Jeanie Hannaman

By M.C. Holbrook, Catholic Exchange - A friend once described to me what she referred to as her “pre-party personality.” “Pre-party personality” was her euphemism for the brusque and irritable attitude that she would unleash upon her family, all in an effort to make things “perfect” for her guests. Many of us who have experienced the stress of getting ready to host a party can relate to my friend’s predicament, and Martha is no different... It’s not that Martha is not happy to serve, to welcome, to entertain; it’s just that getting her home ready for Jesus to arrive would have been stressful. And as long as Martha chose to cling to the idea that everything had to be “just right,” she was going to be in a bad mood ....

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture - Throughout the Western world, Catholic Mass attendance has declined dramatically since Vatican II. That is an established fact. But did the Council—or its aftermath—cause the decline, or was the decline part of an overall cultural trend that the Council could not reverse? That question has prompted lively debate for several decades... In an interesting new contribution to that debate, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) finds that Vatican II was the cause of the decline.