Free Republic

The death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia at age 79 of natural causes Saturday in Texas is an ideal occasion to reflect on the profound influence he had on the legal profession and, by extension, the nation. Astute observers of academic life in America know that the law professoriate has long been dominated by liberals. I discovered this when I arrived at law school, and my professors ignored, dismissed, or derisively mocked conservative and libertarian legal arguments. The dominance of progressive legal views is so powerful that even faculty members who are politically moderate are pressured into...

April 1, 1854, Brush Creek, Missouri: Peter Tolton paced nearby as his wife, Martha Jane, gave birth to their second son. They named him Augustus (after his uncle), and before the month was out, the baby was baptized in nearby St. Peter's Catholic Church. Mrs. Savilla Elliot stood as Augustus' godmother.The baptism of Augustus was a bit unusual. That was because Mrs. Elliot was married to Stephen Elliot, who happened to be the "owner" of Augustus' mom and dad. Mr. and Mrs. Tolton were slaves, and their three children, Charley, Augustus and Anne, were born into slavery. The slave...

This Valentine's Day I wanted to dive deeper than the box of chocolates. I asked some of my favorite couples, who have been married from a range of less than a year to 30-plus years, a few questions about marriage. Read these when you have a chance to soak them in ... some really good words I will be trying to bring to fruition in my own life!What is one way you work on keeping your marriage strong?"Marriage is about choosing love whether or not you feel it. Feelings are temperamental, but the decision to choose love every day...

I first met Brother Augustine Wilmeth when he was one of the students where I served as chaplain. As a convert, he was intensely interested not only in his new Catholic faith but in the more traditional expressions of life and worship.I followed his progress through the years and had the chance last summer to visit him a few months before he took his first vows as a monk at the Benedictine monastery that has been reestablished at Norcia in Italy.Brother Augustine spoke to me for Aleteia about his vocation, his life in the monastery and his work brewing...

There is a classic story about a samurai warrior who came to understand what real courage, integrity and humility were all about. The cruelest, most violent Samurai in Japan decides he wants to become enlightened. He bursts into the home of an esteemed Zen Master and demands that the Master teach him how to become enlightened. The Zen Master looks deeply into his eyes and says, "No. You are a dirty, vicious Samurai. I will not teach you."Enraged, the Samurai yanks out his sword and places it right at the Zen Master's neck. He hollers, "Do you have any...

The modernist French literary figure Charles Baudelaire coined the maxim that "the devil's best trick is to persuade you that he does not exist." I respectfully disagree.The aphorism appears in a short story entitled “The Generous Gambler,” told in the first person, in which the storyteller reflects upon a pleasant evening he spent with the father of lies over a game of chance in which he lost his soul. In the course of amiable conversation, the devil confides in his guest "that he had only been afraid for his power once," when a preacher proclaimed, "never forget ... that...

Churches will be crowded soon with more people heading to Mass who don’t regularly attend. We’ll all be seeing some unfamiliar faces in the pews. And I know I’ll be seeing people in the Communion line I’ve never seen before; some will be casual Christmas-and-Easter Catholics, some will be visitors from out of town. And inevitably, I know I’ll be seeing people receive the sacrament in some creative ways.(In my parish, we stopped distributing the Precious Blood a couple years ago, during one of our big flu outbreaks, and the practice was never restored.)People will debate this until the Second Coming, but the...

Zechariah was a priest doing his duty, making the incense sacrifice in the temple, when an angel appeared to him. The story is told in the first chapter of Luke’s gospel. The angel told Zechariah that, despite he and his wife, Elizabeth, being too old to have children, she would have a son.The language and imagery in the story is evocative of the Old Testament. Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were childless when three angels appeared to announce the birth of their son Isaac. Furthermore, the child who is to be born to Zechariah and Elizabeth will be like...

As a convert, one of the things that attracted me to the Catholic Faith was its strong grounding in the physical world. Catholic teaching on the Real Presence, the Sacraments, and sacramental objects offered me a faith grounded in the real world, where Jesus wasn’t just a memory we commemorated through symbolism or a spiritual presence living invisibly in our hearts. No, for Catholics, he is flesh and blood, physically present all over the world in the Eucharist, and his grace is a tangible thing. Baptism, Confession, Communion, Confirmation, Marriage, Ordination, the Anointing of the Sick—these Sacraments are not...

We all know where priceless ancient manuscripts should be found: somewhere remote, preferably a desert, and we need a good hiding place; caves are perfect. In terms of creating a stereotype, the Dead Sea Scrolls are the model case, followed by the ancient Christian and Gnostic texts found at Nag Hammadi, in Egypt, around the same time. Yet one of the greatest such discoveries in modern times broke all those rules, which might explain why it remains so thoroughly unknown outside quite a narrow specialist world. And we still are only beginning to come to terms with the implications.The...

VATICAN CITY — The synod fathers meeting in the Vatican are expected to issue an official statement on Saturday concerning families in the Middle East.Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ, made the announcement at Friday’s midday synod briefing. He also provided details on Friday’s morning session, saying it was dedicated to free interventions, observations, and suggested changes to the draft document delivered to the synod fathers on Thursday evening.A total of 51 interventions were delivered at the morning session, Fr. Lombardi reported, describing them as varied and noting that “a certain number of them focused on the discussion between...

I’m sure you’ve seen them in the media: attractive, well-off, smiling parents holding adorable infants created by third-party reproduction and assisted reproductive technologies (ART). Of course, the narrative goes, this development is a win-win for all. Who could object to children being created for those who through either infertility or biological sex are unable to reproduce? But this picture hides the highly profitable fertility industry’s dirty secrets. It ignores what is required to create these children: exploitation, health endangerment, and the commodification of human life. An honest look at the facts and circumstances surrounding third-party reproduction and ART should...

“A person’s a person, no matter how small.”-Dr. Seuss My generation doesn’t talk much about abortion. The topic is settled in many people’s minds and further discussion only creates an atmosphere of hostility.  Many women and men who have experienced an abortion never speak of it for fear of judgment or personal shame.  Nonetheless, it is a quiet source of regret and great emotional turmoil for many people.  The politicization of abortion positioned as a women’s individual right creates a forced silence, and has produced a generation that does not want to look at the broader truth and as...

It's a judge's duty to preside at the marriages of any couple that comes to him—heterosexual or homosexual—and if he is unwilling to do so, he "needs to step down.” That is the view of the  executive director of the LGBT rights group Equality Toledo,  Nick Komives, reacting to news of a Toledo, Ohio, judge who excused himself from the civil marriage ceremony of two lesbians.  “They didn’t deserve to be humiliated; they didn’t deserve to be inconvenienced,” Komives told the Toledo Blade. “That’s just wrong, and we won’t tolerate it. It is his duty to perform this ceremony, and...

Some states already had legalized same-sex “marriage” before the Supreme Court’s ruling at the end of June. Other states had to start accomodating them. And then there are the American territories. Most have voluntarily complied with the Supreme Court decision, according to the Associated Press: In Puerto Rico, Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla signed an executive order soon after the ruling. U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Kenneth Mapp has signed a similar executive order. In Guam, there is no effort to ignore or challenge the ruling, said territorial legislative Vice Speaker Benjamin F. Cruz, who is gay. The Commonwealth of the Northern...