American layman Curtis Martin, founder of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), was named by Pope Francis to serve along with 13 other consultors as advisors to the members of the Dicastry of Evangelization. Since FOCUS was founded in 1998, it has grown to have hundreds of full-time student missionaries who serve tens of…
St. Joseph the Worker—Hanging on the wall in my childhood home was a simple image of Joseph the carpenter, working with a piece of wood. My dad for most of his life was also a carpenter, building homes for his small business, The Village Carpenter, and thus especially liked this image. On May 1, we…
Catholic Business Journal sponsor CATHOLIC TEXTBOOK PROJECT, the creator of superior history textbooks for Catholic students and now used in Catholic schools in more than 100 dioceses and in English-speaking pockets of Catholic schools around the world, has a remarkable offer for Catholic schools only… “I wholeheartedly endorse the Catholic Textbook Project for the Diocese…
In a nation founded on the principles of Life, Liberty and OPPORTUNITY to pursue Happiness, What are they thinking?! … CNA—An abortion-inducing drug that is used to kill preborn children up to 10 weeks gestation will stay on the market as a legal battle over the pill continues, following a decision Friday by the U.S.…
CNA—The head of the Coptic Church is scheduled to offer the Orthodox Divine Liturgy in the Catholic Archbasilica of St. John Lateran in Rome on May 14. According to Father Martin Browne, an official at the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, this liturgy will take place in the context of an official visit of…
Crisis Magazine—“It is a mistake, even heresy,” warned St. Francis de Sales, to “banish the devout life from the company of soldiers.” But the current U.S. administration did just that by evicting priests from the facility, and turned Holy Week into Hell Week for Catholic servicemembers at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The issue,…
Mark Your Calendars for the worldwide premiere of THE HONG KONGER: JIMMY LAI’S EXTRAORDINARY STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM, to be shown on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, at 8:00 pm ET . Sign up here to get notified of the worldwide premiere next Tuesday: https://www.acton.org/jimmylai Here is where to watch the premiere next Tuesday at 8pm ET: …
CNA, The Guardian and other sources—The last surviving prosecutor of the Nuremberg Trials, Benjamin Ferencz, died last week on Good Friday at the age of 103. Ferencz secured the convictions of 22 Nazis for the murder of 1 million Jews during World War II. He spent the rest of his life advocating for human rights.…
CNA—The dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, has confiscated a cloistered monastery and arrested 20 people for activities related to Holy Week in Nicaragua. The Trappist sisters of Nicaragua (see feature photo), who left the country in February after 22 years of service, reported April 11 that the government…
Conditions did not improve when George IV (featured image) became king of England in 1820. As regent for his insane father, George III, since 1811, George IV had long supported the repression of radicals. Though a clever man (he was a student of the classics and fluent in French, Italian and German), George IV was…
Manufacturing in the U.S. has become challenging in recent years, but not for all the reasons you might expect if you’re not intimately involved in manufacturing. The various factors affecting American manufacturing intertwine, but one stand-out component is a surprising lack of trained, skilled workers. The money potential is there. The need is there. But…
During the COVID-19 pandemic, public health authorities—once relatively obscure government agencies—were given unprecedented power to manage citizens’ lives in the name of public safety. Some critics have argued that this situation brought into focus a number of long-standing trends of modernity: trends toward medicalization, scientific rationalism, and state surveillance in liberal societies. Any plausible analysis…
Can A Dream of a Statue that Recognizes the Dignity of the Human Person Through “Mother and Child” Come True in Today’s America? Some years ago my wife Pat and I were at a Legatus Summit in Florida and on display there were pictures of the beautiful sculptures by internationally known sculptor Timothy Schmalz. We…
CNA—A federal judge in Texas issued a much anticipated ruling Friday that, if it holds up in court, could take the abortion drug mifepristone off pharmacy shelves due to safety concerns and in doing so prevent over half of the abortions that take place in the country. U.S. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s preliminary ruling found that…
This article was originally posted March 17, 2020, during the early days of Covid 19 fear, nonstop mainstream news fear-intensity and abrupt government-ordered business and social lockdowns. As something a little different, and especially in light of the current battle against the spread of COVID-19 as well as the no less insidious battle for our Faith…
March 17, 2023
I visited Westport Ireland three years ago in search of my grandmother’s (Cahill) birth certificate. It is a beautiful place on the West Coast of Ireland, north of Galway. It lies at the foot of Croagh Patrick which is named in honor of Saint Patrick, the apostle and patron of Ireland and the Irish race.…
CNA—St. Francesca Romana, also known as St. Frances of Rome, is frequently called the “most Roman of the saints,” and is the co-patron of the city. She serves as a model for holiness in her vocation as wife and mother, and for her service to the poor of the city through the lay order she…
I write this as a woman, female, a God-made, parents-helped original… and Catholic. I live, however, in a region where some people, journalists, even a few business professionals, service industry hosts and other leaders and influencers (self-proclaimed and objectively determined) — did I mention news reporters and politicians?!!!! — even clergy from various faiths, tend…
This year, 2023, is off to an exciting start! Rather than focusing on New Year’s Resolutions this year I was captivated by the writings in the Word For You Today: “With God all things are possible.” (Mt: 19-26) Many things that are possible remain undone because of doubt and unbelief. So, this year, think “possible.”…
The Institute for Catholic Liberal Education (ICLE) recently announced its enthusiastic support for Classic Learning Test’s summative, end-of-year assessments for young learners in grades 3-6, saying that these assessments meet a great need for Catholic schools and teachers by complementing beautiful, faithful education. Classic Learning Test (CLT) is currently recruiting schools to participate in the…
