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What’s next for abortion rights in America? What to watch next Click to expand Replay Video UP NEXT Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed a bill into law on Wednesday that makes it illegal for an adult to help a minor get an abortion across state lines without parental consent. The new law is the first of its kind in the United States and comes less than a year after Idaho banned nearly all abortions. “With the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe vs. Wade last summer, the right and duty to establish legal policy on abortion was finally returned to our state democratic process,” Little, a Republican, wrote in a letter to Idaho lawmakers on Wednesday, announcing he had signed the legislation. MORE: Idaho governor signs bill banning abortion after 6 weeks modeled after Texas ...

We do well to ponder the whys and wherefores of the Passion of Our Lord. St. Thomas Aquinas presents the premise that God does nothing in an arbitrary way, but rather as Lord of History sets forth everything in fitting ways and at appropriate places and times. Every detail has something to teach us. Let’s consider why Christ suffered in Jerusalem (but outside its walls) in a place called “the skull.” St. Thomas covered these matters in his Summa Theologiae, Part III, Question 46, Article 10. His words are in bold, black italics; my inferior comments are shown in plain red text. Christ died most appropriately in Jerusalem. First of all, because Jerusalem was God’s chosen place for the offering of sacrifices to Himself: and these figurative sacrifices foreshadowed Christ’s Passion For the Je...

Popular build-it-yourself children’s teddy bear store “Build-a-Bear Workshop” is turning heads with its new drag queen teddy bear. The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh pointed out on Twitter, Thursday, that “Build-a-Bear Workshop,” the toy store where kids – and adults apparently – can customize their own stuffed animals, had advertised a new drag queen teddy bear. Sharing a screenshot of the website depicting the new drag product, Walsh tweeted, “Remember: there’s absolutely no agenda to groom your kids. Don’t be ridiculous. On an unrelated note, @buildabear is selling a drag queen stuffed bear for children.” A “Build-A-Bear Workshop” location in a local mall.  (Joe Amon/Denver Post) GRAPHIC DRAG SHOW FOR BABIES FEATURING NEARLY NAKED MEN, BONDA...

The challenge facing the Catholic Church in much of Germany, especially traditionally Catholic regions like Bavaria, is akin to revitalizing a tree with deep roots but dead branches, now struggling to stay alive. That’s not the case in Berlin. Here, where Catholicism has never been a dominant force after the Reformation, and rising irreligiosity has earned the city a reputation as “the atheist capital of Europe,” there’s not much of a tree to save. Instead, evangelization looks more like planting seeds in untamed soil. And the resulting Catholic dynamic is often creative, edgy — and a little wild. That’s probably why people like Jan Philipp Göetz thrive in Berlin’s Catholic sub-culture. A former director of international and government relations for the German airline Lufthansa, Göetz is a...

Nearly 200 years after Ludwig van Beethoven’s death, researchers pulled DNA from strands of his hair, searching for clues about the health problems and hearing loss that plagued him. They weren’t able to crack the case of the German composer’s deafness or severe stomach ailments. But they did find a genetic risk for liver disease, plus a liver-damaging hepatitis B infection in the last months of his life. These factors, along with his chronic drinking, were probably enough to cause the liver failure that is widely believed to have killed him, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Current Biology. This undated image shows the Stumpff Lock of hair from German composer Ludwig van Beethoven in a laboratory at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, in ...

For understandable reasons, many look at the celebration of Corpus Christi as the apex of the Eucharistic Revival. The Solemnity of the Lord’s Body and Blood has served, since 1264, as the annual feast to “dare to do all we can,” as St. Thomas Aquinas urged in his liturgical sequence for the day, to thank the Lord Jesus for the res mirabilis, the wondrous gift of himself in the Blessed Sacrament. Therefore, it’s fitting that the three-year-plus Eucharistic Revival began on Corpus Christi last June 19 and will shift from the diocesan to the parish phases on Corpus Christi this year, June 11. But the real liturgical summit of the Eucharistic Revival, like all aspects of our faith, must be the Sacred Triduum, when we celebrate what gave us the gift of the Eucharist we celebrate on Corpus Chri...

Note from the Author:  Copy/paste GPS Coordinates listed below into Google Maps to see or travel to each location. After getting some good rest at a hotel for pilgrims attached to the parish Church of St. Peter in Tiberias–a parish established by the Crusaders in A.D. 1100!–I set out on my first day exploring some of the little-known sights around the Sea of Galilee.  The first site I went to was the site of Christ’s healing of the Hemorrhaging Woman–the tragic figure who had lived with a “flow of blood” for twelve years.  This site has tragically largely been lost to the world for many years, but I’m doing what I can to increase awareness of it. Additionally, this site has special significance for me.  After returning to the United States after my first overseas a...

Cardinal Roche to German bishops: ‘Nein’ to regular lay baptisms and preaching at Mass Skip to content The prefect for the Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship has objected to plans for regular lay baptisms and lay preaching at Masses endorsed by Germany’s controversial “synodal way.” Cardinal Arthur Roche, pictured on Aug. 28, 2022. © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk. Cardinal Arthur Roche made his objections known in a letter to German bishops’ conference chairman Bishop Georg Bätzing, the official news website of the Catholic Church in Germany reported March 30.  Katholisch.de said that it had seen the letter, which had not been published by the Vatican or the German bishops’ conference at press time. The synodal way — a three-year initiative bringing together German bishops and select lay peo...

Kimberly Wethal DNA gleaned from a half-eaten burrito led to the arrest in Boston Tuesday of a Madison man charged with the May 2022 firebombing of the Madison headquarters of anti-abortion group Wisconsin Family Action. Hridindu Sankar Roychowdhury, 29, was arrested at Boston Logan International Airport with a one-way ticket to Guatemala City, according to Timothy M. O’Shea, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin. Roychowdhury was charged with attempting to cause damage by means of an explosive. He made an initial appearance in federal court in Boston on Tuesday, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald L. Cabell set a detention hearing for Thursday. People are also reading… Roychowdhury’s attorney, Brendan O. Kelley, who is listed in online court records as a federal public defend...

Dr. R. Jared Staudt, PhDDirector of Content After intense periods of asceticism, the temptation is to binge: to go back to all of our old habits, even to excess. The Church points us, rather, to festivity: Christian feasting.  We are not used to Christian festivity, as our culture inclines more to partying, having fun simply for its own sake or as a pleasurable distraction.  A Christian feast, however, honors God through culture: spending time joyfully with others to celebrate through eating and drinking, music and dancing. Genuine festivity avoids sinful extremes, because the purpose of its merry making is to give glory to God in thanksgiving for our salvation. You might be wondering, is this legit? Does God really want us to have a good time in order to honor him during the hol...