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As Major League Baseball begins its post-season, let us pause and remember the late, great Bill Freehan of the Detroit Tigers, who died this past August 19: a Catholic gentleman and a great ballplayer. If I say that Bill Freehan was the Motown equivalent of Brooks Robinson, please understand that as the highest tribute a native Baltimorean could pay to a ballplayer and a man. After growing up in Detroit, Freehan played baseball and football at the University of Michigan before signing with his hometown Tigers for a $100,000 bonus (which his father didn’t let him have until he’d finished his degree). After a year in the minors, Bill Freehan arrived in the majors to stay in 1962, and for the next 15 years was the premier catcher in the American League, elected to eleven All-Star teams and wi...

(CNN) — A 2,700-year-old toilet has been found during archaeological excavations of a former royal mansion in Jerusalem. Dating from the end of the 7th century BCE, the private toilet cubicle, was unearthed in the remains of the building, which overlooks the City of David archaeological site and the Temple Mount, according to a press release from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), published Wednesday. The royal estate operated at the end of the Kings of Judah period, according to the IAA, before Israel was crushed by the Assyrians. Hewn from stone, the bathroom is a rectangular cabin with a carved toilet that stood over a deep septic tank. “The toilet, made of limestone, is designed for comfortable sitting, with a hole in the center,” the IAA wrote. Yaakov Billig, director...

ROME – It’s probably fair to say that over the centuries, the pope’s criminal justice system hasn’t exactly enjoyed a sterling reputation. Nineteenth century French novelist and journalist Edmond About, whose 1859 book The Roman Question remains arguably the single best treatment of the papal court, wrote that in the unlikely event you were ever to see a Church official being prosecuted by a Vatican court, “Rest assured the public interest has no part in the business. The real springs of action are to be sought elsewhere.” Most observers probably would have said something similarly cynical about Vatican justice, albeit less elegantly, as late as last week. On the limited number of occasions when the Vatican tribunal now handles a case of consequence, the working assumption has been that it...

On the liturgical calendar October 7th is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. This feast celebrates the naval victory of the Holy League fleet at Lepanto which in 1571 saved Christian Civilization from defeat at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.  Pope Pius V knew well the tremendous importance of resisting the aggressive expansion of the Ottomans and the certain consequences of defeat at their hands. The battle was a spiritual one and the existence of the Christian West was at stake, so the Holy Father called on the faithful of Catholic Europe to join him in praying the Rosary for a victory for the Holy League, which was internally divided by jealousies and rivalries and dramatically outnumbered by the invaders. The subsequent Christian victory, obtained through the courageo...

Hi friends! Today I’d like to share with you a fresh perspective on the feminist movement, written by renowned Catholic scholar and author Carrie Gress. —Lisa There is something in the female nature that is drawn to fashion and trends. Words like savvy, fresh, and cosmopolitan evoke a woman who is smart and hip. Trends don’t end with skirt hems, eye shadow shades, and changing seasons; ideas can also be fashionable. For the past fifty years, western women have been told by an unrelenting chorus that feminism is a trend we should all get behind.   Today, feminism feels built into the very fabric of our culture. Few of us can imagine our lives without its influence. And yet for all its sway, we haven’t seen an explosion of happiness and fulfillment among women. The happiness metric...