I attended the Catholic Medical Association Conference in Springfield, Ill. that ran Oct. 22-24, 2009 and presented a paper entitled, “Love and Healing.” It was most encouraging to observe the strong and courageous witness for life expressed by well over 300 participants, including many members of the medical profession. Most came away from the conference, I believe, with renewed energy and a firmer resolve to work harder, in this darkening night, for the cause of life. It is impossible to do ... (Continue reading)
Tiger Woods and his wife were dining in a fashionable Chinese restaurant. When it was time to crack open the fortune cookies, Elin impulsively tore open her husband’s and read the cryptic fortune aloud: “He who drives well on the fairway may not always fare well on the driveway.” “What do you think this means?” she asked in a trembling voice. Her husband did not utter a word, but a grave ... (Continue reading)
Our son, Paul, was the first of our five children to marry. He and his wife, Fran, wanted to become parents soon after they had become husband and wife. That is to say, as soon as it was proper and reasonable. But children, of course, are not conceived to order. A couple of childless years passed and the hopeful couple began praying in earnest that their marriage would be specially blessed with new life. Then came the happy news that ... (Continue reading)
Donald DeMarco emphasizes the importance of distinguishing what is real and what is nonsense regarding the politicized issues of the day. (Continue reading)
Athlete missed '04 Olympics to have child The Beijing Olympiad has passed and left the world images of glory that will last for many years: Michael Phelps' eight gold medals, Jamaica's Usain Bolt setting records in the 100- and 200-metre dashes, the American basketball team gaining "redemption," the dazzling spectacle and gracious hospitality the Chinese provided.... (Continue reading)
On June 17, 2008, the Boston Celtics broke their huddle with the chant “ubuntu,” just as they had before every game in their gruelling 116-game season. Then, they calmly walked out onto the parquet court of the New Boston Garden and won their 17th NBA championship, demolishing the Los Angeles Lakers by the eye-popping score of 131-92. It was, in the words of one sports writer, a “parquet Picasso.” Ubuntu ... (Continue reading)
Victor Borge tells the story of a friend whom he had not seen in 50 years who asked him, rather excitedly, “Was it you or your brother who passed away?” The captain of a four-engine plane alerted his passengers that one of the engines had conked out. He assured them forthwith that there was nothing to worry about, although flying ... (Continue reading)
Britain’s Royal College of Psychiatrists, in a statement released on March 14 urged that women should not be allowed to have abortions until they are counseled on the procedure’s risks to their mental health. The College recommended adding details about the risks of depression to abortion leaflets. “Consent cannot be informed,” it claimed, “without the provision of adequate and appropriate information.” More than 90 per cent of ... (Continue reading)
Baseball augurs the beginning of spring, but be careful in listening to the sports’ announcers. Donald Demarco considers the joys – some unintended – of baseball The truest harbinger of spring is not the appearance of crocuses or the arrival of swallows at Capistrano, but the reverberating crack of bat meeting ball. Winter was ... (Continue reading)
Michael Polanyi changed his career path from science to philosophy so that, paradoxically, he could help protect science from being absorbed into a narrow ideology. In his 1962 Terry Lectures at Yale University, he recounted a conversation he had with Nikolai Bukhanin in 1935. At that time, Bukhanin, whom Lenin called the “Golden Boy” of the party, was a leading theoretician for the Communist party. When Polanyi asked him about ... (Continue reading)
St. Alphonsus Liguori makes the comment, in his b ook, The Incarnation, Birth and Infancy of Jesus Christ, that Jesus was born "in poor ragged clothes, in a stable lying on straw in a manger for animals," because "he came to destroy the pride which had been the cause of man's ruin." Pride is the most pernicious of the seven deadly sins. It directs us to focus on what is peripheral and ignore what is central. It greatly impairs our ability to discern ... (Continue reading)
The spring 2007 issue of Conscience, the publication of a nefarious group of abortion promoters who call themselves, strangely enough, “Catholics for a Free Choice,” has announced its new president. Jon O’Brien, who worked as program manager at the International Planned Parenthood Federation’s European Bureau in London, replaces Frances Kissling. Kissling steps aside after ... (Continue reading)
Rhetoric is simply the art of persuasion. As Socrates discovered, however, to his great dismay, not all rhetoric is accompanied by knowledge. The sophists of his day made it incontrovertibly clear to him that their style of rhetoric required no knowledge whatsoever. And without knowledge, reason, not having anything to sink its teeth into, cannot operate. Socrates could not begin to understand how one person ... (Continue reading)
Jan. 21, the date that President George W. Bush chose for his fellow Americans to honour the sanctity of human life, is significant for two reasons. First, it falls on a Sunday, the Lord’s Day. Secondly, it is one day prior to the 34th anniversary of the infamous Roe v Wade decision that drove a sword into the nation’s commitment to the sanctity of human life, leaving a wound that has ... (Continue reading)
Jan. 21, the date that President George W. Bush chose for his fellow Americans to honour the sanctity of human life, is significant for two reasons. First, it falls on a Sunday, the Lord’s Day. Secondly, it is one day prior to the 34th anniversary of the infamous Roe v Wade decision that drove a sword into the nation’s commitment to the sanctity of human life, leaving a wound that has ... (Continue reading)
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I attended the Catholic Medical Association Conference in Springfield, Ill. that ran Oct. 22-24, 2009 ...
Our son, Paul, was the first of our five children to marry. He and his ...
Donald DeMarco emphasizes the importance of distinguishing what is real and what is nonsense regarding ...
Athlete missed ...
On June 17, ...
Victor ...
Britain’s Royal College of Psychiatrists, in a statement ...
Baseball augurs the beginning of spring, but be ...
Michael Polanyi changed his career path from science to philosophy ...
St. Alphonsus Liguori makes the comment, in his b ook, The Incarnation, Birth and Infancy of ...
...
Rhetoric is simply the ...
Jan. 21, the date that President ...
Jan. 21, the date that President ...
