christians asked me: “How could a good Christian like you ever become a Catholic?” It was a classic case of the fallacy we’re going to examine in this chapter. The fallacy is called Question-Begging Definition, and it occurs when the person challenging you with […]

Recently a reader wrote me to say, “I read a story on the Internet about a Catholic couple whose new baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and anencephaly (no brain).  They chose to abort it.  How on earth would you deal pastorally with such a horrible situation?”
Such questions involve several parts.  What does God think? […]

We continue a series of reflections on the issue of contraception in light of the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae. When Pope Paul VI issued this document on July 25, 1968, it fell like a bomb. Many people wished the issue would just go away. It hasn’t. And it won’t. In fact, it can’t “go […]

This July 25th marks the 40th anniversary of one of the most controversial papal documents in history: Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae which reaffirmed the traditional Christian teaching on the immorality of contraception. If you have wrestled with this teaching, believe me, I can relate. Years ago I almost left the Church over it. Forty […]

This month marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of Humanae Vitae (On Human Life), the landmark encyclical of Pope Paul VI reaffirming the Church’s position against artificial contraception.
The so-called sexual revolution, now well into its 40s, has given us a lousy hangover from the past four decades of recklessness and immorality. Birth control always […]

Last Friday, July 11th, the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) “celebrated” World Population Day — not that the UNFPA finds anything to celebrate about populating the world, you understand. To them it was World (Over) Population Day with the usual spate of articles bemoaning the fact that there are too many people in the world.
This year […]

To CE Editors:
I am a long-time Catholic, and it saddens me to see Catholic organizations embracing a party that stands for everything traditional Catholics do not, such as bigotry, oppression of the poor and disabled, a war on human rights, deregulatory policies that have turned this country into a sleazy x-rated sideshow carnival on our […]

As we know, Chesterton famously observed that the mark of madness is not the loss of reason, but the loss of everything except the reason. Periodically, something in our culture will show me the brilliance of that insight with great force.
Long ago, I remember watching some film about human evolution narrated by Richard Leakey, Jr. […]

About eight years ago, my husband and I decided to relegate the use of the television to a very minor part of the family’s entertainment — mostly for sports or for use with the VCR to watch a movie, about once a week. Instead of watching television in the evenings, we decided to start […]

Suicide is, by definition, an act you perform by yourself.
By the time you are ready to commit suicide, you have come to certain philosophical conclusions. You believe that your life is no longer worth living, and that there is either oblivion after death or a condition that is better than the one you are in […]

Like many women, body angst has been a stubborn companion of mine. When I was younger, I suffered from both bulimia and anorexia and received counseling for over a year. Even when my clinical eating disorder was reigned in, the scale — instead of my God — was too often a barometer for my self-worth. […]

Two weeks ago my friend Sarah and I loaded our four kids into the van and drove twelve hours to Atlanta to attend the Catholic New Media Celebration… and to meet an extraordinary group of writers face-to-face for the first time, strangers who felt like old friends because of the connections we had made in […]