The music of Western civilization was born in the Catholic Church. Adapted from mid-eastern chants, it began with Pope St. Sylvester I (4th century), who founded a school of choristers. It was then supervised by Pope St. Damasus (d 384) and Leo the Great (d 461). Pope St. Gregory (d 604), after whom plainchant was named, collected, adapted, and codified the many chants for liturgy. Benedictine monks and nuns taught the laity to sing plainchant. Today, hundreds of chant manuscripts are...
In the spring of 1983, President Ronald Reagan did something highly unusual for a sitting president. He wrote and published an unsolicited article in "The Human Life Review," titled "Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation." In it, he denounced the "raw judicial power" by which the Supreme Court had dispossessed the unborn of their inalienable right to life in the Roe v. Wade decision, and mourned the some 15 million lives that had been snuffed out by abortion by that time.
On April 26,...
Our news outlets are not known for their squeamish attitude toward violence. On the contrary, reporters are often criticized for fixating on violence, exploiting it as fodder for the 24-hour news cycle.
We rarely see journalists shying away from a gruesome case. Yet, the media has been reluctant to cover the trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell – a Philadelphia abortionist accused of committing unspeakable crimes at his “Women’s Medical Center.”
Already indicted by a grand jury, Gosnell is...
Some stories, no matter how unsettling, just can't be ignored – even when some people are determined to look away.
The murder trial of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell will soon go to jury. And like every other criminally accused person under the law, Gosnell is innocent until proven guilty. Whatever the verdict though, there's no ambiguity about the kind of business he ran at his West Philadelphia “Women's Medical Center” – an abortion clinic that critics have likened to a...
Among the many admirable accolades that the late Margaret Thatcher accumulated over 30 years in public life, perhaps none looms larger or longer in memory than her nickname. In January 1976, a Soviet military officer used the phrase “Iron Lady” to profile Thatcher. But words intended only to alarm old men in the Politburo instead captivated audiences around the world to a broader fact – here was a woman who could (and eventually would) defeat a Cold War adversary, and wouldn’t...
America can learn something from the nation of Israel. In the Old Testament we see that when the Israelites drifted away from God and hence fell into idolatry, loose living was but the sad result. As such, liberty under God’s law turned into license in the absence of his law. Historian, William Durant, once said that when liberty turns to license, dictatorship is near. In fact, the last verse of the book of Judges indicates that the Hebrews grew weary of God’s law and authority. Indeed,...
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Make no mistake about it: The Church in our day is in the midst of a terrible, and in many ways unprecedented, crisis of faith. This objective reality, however, is largely lost on the overwhelming majority of Catholics, both clerical and otherwise.
While some Catholics, with deliberate intent, actively promote the various agendas that underlie the situation, others simply choose to downplay the magnitude of the crisis out of sheer weakness, as acknowledging the problem suggests a...
Violence and grief in the Boston area have rightly dominated our news media for the past week. The latest terrorist bloodshed is not at all senseless. It’s the work of calculated malice. Innocent people, including children, have paid the price for other people’s hatred. Our most important task right now is to pray for the victims and their families.
God exists, and God can heal even the worst suffering, despite every human attempt to ignore him and every terrible sin that seems to...
In 1955, Pope Pius XII designated May 1st as the feast of St. Joseph the Worker to counter two other celebrations in the Northern Hemisphere: the pagan and neo-pagan festivities ushering in spring and International Workers’ Day for unions, workers, and socialists. In most of these countries, May Day is an official holiday, and preparations are already underway for its festivities.
While Labor Day focuses on the value of both work and leisure, loss of employment and financial crisis can...
My 8-year-old son will receive his First Holy Communion next month, so I was struck with an overflowing sense of empathy when I saw the online image of the 8-year-old boy in his First Communion suit who was killed in the Boston Marathon bombing. That could have been my boy in the picture, dressed in a white tie and jacket, smiling innocently while standing outside the church, holding an art project with symbols of the sacrament – chalice, bread, host – very similar to the First...
