How Support for Abortion Became Kennedy Dogma

Anne Hendershott has an article in the on-line Wall Street Journal about Caroline Kennedy and the Kennedy family politicians’ predilection for abortion. She writes of the 1964 meeting at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, Mass., the colloquium wherein the Kennedy politicos were coached on the Pharisaical sophistries involved in being pro-abortion as a politician while [...]

The Holy Name of Jesus and Free Will

“But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name.” (John 1:12)
On this Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, it was my privilege to hear the best sermon on the Holy Name that I’ve ever heard. It included a deep [...]

Vatican I, a Council Called in Very Tough Times

When Blessed Pope Pius IX summoned the First Vatican Council in 1869 the world was somewhat mystified. There had not been an ecumenical council since Trent (1545-1563). The nineteenth century had brought a new factor into the equation of church/state relations: the media. “What was the Vatican up to?” queried the pundits. “Are all the [...]

The Wreck of the Deutschland

The great Catholic priest, convert, and poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J., was so affected by the sinking, in 1875, of a German ship, the Deutschland, in a storm off the coast of Bremen, and the heroism of five Franciscan sisters on board who died in the tragedy, that he wrote what he considered his [...]

The Battle of Lepanto

The Battle of Lepanto commenced between the roughly equal number of men and ships off the coast of Corinth, Greece, after a traditional and formalized ceremony.   Both Muslims and Christians had about 30,000 men and slightly over two hundred vessels each. The lines of ships faced one another, one side firing one cannon shot.  If [...]

Phillip Murray, Advocate of the Working Man

One of the presidents of the American United Steel Workers Union was a very devout Catholic. He was Phillip Murray (1886-1952), an Irishman whose family emigrated from Scotland in 1902 when he was sixteen years old. Murray, who had worked with his father in the coalmines, figured prominently in advocating the rights of workmen, [...]

God-sibling to Gossip

The word “gossip” originally had a very noble meaning. It is contracted from “god-sibling” and was the term used for the godparent at baptism. In time the word was extended in usage and applied to any close friend, and, more frequently, for a woman’s closest friends that assisted at the delivery of her baby. [...]

Guadalupe Day Ice Storm: Photos

(This posting was originally published on the IHM School Site.)
In the early morning of December 12, 2008, southwestern New Hampshire and a large section of Massachusetts lost power due to a devastating ice storm. The tops of trees snapped off, branches broke, entire trees were uprooted (one narrowly missing two of the Brothers). We (the [...]

The Pope's Legion: The Multinational Fighting Force That Defended The Vatican

I have a distinct memory, from my Catholic high school days back in the 1950s, of a black and white photograph in a history textbook.  It was of a soldier in a funny-looking uniform; he had an even funnier-sounding name.  He was identified as a member of the “Zouaves.”  I don’t recall ever having a [...]

Let's Hear It for the Sisters!

For the unaware, it should be made known that our sisters have a web site that is frequently updated with pieces of “educational philosophy and cultural miscellany from a classical Catholic viewpoint.” Their brief and frequent postings do not disappoint.
The sisters have what I would call a heightened esthetic sense. (And I should know, being [...]