Bravest Thing (He Ever Did)

  Some eleven years ago my wife Becca and I entered a church on a fine Sunday morning. It was Mother's Day, and the local K of C were passing out carnations to all the moms. It was sort of a big moment for us. You see, Becca was obviously pregnant. There was no hiding the fact. It was her first Mother's Day as a mother. We approached the man passing out flowers in the back foyer. I asked for a carnation for Becca. The man looked at Becca, at me, and then back at Becca, before shouting, "You're not a mother yet!" No carnation for Becca. Whatever. This man was a nut, and certainly didn't represent the church we were attending. The blame is on him.  I can imagine this man as the Gospel is read by a priest:  A pregnant Elizabeth comments to the pregnant Mary,   "Why am I so honoured, that the  mother  of my Lord should come to me?" The man shouts out from the pew: "She's not a mother YET!" Never mind.  We are approaching another Mother'...

"Peace, man." The existential cry of the hippy lives on in the Catholic Church. While prolife, male, white, Catholic teenagers from Covington are subject to virulent unicorn-esque condemnations from the liberals of America, a large portion of Catholics are guilty of having joined in on the mob attack. Some Catholics have since retreated, perhaps grasping at some natural reality that black is not white, up not down, and receiving death threats because of one's prolife, male, white Catholicity is not actually criminal, at least not this time. Yet rather than take the next logical step of actually defending the Covington teens, many Catholics are simply content to offer a "peace, man", and let those prolifers fend for themselves. For instance, at Bishop Barron's ingratiating website we encounter the typical hippy Catholic mantra. Writer Elizabeth Scalia opines that we must do better at being peaceful, and that we should just appreciate the anthem: "Le...

Eighty-three year old Fr. Tony Van Hee has been arrested for protesting too close to an abortion clinic in Ottawa. Lifesitenews reports that he was arrested around noon on Wednesday. "'I will fight it on my own and if they fine me, I will not pay it and go to jail,' Fr. Van Hee told LifeSiteNews. 'If they jail me, I will fast.'" I remember a professor once telling me about "the old priest" in Ottawa who daily protested at parliament hill, that of course being Fr. Van Hee. The professor once said he was with Father Van Hee for one of these sessions. As they were heading back to their vehicle, Fr. Van Hee smashed his knee against the ball hitch of the vehicle. If you've ever done this you'd know it hurts like few other things in the world. Apparently Fr. Van Hee hardly even flinched. The professor told us it was at that point that he knew just how heroic Fr. Van Hee is. He is evidently a man well acquainted with suffering. Please remember ...