Jeanie Hannaman

By Fr. Kevin Drew, Catholic Exchange - Eight hundred years ago in Belgium, as a third of Europe was dying of the Bubonic Plague, a group of men quit their jobs and dedicated themselves to tending the sick and the dying.  They became known as the Alexian Brothers, named after St. Alexis of Rome... The new religious order distinguished itself by accepting patients no one else wanted, including those who suffered from mental disorders.  Caring for the mentally ill then became a charism of the Alexian Brothers. They came to America in the 1800s, starting hospitals in Chicago in 1866 and St. Louis in 1869.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture - The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas Kuhn, had an enormous influence on academic discourse in the 1960s and 1970s, introducing the concept of the “paradigm shift” into common usage. Kuhn argued persuasively that scientific progress occurs not steadily, but in leaps and bounds, as new discoveries and/or new theories force researchers to abandon old assumptions and look at the world in entirely new ways. The new paradigm is accepted if it explains that world more successfully—in other words, if it produces better results. Hold that thought.

By Rev. Jerry J. Pokorsky, The Catholic Thing - I am nine years old. I live with my mother and father. My father deposited his semen in a medical repository in an In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) clinic and, eventually, fertilized five of my mother’s ova. Medical technicians implanted me alone in my mother’s womb. My brothers and sisters remain frozen for possible implantation at a future date, either in my mother’s womb or, with her consent, the womb of another woman. I am an IVF baby.