Free Republic

I hope this is posted someplace else, but I could not find it. Senator McCain was interviewed live before a packed Villanova college audience. He answered directly, received considerable interruptions for applause and was forthright in his prolife beliefs. He also discussed 527 groups and his willingness to squelch ours if they squelch theirs. He also received great applause on the earmark issue. Finally, he outlined his policy towards Iran and the nature of a response if they develop an atom bomb. I imagine this will be repeated so I offer this short summary as an encouragement to listen. He...

ED HILLE / Inquirer Staff Photographer Jeremy Clark, an Army veteran, fires his handgun at a range. He wants to be allowed to carry his Glock to classes at Villanova. Along with books, laptop and cell phone, there is something else that Jeremy Clark thinks is essential to bring to class: his gun. The Villanova University law student said the sickening spate of campus shootings, from Virginia Tech to Northern Illinois University, left him feeling vulnerable without his Glock 9mm semiautomatic handgun. "If I'm in a classroom where a shooting is taking place, I'd like a chance to be able...

If you've ever looked toward the front of St. Thomas of Villanova Church during Sunday Mass - left side, near the altar - you may have wondered why a select group of people there were laughing. It is because they know something you do not know. They are liturgical ministers. They are laughing at all the things that go wrong during Mass. To the untrained eye, everything appears to be going smoothly. But to the group that runs around behind the scenes, no Mass is ever without a slip-up. Rule number one in Liturgical Ministry: always pretend you know what...

VILLANOVA, Pa. - Villanova University was locked down for several hours after a suspected prowler fired shots at police and escaped early Wednesday, authorities said. No injuries were reported. Police searched the campus in the affluent Philadelphia suburb with infrared cameras, police dogs and a state helicopter but failed to locate the shooter, authorities said. Police had received reports of the prowler around 3:15 a.m. and he shot at them when they attempted to question him, authorities said. He later fired on more officers arriving as backup. Police called off the search at Villanova around 10:20 a.m., and classes resumed...

The first question one might ask about the valuable new book by author and activist David Horowitz is how he limited the number to study in the title of The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America. It is a difficulty which Horowitz himself acknowledges early on. “How many radical professors are there on American faculties?,” Horowitz asks. “According to the federal government, the total number of college and university professors in the United States is 617,000.” “If we were to take the Harvard case reviewed at the end of this volume as a yardstick and assume a figure...

On 21 May 2005, I attended the bacculareate Mass at Villanova University in southeastern Pennsylvania. My sister was graduating from this school, which was founded by Augustinian priests in the mid-19th century. The Mass took place in the early evening at the university's stadium, and other than a brief shower, the liturgy started well. A choir sang Palestrina's Tu es Petrus prior to the beginning of the Mass. I was delighted to hear that particular piece of music. However, I should have a heeded a warning of sorts that was right in front of my eyes. There was a table...

By: William W. Lawrence The Poo-Bahs at Villanova University, after hearing from stunned students, alumni, parents and others have decided to remove a plaque honoring Professor Mine Ener from its library and hold a symposium on mental illness instead. Professor Ener committed suicide after murdering her infant daughter in 2003. The daughter, Raya Donagi, was born with Down syndrome.We suggest that those who decided to pay homage to Professor Ener attend that symposium and take copious notes. *** A Haverford High honor student's use of an over-the-counter pain-reliever resulted in a lesson in bureaucratic pettiness. The girl had taken a...

GrassrootsPA has just learned that the controversial plaque honoring a professor who killed her baby was taken down from Villanova's Falvey library. "It sounds like it was officially removed, but there has been no official statement from the school," said Jeanne Marie Hoffman, the Villanova senior who lead the charge against the plaque. "I looked at the spot where it was in the library and it wasn't there. I was glad to see that the school rethought its erroneous decision to put it there in the first place." GrassrootsPA is awaiting official word from the school on whether the plaque...

By JIM McCAFFREY The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Villanova University — A renovated study space in the main library of Villanova University is being dedicated tomorrow to the memory of a woman who slashed her six-month old Down syndrome daughter’s throat — twice — and later killed herself. Villanova’s director of public relations and communications defends the dedication as an act of “compassion.” The vice president of the Board of Trustees, Herbert Aspbury, said he could not comment because the first he heard of the dedication was when he was contacted by this newspaper. The woman who organized the memorial, Christine...

Alexandria, Va. -- Once upon a lifetime ago, Shelly Pennefather was the sweetest of shooting stars, an All-American at Villanova and the 1987 national player of the year. Since 1991, she has lived here, in the Poor Clare Monastery, at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac in a very modest middle-class neighborhood. Pennefather has taken her vows and the name Sister Rose Marie of the Queen of Angels. She renounced her worldly life, including a six-figure salary as a professional basketball star in Japan, to answer her true calling: To serve God as a cloistered Poor Clare nun.