Free Republic

Oh boy, here we go again! A clip of Michelle Obama is going viral today because at one point, speaking of transgenders, she says the following quote: “It warms my heart as a black man.” See for yourself: Just click the link.

The photos posted in this album are just random shots that I have taken of people from various places in the Sichuan province as they move about in their daily lives. Someone emailed me last week and wanted to know why I take photos of people I don't even know. Well, I guess it's because people fascinate me. Every picture of every face tells a different story. Their faces are like little windows into a life that most of us can only imagine and as I sit and watch as they carry about with their daily lives, I feel...

Jan. 18-25 marked the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, and two events were among the highlights on this side of the ocean. Paulist Fr. Thomas Stransky gave a marvelous talk at the Centro Pro Unione, the ecumenical nerve center in Rome, on Jan. 23. His topic was “An Unique Case Study of Dialogue: The Delegated Observers at Vatican II.” Stransky, 72, was one of the four original staff members of the Secretariat for the Union of Christians, founded by Pope John XXIII on June 5, 1960. Stransky worked alongside Cardinal Augustin Bea, the future cardinal Johannes Willebrands, and...