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 […]
by Brian Caulfield Something sensational happened in Madrid. The week after aimless youths were blamed for riots in London and as Time magazine headlined “The Decline and Fall of Europe,” hundreds of thousands of young people converged on Spain’s capital to celebrate their Catholic faith. The youthful enthusiasm, unflagging energy, unwavering commitment, and many acts […]
by Father Frank Mann Recently, a segment from a news story jolted my attention: Dallas billionaire Charles Wyly, whose fortune helped reshape the Dallas Arts District was killed in a car crash in Colorado. Wyly, 77, had stopped at the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport to buy a newspaper and was trying to turn his Porsche left […]
by Therese J. Borchard “A DIVORCE is like an amputation,” celebrated author and literary critic Margaret Atwood once said. “You survive it, but there’s less of you.” Divorce usually involves the married couple, more than two lawyers and 15 legal pads. It often fractures a family, causing what can seem like an irreconcilable rift between […]
by Father Frank Mann RECENTLY, I headed to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to check out the extraordinary exhibition titled, “Savage Beauty.” It turned out that I was one of the countless droves of enthusiastic folk found sweating their way through a two-hour line to enter the much anticipated event. The enthralling exhibit, the […]
