The Challenges of Discipleship

1. Outstanding article from FirstThings.com on the challenges of pro-life discipleship in this age. My favorite quote: "We must not submit. No matter how smooth the oration, no matter how appealingly the hand of invitation is extended, the culture of death, which promises everything, ultimately offers nothing."

2. Now, here's a shocker from the Department of the Bleeding Obvious. In the states where more people self-identify as pro-life, there are fewer abortions. In states where fewer people identify as pro-life, more babies die, er, I'm sorry, more "reproductive choices" are made.

3. Theresa Bonapartis of Lumina, the post-abortion ministry (www.postabortionhelp.org), writes about why she is a "pro-life extremist".

4. You remember that the Holy See is conducting a visitation of women's religious communities in the US, to assess their fidelity to the Church's teaching, beliefs, and practices? Well, some of the religious are objecting to the idea that visitators will be required to subscribe to a profession of faith -- you know, the one that says that the subscriber actually believes what the Church believes. What more proof do we need that such a visitation is necessary?

5. Apropos of that, an interesting analysis by a Vatican official on two currents in the Church regarding relations with the secular culture -- a "current of integration" and a "current of controversy".

6. The pro-life movement mobilizes in Spain.

7. Well, I'm sure glad the President's comfortable with having an anti-Catholic bigot on his Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Woudn't want anyone to be uncomfortable with a person who hates Catholics.

8. Thank God for scientific researchers, who continue to give us useful information. Now they tell us that men who marry younger women (especially if she's 15 to 17 years younger) will live longer, but the opposite effect is true for women -- they die younger if they marry an older man. Sadly, it means we will have more time with Donald Trump.