Spirit & Life Blog

Gain Heart: Pro-Life Progress at State Levels

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet / May 10, 2021 /
Judge's gavel on table in office

The drumbeat of bad news coming from the Biden administration can certainly be discouraging for pro-life and pro-family activists. It seems that hardly a week passes without some horrific new announcement from the administration, pushing abortion or some other assault on basic moral truths. However, as I have emphasized so often in the past, it’s…

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Vatican Conference Presents Disturbing Lineup of Speakers

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet / May 3, 2021 /
silhouette crucifix outside

“Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.” ─ Pope St. Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, no. 41 Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis has repeatedly warned against the temptation to make the Church into just another non-profit organization. The Church, he…

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Stop the Industry of Death and Exploitation

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet / April 29, 2021 /

In recent years, pro-lifers have exposed the gruesome, ongoing practice of harvesting and buying and selling the body parts of aborted children for medical research. A series of undercover videos released by pro-life researcher David Daleiden showed abortionists and executives of biomedical companies callously describing how they obtain the bodies, and haggling over the prices…

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At-Home Abortions Are Not Pro-Woman

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet / April 29, 2021 /
abortion pills with ultrasound

Just a few days ago, a 23-year-old pro-abortion leader in Argentina died after a legal abortion. Argentina only legalized abortion at the end of last year, but abortion has already claimed the life of a young woman, not to mention thousands of unborn children. According to Live Action, María del Valle González López went to…

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Abortion is Never a Human Right

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet / April 29, 2021 /
baby feet

How is it still possible to speak of the dignity of every human person when the killing of the weakest and most innocent is permitted? In the name of what justice is the most unjust of discriminations practised: some individuals are held to be deserving of defence and others are denied that dignity? ─ Pope…

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Gender Ideologues Are Gaslighting Us

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet / April 5, 2021 /

The official dictionary definition of the term “gaslight” is to “manipulate (someone) by psychological means into questioning their own sanity.” I thought of this term the other day after I read two paragraphs in a CNN article, originally published on Tuesday, March 30, about how South Dakota governor Kristi Noem issued two executive orders stating…

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Why the Church Protects Human Sexuality and Marriage

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet / March 29, 2021 /

A few days ago the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) somehow captured global headlines for doing something that is not particularly noteworthy, and certainly not surprising. In a brief statement – called a Responsum – the CDF responded to a question about whether or not the Church can offer “blessings” to…

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Celebrating The Day of the Unborn Child

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet / March 22, 2021 /
child hugging pregnant mother

The one who accepted “Life” in the name of all and for the sake of all was Mary, the Virgin Mother; she is thus most closely and personally associated with the Gospel of life. Mary’s consent at the Annunciation and her motherhood stand at the very beginning of the mystery of life which Christ came…

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St. Joseph: Model of Fatherhood and Faithfulness

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet / March 15, 2021 /

God, in His wisdom, chose to reveal Himself to us in Divine Revelation as Father. Theologians have ruminated at great length upon God’s Fatherhood, exploring what this mystery reveals about God’s nature and attributes. However, there is also much to learn by turning the question on its head, and instead asking what Scripture’s revelation of…

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Criminalizing the Christian View of Homosexuality

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet / December 7, 2020 /

Beyond a doubt, one of the gravest threats to the freedom of Christians in many Western nations right now is posed by the efforts of LGBT activists to outlaw any form of dissent from their progressive sexual ideology. Often, these efforts take the form of so-called “hate crime” laws. Typically, these laws are framed in…

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