Spirit & Life Blog
Sister Lucia, one of the three Fatima visionaries, famously told Cardinal Carlo Caffarra that the “final battle” between the kingdom of God and Satan would be over marriage and the family. We should not be surprised, then, that marriage has come under so many assaults in recent decades. This includes the explosion of no-fault divorce,…
Here’s the headline from a recent article in America Magazine: “Why Pope Francis is worried about declining birth rates.” The article was penned in response to recent remarks by Pope Francis to the Association for Subsidiarity and the Modernization of Local Authorities (ASMEL), in which the Holy Father expressed his concerns about the decreasing birth…
When a group of activist U.S. Supreme Court Justices unilaterally legalized the killing of preborn children nationwide in 1973, they didn’t choose to release their decision in late January, during winter, as a challenge to test the resolve of pro-life activists. Presumably, the Justices thought that their decision (7-2), while likely to be greeted with…
Have you heard about the 62-year-old Australian woman who recently petitioned a court to be able to retrieve sperm from the body of her recently-deceased husband, in order to conceive a child, which will then be carried to birth by a surrogate? No, this is not from some dystopian sci-fi novel. An Australian court recently…
January 1973 is a month of infamy—the month when a small group of activist judges on the U.S. Supreme Court legalized the killing of preborn children in the United States. In the decades that followed, however, pro-life activists successfully turned January into something else—a month celebrating life. Thanks to the foresight, ingenuity, determination, and sheer…
“[A] great prayer for life is urgently needed, a prayer which will rise up throughout the world. Through special initiatives and in daily prayer, may an impassioned plea rise to God, the Creator and lover of life, from every Christian community, from every group and association, from every family and from the heart of every…
“For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was now half gone, thy all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne.” Wisdom 18:14 “In the beginning was the Word,” begins the Gospel of John. The “Word,” of course, was the Son, Jesus Christ. Unsurprisingly, the passage above from the…
One of the most troubling trends in recent years has been the rapid growth of so-called “medical abortions.” These are abortions that are committed not with surgical instruments, but rather by means of two abortion drugs, which are often taken by mothers at home, far from medical supervision. The two drugs involved in a medical…
A few years ago, Henry Kissinger gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal about China. Kissinger, who passed away on November 29, famously served as the Secretary of State under President Richard Nixon, and as national security advisor to President Gerald Ford. Among many other things, Kissinger is known for advocating a policy of…
Like many Catholic leaders, I have been paying close attention to the ongoing Synod on Synodality at the Vatican, which recently wrapped up a series of meetings involving hundreds of bishops, theologians and other religious and lay advisors. And like many Catholic leaders, I have done so with considerable and growing trepidation. Thus, it was…
