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The President’s recent remarks about abortion were a new low for Joe…

A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER: The president’s recent remarks on abortion after the leaked Supreme Court decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health were blatantly false. In the wake of the unconscionable leaking of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s draft decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade, the response from pro-abortion-rights politicians and their supporters has been deplorable.  President Joe Biden’s words and actions have been particularly disturbing, given the office that our nation’s so-called “devout Catholic” president occupies and his frequent public claims to be deeply engaged with his Catholic faith. Biden reaffirmed the primacy of his pro-abortion credentials in an initial White House statement released the morning after Politico published Alito’s draft. Instead ...

How to build a runway in Antarctica out of solid ice…

(CNN) — Just about everything that supports human life on Antarctica must be brought in from elsewhere, usually by aircraft. And in order for that aircraft to have a place to land somebody has to construct a runway out of solid ice. That “somebody” is Luke Brauteseth and his team. Brauteseth spends part of the year in his native South Africa and the rest in Antarctica, where he and his team handle infrastucture for the upscale White Desert travel company, which has three camps on the world’s southernmost continent. In order to build their most recent camp, Wolf’s Fang in the Queen Maud Land region, Brauteseth and the rest of the team had to begin well in advance of the hoped-for opening. Every building or infrastructure project in Antarctica is planned at least two ...

How NOT to respond to a Roe reversal…

By Phil Lawler ( bio – articles – email ) | May 04, 2022 If the Supreme Court overturns the Roe v. Wade decision—as this week’s stunning leak suggests it will—here are some mistakes that pro-life advocates should avoid: Do not accept the liberal narrative that the Court has thwarted the democratic process. That’s what happened in 1973, when the Roe ruling, in a staggering act of judicial arrogance, struck down laws that had been enacted by the people’s duly elected representatives in all 50 states. By reversing the Roe error, the Court has restored voters’ rights. If abortion advocates truly believe in the democratic process, they should not be worried. Laws restricting abortion will be enacted only if the people support them. Do not be distracted by the hunt for the Supreme Co...

Converts from Protestantism share how they came around to the Catholic teaching on Mary…

[embedded content] Share via: For many who are exploring Catholicism, the doctrinal arguments regarding Mary may make sense, but there can often still be a mental or spiritual hesitancy to actually living out what the Church teaches about her. Matt Swaim welcomes Matt Leonard and Denise Bossert to share how they wrestled with this issue on their own journeys, and the extraordinary experiences they had that helped completely change the way they thought about Mary. Matt Leonard’s site: matthewsleonard.com Subscribe on YouTube Join Our Telegram Group : Salvation & Prosperity  

How to become a better listener (and more charitable and persuasive), according to science…

High-quality listening is an underrated ability. How well and frequently you listen to others is a better predictor of your leadership potential than your actual intelligence or personality. As a recent review shows, good listeners tend to perform better at work, and to report higher level of wellbeing, as well as more meaningful and fulfilling relationships. We tend to trust them more, and they tend to be seen as curious, empathetic and emotionally intelligent. advertisement advertisement To some degree, the power of listening can be explained by the fact that good listening is rare. We live in a world in which people are often rewarded for self-promoting, being the center of attention, and talking as much as they can, even when they have nothing to say. The fact that Susan Cain‘s rationa...

‘Outrageous intimidation’ — The arrest of Cardinal Zen by Hong Kong authorities is prompting reactions around the world…

The Standard, a Hong Kong-based newspaper, reported that Zen was arrested on Wednesday evening local time, along with other trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund. The fund, which is no longer active, was created in 2019 to assist with the legal fees for pro-democracy protesters. EWTN host Raymond Arroyo tweeted on May 11 that Zen’s arrest was “heartbreaking and tragic news.” “I await comment and protest from the Vatican,” Arroyo added. Sam Goodman, the advocacy director at the human rights organization Hong Kong Watch, told the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail that he hoped the Vatican would condemn the arrest and call for Zen’s release. More in Americas Goodman also said that he hoped the Vatican would reconsider what he described as “its silence regarding the ongoing human ri...

‘You are our last hope’ — Pope Francis meets with the wives of two Ukrainian soldiers who are currently fighting to defend Mariupol…

📹 VIDEO | Pope Francis met with the wives of two Ukrainian soldiers who are currently fighting to defend Mariupol. “You are our last hope. We hope that you can save their lives. Please don’t let them die,” Kateryna Prokopenko told the pope. pic.twitter.com/DT4NyC17LY — EWTN News (@EWTNews) May 11, 2022 Join Our Telegram Group : Salvation & Prosperity  

How can Mary be God’s mother?

And finally, Protestants make the point that it is impossible for God to have a mother. “God is a Trinity. If Mary is the Mother of God, she is the mother of the Trinity. Therefore, the Trinity is no longer a Trinity—it would be a Quadrinity! Let’s start with the first objection. To say Mary cannot be the Mother of God because Sacred Scripture does not use those explicit words places the Protestant in an uncomfortable position. He would also have to conclude that multiple other essential Christian doctrines are erroneous because they are not found verbatim in the Bible, either. Take the Trinity, for example. This doctrine is pre-eminent among all Christian doctrines—and yet the term Trinity is not found in the Bible. Nor are terms like homoousios (Gr., “same nature”; Jesus has the “sa...

Do you fear the right thing? A meditation on the story of Chicken Little…..

In the wake of the COVID-19 explosion of fear, we do well to begin reflecting on fear. Fear is a complex passion. On the one hand, there are things that we ought to fear such as grave physical and spiritual dangers. The fear of being near the edge of a cliff might well save our life. The fear of serious sin and the punishment we might experience or the offense to God (who loves us) is both appropriate and holy. Sadly, more people lack this holy fear rooted in the possible loss of what is most precious to us: our eternal life with God. There are also things we fear that we should not, and things that we fear more than we should. These sorts of fears are usually rooted in our disordered and inordinate affections. A disordered affection is a love for something that is sinful. We ought not to ...

‘Roe was egregiously wrong from the start’ — 10 key passages from Alito’s draft opinion…

Justice Samuel Alito is pictured. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion, which would overturn Roe v. Wade, wages a frontal assault on the reasoning of the landmark 1973 opinion that found a federal constitutional right to abortion. Alito’s draft is labeled as a proposed majority opinion, though the wording of the court’s ultimate ruling and the line-up of justices who support it could change before final release, expected by late June or early July. Here are 10 important passages in the draft opinion: Join Our Telegram Group : Salvation & Prosperity  

“Come see the Son!” — This sidewalk astronomer’s simple invitation to “come see the Moon” could double as a 7-minute class in evangelization…

[embedded content] From the late (and legendary) astronomer John Dobson… Join Our Telegram Group : Salvation & Prosperity  

Why we hunger for beauty…

This essay is excerpted and adapted from comments delivered on April 29 at the Scala Foundation’s conference “Art, the Sacred, and the Common Good.” Back in my Jesuit high school days, when dinosaurs walked the earth—this was the 1960s—Bob R. was one of my best friends. I haven’t seen Bob in many years, but I still think of him with affection. We were both weird. We were book buddies and debate partners, we took Latin and Greek together, and we shared the experience of reading bits of Catullus and Virgil, Xenophon and Homer in the original.   Bob had wonderful parents. His dad was a great guy, but his mother was extraordinary. She was a beautiful woman—in her early fifties, poised, trim, well-dressed, feminine. But that’s not what I meant then—or what I mean now—by the word “beau...