development

Male infertility: Blame mom?

Here’s an interesting — and alarming — article from The Independent. One third of healthy young men between 18 and 25 have  abnormal sperm counts. And the sperm they do produce is often of poor quality. Studies show that “only between 5 and 15 per cent of their sperm is, on average, good enough to … Read more

Second Thoughts about the Second Coming

                        The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise again. (1 Thes 4:16)   We’ve all heard the common wisdom about the second coming of Christ: Early Christians expected the imminent triumphant return of … Read more

Euthanasia in the Great White North

I know most of the talk today is probably going to be about the health care bill.  But I wanted to share a gem of an article written by David Warren, a contributing writer here at IC.  Mr. Warren takes up the topic of the euthanasia bill that is being debated in Ottowa’s House of … Read more

ABC News takes a full week to get it wrong.

ABC News is just now discovering last week’s confusion over Christoph Cardinal Schonborn’s comments on priestly celibacy. If you missed it, the cardinal had written a column for his diocesan magazine addressing the past sex abuse scandal. In the article, Cardinal Schönborn called for an “unflinching examination” of possible reasons for pedophilia, and said that … Read more

Reform of the Reform

Since the beginning of his pontificate, it has been widely understood that Pope Benedict XVI is working on a “reform of the reform” of the Catholic liturgy. The pope’s statements suggest that his intention is to clear up many of the distortions of Vatican II with regard to the liturgy, to combat widespread liturgical abuses, … Read more

Corporate personhood is an oxymoron

Should corporations be considered persons? Is personhood the same as citizenship? And is money a legitimate form of free speech? These are the questions I’ve been asking myself since reading the news of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Thursday that corporations and unions are persons with free speech rights, therefore permitted to contribute as much money … Read more

So Now They’re Teens

“Mo-om!” If the rolling of eyes could make a noise, my oldest daughter’s facial expression would have been deafening.   We were headed to her orthodontist appointment. It was early, but I had brushed my teeth, put on make up, and was wearing my new hat. I thought I might even look a little bit … Read more

A Counterintuitive Speech Survey

This TimesOnline (UK) story — detailing a recently-completed parent survey on the ages at which their children learned to speak — caught my attention for several reasons. Firstly, because the “raw numbers” themselves are quite interesting — 3 seems disconcertingly late for speech to me, though that was a relatively small percentage of responders. And the gender splits … Read more

Through a Veil Darkly

A recent headline from Zenit announces, “Scholars Aim to Disprove Darwin.”   My thought: “Good luck with that.” I’m highly skeptical that guys like Hugh Owen, who believe in a young earth and the coexistence of dinosaurs and humans, are going to land any punches that overthrow the basic arguments for stuff like an old … Read more

Rethinking the Seamless Garment

Is Pope Benedict XVI an admirer of the seamless garment? Evidently he is, and at first sight that’s bad news for conservative Catholics. But hold on: The good news is that he understands seamless-garment thinking in a way that ought to lead conservatives to admire it, too. To be sure, in his new economic encyclical … Read more

A Transcendent Nature

The 29th section of Caritas in Veritate concerns religious freedom. What is at stake here is not the usual “church and state” hassle. To clear the air, Pope Benedict XVI states that he is not concerned here with fanaticism, in which violence is used to promote the goals of religions. It is self-evident that this … Read more

Your Life Is a Gift

The pope’s new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (CV), is a “big” document, and I won’t pretend to dispose of it with a brief commentary. Like its ancestor, the epochal Rerum Novarum, it will work its way through the mills of hundreds of thinkers for decades to come — provoking responses by writers of every political … Read more

Benedict XVI Tightens Up the Church’s Social Teaching

Pope Benedict XVI’s third encyclical — Caritas in Veritate — arrived today containing 30,468 words: an introduction, six chapters, conclusion, and 159 footnotes. It’s not thrilling reading, even by encyclical standards, but as the latest papal statement on the Church’s social teaching, “Love in Truth” will be a work of lasting significance. Those who dig … Read more

The InsideCatholic Summer Reading List 2009

Summer is in full wilt, and that means it’s time for the InsideCatholic Summer Reading List. We’ve asked bloggers, staff, and writers to suggest a few titles they’ve recently enjoyed. They’ve obliged.   Have a look at the list — you’ll find something for every interest — and then add your own recommendations in the … Read more

Humanae Vitae and Me

I wasn’t a particularly devout teenager. I knew it was important to go to Sunday Mass, but I honestly found it rather dull at times. So it was tremendously satisfactory when, one Sunday, there was high drama.   A man got up from the congregation during the priest’s sermon and shouted at him. From where … Read more

Why Conception?

In response to Vice-President elect Joe Biden’s erroneous public comments on the Catholic Church’s teachings on abortion, USCCB Chairman Justin Cardinal Rigali released a statement asking: When does a new human life begin? When is there a new living organism of the human species, distinct from mother and father and ready to develop and mature … Read more

The Fall of Secularism

Recently, the influential German philosopher Jürgen Habermas spoke of the emergence of a “post-secular” society. It had long been thought that as societies grew in technological and economic power, and as the risks of daily life that had been so common for generations faded beneath the safety of plentiful food, a social welfare system, and … Read more

InsideCatholic’s Summer 2008 Reading List

  The staff and friends of InsideCatholic have a variety of interests and backgrounds. But we do have one thing in common: We all enjoy reading. In the hopes that you’re a reader as well, we thought we’d share some of the better titles we’ve recently come across. You should find something here for every … Read more

Reawakening the Catholic Literary Scene

In April, Todd M. Aglialoro asked readers of this site, “What happened to Catholic fiction, and how do we effect its renewal?” This question — which generated over 100 responses — could be broadened: How do we renew Catholic literature? William Baer has been asking the same thing, and has been taking tangible steps toward … Read more

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