Mother Teresa never sought fame—she was content to simply care for the sick and indigent without notice or fanfare. While she was unique in many ways, she was not the first, or the last, of great Catholic heroes who are blessed with incredible humility. Father Richard Frechette is cut from the same cloth: he services the [...]
Every demographic group has its Catholic League equivalent, namely a civil rights organization that fights for the rights of its constituents. But we’re different, at least in one respect: we not only defend individuals, we defend an institution. And quite frankly, most of what we do is fight defamation against the institutional Church; we defend individual [...]
As we mark the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, there is good news and bad news on abortion. The good news is that more Americans identify with the pro-life message than ever before; the bad news is that their president and his administration do not. First the bad news. Barack Obama is not only the most [...]
New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan spent his first six months getting to know the priests, religious, seminarians and laity of his new archdiocese. He also got acquainted with the many issues facing him, a daunting exercise for anyone, never mind someone from out of town. By all accounts, he was off to a fast start, winning [...]
The Catholic Church is committed to strong interreligious relations, as well it should be. Being respectful of other religions is a good thing, and it very often leads to crucial coalitions on timely political, economic, social and cultural matters. There is a difference, however, between respecting other religions and fawning over them. Surely we want children [...]
Taylor Swift is a teenager who received an MTV Video Music Award in September. But rapper Kanye West thought singer Beyoncé should have won. This wouldn’t have been newsworthy except for what he did: he walked on stage, grabbed the microphone from Swift and told the world that his favorite singer should have won. When the [...]
have often told my daughters that one of the great things about my job is that I don’t have to lie. I believe in what the Catholic Church teaches, and believe that its voice should be given a fair hearing in society. Because it often is not—indeed there is a cacophony of cat-calls trying to shut [...]
The first book that I wrote, The Politics of the American Civil Liberties Union, was published in 1985. The groundwork for that book had already been done: my NYU dissertation was on “Organizational Change Within the ACLU.” To write the book, I not only revised my dissertation, I added much new material and concentrated more on the [...]
When I first learned that President Barack Obama was invited to give the commencement address and receive an honorary law degree at the University of Notre Dame, I walked into McGeever’s pub and told the boys that they would not believe which Catholic university was going to honor the president. “Don’t tell me Notre Dame,” Billy [...]
Throughout American history, there has been an uneasy relationship between those on the left side of the political spectrum who are religious, and those who are secular. It has been obvious that the two groups share the same politics, but just as obvious has been their point of departure—the origin of their values is quite different. [...]
