by Father Peter J. Daly “WE NEED a little Christmas, right this very minute.” Auntie Mame sings those words in the musical “Mame.” The song reminds us that Christmas brings joy. We all could use some joy. There are always reasons for joy at Christmas. It might be a good idea to remind ourselves of […]
by Therese J. Borchard DURING THE AUTUMN of 2001, I was holding my four-month-old son when I received an unexpected call from Catholic News Service. A pleasant editor introduced herself as Carole Greene and said that she had been given a copy of my book, “Winging It: Meditations of a Young Adult.” “Would you consider […]
by Father Peter J. Daly A FORTNIGHT AGO, when I had open-heart surgery, I looked down into the abyss of death. By the grace of God and the help of science, I drew back from the edge. But it has changed the way I see things. During the surgery, my aortic valve was replaced with […]
by Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk Last month, an advisory committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta recommended that nine- to 12-year-old boys be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus transmitted through sexual contact. The goal of the recommendations was to prevent cancers caused by HPV, such as certain cancers […]
by Father John Catoir When I was director of The Christophers, I received a call from the CBS news show “60 Minutes.” Producers were preparing a segment on a case involving a Catholic annulment. Since they couldn’t find any church official who was willing to talk to them, they called me. I understood the secrecy […]
by Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk IN A RECENT COLUMN, David O’Brien, the associate director of religious education for lay ministry in the Archdiocese of Mobile, Alabama, recounts the story of Agnes and Jake, devout Catholics who conceived and delivered four children during the first five years of their marriage. Agnes described how Jake, “wanted to be […]
A recent news report chronicled a Chinese woman named Huang Yijun. Sixty years ago, her unborn child died, but the pregnancy was never expelled from her body. Instead, her baby’s body slowly began to calcify inside her, becoming a crystallized, stone-like mass. Such stone babies (known as lithopedions) are extremely rare. When Huang was 92, […]
by Father Frank Mann Imagine: you are a young boy and your father threatens to kill you during a violent rampage at home. He strips you naked, beats you with a spatula and burns both of your hands on a hot stove. With your skin freshly peeling from your hands, your dad proceeds to relentlessly […]
by William J. Byron, S.J. LONG AGO, sitting in an Economics 101 class at St. Louis University, it occurred to me that “to move is to produce.” What it costs to move freight by rail or highway; the fares paid on airlines, trains, buses, subways and taxis; all the dollars spent on getting products and […]
by Therese J.Borchard Approximately 43.6 million people in the United States are what we term “poor,” defined as lacking a socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. For 2011, the national poverty level was set at $22,350 for a family of four. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that more people fall below the poverty […]
