Blogposts

End of Life Decisions

01-29-2023Weekly Reflection

The death of Terri Schiavo years ago raised a number of issues, moral, legal and constitutional, about the right to life and the so-called right to die. Most coverage of the case focused on the question of her guardian's right to decide according to her alleged wishes and the due process of the judicial proceedings. However, at base, the question was a moral, not a legal, one: under what conditions, if any, may a patient, a guardian, medical personnel or civil authorities, withhold or withdraw nutrition and hydration.

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From Islam to Christ: the conversion of Mehdi Djaadi: Enraptured by the Eucharist

01-22-2023Weekly Reflection

A French-Algerian actor recounts his conversion from Islam to Catholicism via Protestantism. Born in a difficult neighborhood, rescued from the theater by delinquency, in his show “Coming out” he bears witness to his spiritual journey and his journey towards true freedom. The one staged by Mehdi Djaadi, a French-Algerian actor in the theater, is decidedly out of the ordinary. No, it's not what you think. The one represented by Mehdi in his monologue entitled "Coming out" is not the story of an exit from some dark closet: it is the story of a conversion, of a gaze that gradually opens up to the true light, the one that illuminates every man.

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About Mary You Can Never Say Enough (De Maria Numquam Satis)

01-15-2023Weekly Reflection

Pope Benedict, before he was Pope, as Cardinal Ratzinger, expressed himself on the title of this essay in a book called The Ratzinger Report. He said: It seemed exaggerated to me. So it was difficult for me to understand the true meaning of another famous expression…the declaration that designated the Virgin Mary as the “conqueror of all heresies.” Now in this confused period where truly every type of heretical aberration seems to be pressing upon the doors of the authentic faith-now I understand that it was not a matter of pious exaggerations, but of truths that today are more valid than ever.

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My Son/Daughter Went to College and Abandoned the Faith And the Sexual Revolution

01-08-2023Weekly Reflection

A young woman, Megan Besham, wrote in the December 2022 issue of the magazine, First Things: “Like many a wayward daughter of middle-class America, when I was in college I took up academic culture’s invitation to throw off the moral restraints of my Christian upbringing. I experimented with all manner of substances and licentiousness—even with feminist theory, which almost proved intellectually fatal. “This was the second of two essays about college and the Faith. The first essay was by a different young woman, Veronica Clarke, who chose her college because it was “unapologetically Catholic.

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The New Totalitarianism

01-01-2023Weekly Reflection

There was a news item about the University of Minnesota Medical School promoting (imposing) a “woke” political agenda on faculty and applicants.  You would think that the goal of a medical school is to form competent doctors in the healing arts.  It’s not just at this medical school.  Some of the nation’s best medical schools are weeding out applicants who are insufficiently devoted to DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) efforts. A review of the admissions process at 50 of the top-ranked medical schools found that 36 asked applicants their views on, or experience in, DEI efforts.  Many were overt in asking applicants if they agreed with certain statements about racial politics and the causes of disparate health outcomes.

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