September 26, 2022
"We submit ourselves to fear and that's a kind of enslavement to passion. And that kind of enslavement to passions damages us. It leads us to sin. It leads us to not fight for the greater good — to sins of omission when we should have done the greater good," said Joshua Nelson, who wrote an article, "Offer Up Your Fear," on Catholic Exchange. "By keeping Christ in mind, and at the forefront, it helps us put our attachments in perspective. Because, in many times and many circumstances that I've experienced fear, it's because I'm overly attached to something else."
Follow Nelson's writing at his blog, Thoughts of a Christian Stoa.
September 19, 2022
"The attack is on the family. The family is the foundation for everything, in our own individuals lives, as well as for the Church and society. So for the good of our children — for the good, of course, of the married people — for the Church and society, as well, it's absolutely a necessity right now to really put the focus on marriage. You look at the history of the Church — and God always raises up people to come to the aid of whatever area is under attack. What the devil tries to do in destroying something, God brings good out of evil and actually makes it better," said Fr. Robert J. Altier, author of "God's Plan For Your Marriage: An Exploration of Holy Matrimony from Genesis to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb" (Sophia Institute Press).
Hear homilies from Fr. Altier, based in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, at CatholicParents.org and learn about his series, "Beauty, Truth, Goodness: The Fundamentals of Catholicism."
September 12, 2022
"Coming out of the pandemic, the widespread dissatisfaction with the way that colleges, as well as traditional district public schools, handled education is palpable. We see it in surveys, we see it in parents moving their kids from assigned schools and creating learning pods and choosing private schools and finding other options for them," said Jonathan Butcher, the Will Skillman Fellow in Education, Center for Education Policy, at The Heritage Foundation. He wrote a recent commentary, "Don't Reform Higher Education. Rebuild It."
Hear a previous Respect Life Radio interview with him, "Critical Race Theory and the new intolerance" and follow him @JM_Butcher on Twitter.
September 6, 2022
"There are two models of courage: one is absence of fear — and the other is being afraid, but being steadfast in holding your position, even though you are afraid. The Christian notion of...courage, which Our Lord presents, is different from both of those," said Michael Pakaluk, Ph.D., professor of ethics at The Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America.
He wrote an article for The Catholic Thing, titled "The Four Deaths," in which he recommends reading "The Passion and the Death of Jesus Christ," written by St. Alphonsus Ligouri. See more on Pakulak, including his published books, at this Amazon.com link.
August 29, 2022
The intent of Pres. Biden's climate policy "is to get rid of coal, oil and natural gas in the long term. As I said earlier, 79 percent of our energy needs come from those three resources. And 90 percent of our transportation energy needs are met through petroleum. So, the president's climate agenda is in direct opposition to Americans' daily well-being. And yet he's out there making climate the issue, but apparently only one percent of Americans actually care about," said Katie Tubb, research fellow at the Center for Energy, Climate and Environment at The Heritage Foundation, who wrote a recent commentary, "What You Need to Know About Biden’s Climate 'Emergency.'"
Follow The Heritage Foundation @Heritage on Twitter.
![Meg Kilgannon: Combating threats against the innocence of children]()
August 22, 2022
“I hope that these colleges that are coming from a Christian worldview are teaching the goodness and the beauty and the truth of Western civilization. And the freedom that you experience when you conform your life to the will of God. These are the kind of people that we want coming out of Christian institutions and going into the public school system; to be a witness of that truth. And it's sorely needed. It's desperately needed. And we see that need when we see the videos on sites like Libs of TikTok, the kind of agenda that some of the teachers are leaving college with,” said Meg Kilgannon, a senior fellow for education studies at Family Research Council.
Kilgannon was recently quoted in an article, "'Center for Grooming Children': CDC Site Steers Minors to Facilitated LGBT Chat Forum," in The Washington Stand, a new FRC online "outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview."
Hear a previous Respect Life Radio interview with Kilgannon, "Is God calling you to run for school board?" Follow Kilgannon @meg_kilgannon on Twitter.
August 16, 2022
"In some ways it's sad to see people identifying as Catholics but then pushing these issues — not just as things they think are good — but they talk about the language of rights: a right to contraception, a right to same-sex marriage,” said Lauretta Brown, Washington-based staff writer for the National Catholic Register. “In the years that I've covered politics, though, unfortunately I've gotten quite used to seeing this: people being Catholic, talking about their faith, but turning around and disregarding some central Church teachings.”
See Brown's recent article, “Democrats’ Proposal to Codify Same-Sex Civil Marriage Poses Religious-Freedom Issues, Critics Say" and follow her @LaurettaBrown6 on Twitter.
August 1, 2022
“We are living in a new age of tyranny...of relativism, the dictatorship of secular modernity,” said Derek Rotty, who wrote a recent column for the National Catholic Register, titled, “Natural Law and Moral Virtues Bring Independence From Tyranny.” “What America has lost is its understanding, and its foundation, on the natural law.”
Rotty, the director of evangelization and discipleship at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Jackson, Tenn., is the author of the 2019 book, “A Life of Conversion: Meeting Christ in the Gospels” (Our Sunday Visitor).
Follow him @derekrotty on Twitter.
July 28, 2022
“We call women together to study important documents of the Catholic Church,” said Simone Rizkallah, director of program growth for Endow. “We help women organize themselves into small group communities, whether that's in their homes or in their parishes. We create study guides to help them study the rich and important documents of the Church.”
Endow, founded in 2003, stands for Educating on the Natural and Dignity of Women. It has “grown into an international apostolate in over 130 dioceses, reaching over 40,000 women all over the world,” according to its website, endowgroups.org.
“I'm getting a lot of moms and women who are seeing what's happening to our young girls and they're desperate: Can you please help us get this started?” said Rizkallah. “It's much more a sense of mission and urgency for what's going on in this culture.”
Follow Endow @endowgroup on Instagram.
July 25, 2022
“The most important thing for any Catholic — right now and frankly, at any time in history — is to focus on your spiritual life. That is what's going to give us the wisdom to deal with the culture and all the problems that beset us. It's going to give us the understanding, the knowledge, the counsel and the piety that we need today,” said Charlie McKinney, president of Sophia Institute Press for the past decade. “We really focus on producing books and producing content that helps people to deepen their spiritual life.”
McKinney told his story in 2014 on "The Journey Home" of converting to the Catholic faith from being a Southern Baptist.
Sophia Institute Press, based in Nashua, N.H., publishes books and Crisis Magazine, as well as the Catholic Exchange website and other initiatives. Follow @SophiaPress on Twitter.
