Margaret Cabaniss

Margaret Cabaniss is the former managing editor of Crisis Magazine. She joined Crisis in 2002 after graduating from the University of the South with a degree in English Literature and currently lives in Baltimore, Maryland. She now blogs at SlowMama.com.

recent articles

Prescription Death: Refuting the ‘Right to Die’

As health care costs continue to rise and a growing number of Baby Boomers approach old age, end-of-life issues are looming larger than ever in the public debate. What is “the right to die”? How should we, as a society, approach questions of health care, treatment for the elderly, and euthanasia? The Patients Rights Council, … Read more

Addressing the Church’s Attrition Problem

  It’s no secret that the Catholic Church has an attrition problem. As Father Thomas Reese points out in his column “The hidden exodus: Catholics becoming Protestants,” the findings of the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, point to a stark reality: One out of … Read more

A Modern-Day Hermit

The hermitage isn’t what you’d expect: a small home in a quiet neighborhood of Essex, Maryland, that was originally built as a one-room fishing shack 100 years ago. But then, the hermit who lives there isn’t what you’d expect, either. Mary Zimmerer, now Sr. Maria Veronica of the Holy Face, is a bubbly widow who … Read more

Number of Catholics in Mexico declining

While Hispanic immigrants to America may be helping to keep the number of Catholics in the U.S. afloat, one sociologist says that the number of Catholics in Mexico is actually dwindling: More than 1,000 Mexicans left the Catholic Church every day over the last decade, adding up to some 4 million fallen-away Catholics between 2000 … Read more

Date set for Assisi peace gathering…with one important change

News out of the Vatican over the weekend: Pope Benedict XVI will call people of goodwill to join him in working for peace during a “day of reflection, dialogue and prayer for peace and justice in the world” to be held in Assisi on Oct. 27. At the start of the year, the Pope announced … Read more

Situation in Ivory Coast ‘extremely grave’

While everyone is keeping an eye on developments in Libya, the situation in Ivory Coast is deteriorating more and more: One thousand people were suspected to be dead or missing in the town of Duekoue, Ivory Coast, after clashes throughout the country intensified, Caritas Internationalis reported. Aid organizations have been recovering hundreds of bodies in … Read more

Friday Free-for-All: April 1

Time for a few Friday morning links: Could the 70 small metal books recently discovered in Jordan turn out to be the biggest find for Christian history since the Dead Sea Scrolls? An elderly Belgian couple opts for euthanasia together rather than face death separately. In the wake of Chernobyl, “there were many media reports … Read more

‘Tell me where the confessional is!’

On the hit show 24, Kiefer Sutherland spent a lot of time looking for stuff (bombs, chips, daughters, etc.); now he’s back in a new web-only series on Hulu, looking for something slightly different. Over at Patheos, Tony Rossi explains: When a cold-blooded hitman bursts into a hotel room to execute someone, the intended victim … Read more

Behind the scenes at the Vatican

David Gibson of Commonweal alerts readers to a two-hour special airing on the History Channel tonight, giving a behind-the-scenes look at life in the Vatican and some rare footage of Pope Benedict at home and at work: The show provides an overview of the history of the Vatican, and focuses on everyday life in the … Read more

Corporal punishment in Catholic schools

An interesting debate is unfolding around a Catholic school in New Orleans: St. Augustine’s, a historically African-American boys’ prep school, is apparently the last Catholic school in the country to use corporal punishment on students. In February, Archbishop Gregory Aymond called for an end to the practice, which he said “institutionalizes violence, runs counter to … Read more

Tiny church finds a big treasure…

On the little table at the back of my parish, there’s an assortment of bulletins, prayer cards, and church raffle tickets. Meanwhile, on the little table at the back of St. Laurence Church in Hamilton, England, there is…an original King James Bible. The ornate old Bible that had been sitting in plain view on a … Read more

What Would Jesus Cut?

Over at his blog on Forbes, Doug Bandow says that, when it comes to balancing the budget, the religious left’s question of “What would Jesus cut?” — and its implied answer: nothing — does no good in actually helping the poor. First, he points out that forced giving isn’t the same as charity: There’s nothing … Read more

Just War and Libya

In his weekly blessing yesterday, Pope Benedict called for an end to the fighting in Libya: “My fear for the safety and well-being of the civilian population is growing, as is my apprehension over how the situation is developing with the use of arms,” the pope said. “To international agencies and to those with political … Read more

Friday Free-for-All: March 25

Happy Feast of the Annunciation! I hope you’re all taking advantage of the solemnity to have some bacon with your breakfast. And now for a few links: The four New York Times reporters who went missing in Libya tell the story of their capture by Qaddafi’s forces, and their ultimate release. “Annulment Nation”: Jeff Ziegler … Read more

Vatican official says opponents of gay marriage face persecution, too

Following up on yesterday’s post about Catholic opinion on homosexuality: A Vatican representative to the UN Human Rights council has said that people who oppose gay marriage sometimes have their rights violated because of those beliefs: “People are being attacked for taking positions that do not support sexual behavior between people of the same sex,” … Read more

Are Catholics more supportive of ‘gay rights’ than the rest of the country?

*Facepalm*: Catholics are more supportive of gay and lesbian rights than the general public and other Christians, according to a new report released today. The new report, which is the most comprehensive portrait of Catholic attitudes on gay and lesbian issues assembled to date, also finds that seven-in-ten Catholics say that messages from America’s places of … Read more

Is religion heading for extinction?

Can mathematical models predict whether religion is heading for extinction? Researchers used census data from nine countries — Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland — and noted that religious affiliation was on the decline in all of them: “In a large number of modern secular democracies, there’s … Read more

Second-guessing the sexual revolution

Over at the Wall Street Journal, Jennifer Moses writes on the worrisome trend for younger and younger girls to dress and act provocatively. Of course, that’s been the constant lament of parents for generations — but in Moses’ case, she recognizes that her own generation was the first to come of age in the sexual … Read more

Friday Free-for-All: March 18

Good morning! For anyone nursing green beer hangovers this morning, here are a few links to ease you into the day: Archbishop Timothy Dolan on the sex abuse scandal to 60 Minutes: “This was such a crisis in the Catholic Church that in a way, we don’t want to get over it too easily. This … Read more

Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be ethicists

Two “kill all the dumb people” posts in one week? What are the odds? Human embryos should be screened for their potential intelligence and only the smartest allowed to live, an Oxford University ethicist has argued. In shocking remarks, Prof Julian Savulescu says embryos that do not pass the intelligence test should be destroyed for … Read more

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