An Essay on Natural Family Planning

 The Catholic Church has never opposed family planning, but she teaches through her Magisterium, or teaching authority, that man may not, of his own volition, separate the two meanings of the conjugal act, the unitive and the procreative, … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

Many politicians have claimed that though they are Catholic, they are in favor of a woman’s right to choose whatever is necessary for her reproductive health. Can you comment on this attitude? Some couples have chosen to practice c … [Read more...]

God and Caesar

In the Catholic view, the religious sphere is based on the virtue of faith. This faith is a gift of God ... In contrast, according to this Catholic view, the civil sphere is based on experience illumined by faith. That is to say, it is … [Read more...]

A Defense of Thomistic Natural Law

If there is any other moral theory besides natural law that provides even better guidance for major and common life decisions, then this theory should be proposed, and natural law should take the proverbial back seat. Natural law theory … [Read more...]

The Latest Book Reviews

Late Summer Reading For August 2013   Reviews for the following books: A MYSTICISM OF KINDNESS: The Biography of “Marie Christine.”  By Astrid M. O’Brien. (Scranton: Scranton University Press, 2010). (Reviewed by Rev. John J. Conley, S. … [Read more...]

Same-Sex Marriage and the Natural Law

The vertical dimension of human existence links man to his Creator. He is made in the image of God, intelligent and free. ... It is because man is a contingent, finite, intelligent, free creature of God that he is responsible to him for his … [Read more...]

How Did We Get Into This Mess? The Legacy of Postmodernism.

Scholars tell us that this tipping point, when all taboos were uprooted and all universal expectations were discarded, goes by the name "Postmodernism." We have the sense that we went to sleep and woke up in a future we don’t recognize, s … [Read more...]

Contraception and Public Policy

One can readily see why there is an insistence against “artificial” methods of birth control, while something like Natural Family Planning is in accord with the natural law.  It is not because they are artificial, per se, but because they ar … [Read more...]

Human Rights and Natural Law

There is an ethical concept which man recognizes, in and of itself, without mediation...recognized in an almost instinctive way, and as a norm to abide by, in order to live according to whom man is, reflected in that immense and diversified … [Read more...]

The HHS Mandate: Is it a Religious Liberty Issue?

Some Catholics (and others) have couched their objection to the recent HHS mandate in terms of religious liberty. Their focus has been on the unreasonably narrow definition of what constitutes a religious organization, and on the lack of a … [Read more...]

Conscience Matters

With Health and Human Services (HHS) implementing its mandate, forcing employee insurance to cover contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs, and sterilization, it is time to revisit the "right of conscience." This is the best of times. M … [Read more...]