Tuesday s decision of the three judge panel for the Ninth Circuit court which covers the western states of the United States declaring California Proposition 8 as unconstitutional still leaves many murky issues about the constitutionality of same sex marriage The 89 page decision endorsed by two

Missing from President Obama rsquo s State of the Union Address which was aimed so consistently at the economic problems of the middle class mdash the section of the population most likely to actually vote mdash was a confrontation with the nation rsquo s most destructive most virulent internal cr

It appears that the problem of government infringement on religious liberty is rapidly spreading Across the pond mdash almost mdash the Irish government has voted to reduce the 242 euro nbsp grants given to Irish families suffering from First Communions and Confirmations Last year 14 000 families

Why did Madonna choose to make a move about Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII Could she be chasing artistic gravitas A reflection by Victor Stepien Madonna is not remembered for her appearances on the big screen but for her music Her attempts at acting have been mainly failures except for E

A Catholic diocese in New England is getting some publicity for appointing a priest to lead a program called ldquo Courage rdquo nbsp throughout Maine Courage is a support group for Catholics to ldquo Live chaste lives in accordance with the Roman Catholic Church s teaching on homosexuality rdq

An explanation from Mirada Global Though their prime minister David Cameron the United Kingdom opposed the application for the financial transaction tax The proposal put forth by the French president Sarkozy planned that the European Union should use said tax in order to slow down the financial

I went to evening Mass with a heavy heart having spent the greater part of Saturday at a memorial service for an old friend He was a fourth grade teacher who had taught two of our four children but more than that he was one of my husband rsquo s dearest friends and practically a part of our fam

Cambridge MA This is Interfaith Awareness Week at Harvard as part of World Interfaith Harmony Week only in part by coincidence we have scheduled a rich variety of events at the Center for the Study of World Religions After the week is over I will reflect on some of what happened and I rsquo ve

I am not crazy enough to believe that the U S culture wars ever ended but it is kind of breathtaking to watch them reignite into flame before your eyes After announcing just three days ago that it would no longer fund breast exams at a handful of Planned Parenthood affiliates the Susan G Komen

I just read about something called a ldquo premortem rdquo and found it intriguing It rsquo s a technique devised by psychologist Gary Klein to help groups make better decisions Unfortunately as we all know groups are subject to groupthink and overconfidence Once an idea is put on the table no

The state of Indiana has just enacted a government regulation on business that business seems to love ndash lsquo right to work rsquo nbsp A lsquo Right to Work rsquo law forbids a business and a labor organization from signing a contract that requires all employees to join the union as a co

I had occasion recently to write a longer essay on measuring the comparative well-being of nations which will appear in a Dutch-Flemish Jesuit journal Streven Many may know that the two Nobel economics laureates Joseph Stiglitz and Armartya Sen joined others in preparing a document for France s

During this morning s annual prayer breakfast President Obama only obliquely referenced the week s unpleasantness between his administration and U S Catholic bishops The relationship already shaky became even more strained by recent Health and Human Services edicts that will require Catholic ho

Because my interest in priesthood began in junior high I attended the strangest and most wonderful of high schools a boarding school run by Capuchin Franciscan friars in Hays Kansas Thomas More Prep What was strange Two years before I arrived it had been two separate schools both run by the f

The nation rsquo s attention over the past couple of weeks has been focused on Florida where Mitt Romney trounced Newt Gingrich nbsp in the latest GOP primary contest Romney rsquo s victory is credited to a combination of the support he received from the many super PACs supporting his campaign an

A proposal from our friend and former U S ambassador to Malta Douglas W Kmiec Last November I strongly recommended to the White House that President Obama grant the bishops rsquo request for a broader exemption for Catholic employers from the general obligation placed on most employers to acq

Last week I had the privilige of visiting Salt Light communications in Toronto a very impressive organization that operates a host of nbsp media ministries including a television station a radio program a magazine and of course a blog Salt Light is directed by Fr Tom Rosica who also se

The Catholic Health Association has released an updated statement on the recent HHS position on a narrow religious exemption for Catholic institutional employers nbsp Something has to be fixed By SR CAROL KEEHAN DC CHA president and chief executive officer CHA and its members were profoundly di