Children as Commodities

by George Weigel The Council of the District of Columbia is considering a bill, sponsored by its most aggressively activist gay member, to legalize surrogate child-bearing in your nation’s capital. Infertility is a heart-rending problem. But solving that problem is not what’s at issue here, for the D.C. surrogacy bill is being pushed by the […]

Carolyn Woo

Business Is a Necessary Good, Not a Necessary Evil

by Carolyn Woo Given my work in business education and particularly my last role as the dean of the business school in a Catholic university, I am often asked whether work in the business sector can be a vocation. The answer is simply, “Of course!” Business is a necessary good, not a necessary evil. As […]

Fender Bender Leads to Bumper Crop for Business

by Father William J. Byron, S.J. The expression “bumper-to-bumper” is often used to describe a traffic tie-up, a slow-moving stream of cars on a beltway or highway. Sometimes the expression is used to describe automobile repair services that can take care of any problem between the front and back bumpers of any car. Recently, my […]

Papal Canonization Doubleheader

by George Weigel I doubt that Pope Francis has heard of Ernie Banks, the Hall of Fame shortstop. But like “Mr. Cub,” whose love for baseball led him to exclaim “Let’s play two!” before Sunday doubleheaders in the 1950s, the pope from the end of the world seems to think that papal canonizations are better […]

Ethics of Donating Money to Charitable Foundations

by Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk Private foundations and non-profit groups are frequently involved in advocating for particular causes, ranging from cancer research to protecting the environment. Some of these foundations rely almost exclusively on charitable donations to carry out their promotional work. Potential donors seeking to support these causes face the challenge of exercising “due diligence,” […]

Misreading Murray, Yet Again

by George Weigel From his present location in the communion of saints, Father John Courtney Murray, S.J., who died in 1967, is probably indifferent to the various ways his work on Catholicism and American democracy is misconstrued in the 21st century. But those who think that Father Murray still has something to teach Catholics about […]

Lessons Learned From Tragic Fire

by Erick Rommel WHEN YOU’RE IN SCHOOL, playing hooky is frowned upon. The same is true as an adult, but adults have something students in school do not. We have vacation time. It’s because of that wonderful “get out of work free” card that my wife and I found ourselves relaxing on the beach Sept. […]

Caregivers Respect Life Year-round

by Bill Dodds AS RESPECT LIFE Month rolls around each October, I realize that one of the joys of working with family caregivers is being able to point out to them that often what they’re doing is more than they realize they’re doing. Over the years, I’ve heard a lot of caregivers say, “I used […]

Books Offer Middle East Reality Check

by George Weigel The humanitarian and strategic disaster of Syria should focus Catholic minds on the hard fact that there is no easy or quick path to peace in the Middle East, a very dangerous part of the world where Christians of all persuasions are at daily risk of their lives. Two recently published books […]

In the Land of Crosses

by George Weigel NO ONE KNOWS when pious Lithuanians first erected crosses of all sizes on a hill about seven miles north of the city of Siauliai, Lithuania. It may have been after an abortive 1831 uprising against Russian rule over the small Baltic country. Oftentimes, the bodies of Lithuanian patriots killed during that rebellion, […]