Catholic Church

By Francis X. Maier, The Catholic Thing - The last days of December are always a time for reflection; an opportunity to make sense of the past, take stock of the present, and set a course for the future.  As Benedict XVI once noted, Christians are now the most persecuted religious community in the world.  If we Christians who still have the blessings of religious freedom sleep, then the world our grandchildren inherit will be a world increasingly without the Cross, and without the truth.

By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture - I don’t give a feather or a fig whether either my priests or my fellow Catholics are conservative or liberal in vague temperamental or vaguer political terms. But I do care whether they tell the truth. I do care whether they are faithful to the teachings of Christ and His Church. I do care whether they are steering clear of the abyss.

By John M. Grondelski, Crisis Magazine - Today, December 28, is the Feast of the Holy Innocents. It commemorates the decision of King Herod to slay boys in Bethlehem and its environs two years of age or younger because he felt betrayed by the Magi, who failed to report back to him the whereabouts of “the newborn King of the Jews” (Matthew 2:16-18)... Our liturgical calendar is not chronological: we mark the martyrdom of the Holy Innocents before we celebrate the Epiphany (and, in the United States, we push that Solemnity from its historical place as Twelfth Night to an adjacent Sunday).

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International - There is no feast day in the Church’s calendar that is more meaningful for me as a pro-life activist, or that brings me greater joy, than Christmas. Absolutely everything that we fight for every day here at Human Life International is encapsulated in those early chapters of the Gospels, and in that beautiful scene in Bethlehem... It is no coincidence that Pope St. John Paul II starts his brilliant pro-life encyclical, Evangelium vitae, by recounting the Christmas story.