I support legal protection for the lives of unborn children. A comprehensive, whole life approach to abortion and the defense of human life should include such a commitment. The strategy of electing candidates who promise to appoint or confirm strict constructionist conservative Supreme Court justices is deeply flawed in that regard. Donald Trump confirmed this… Read More Trump’s Pro-life Plan Includes Millions More Abortions
Debates are swirling about what the appropriate response is to the election of the willfully ignorant, sexual assaulting, fascist coddling president-elect. The two most compelling arguments I’ve seen argue that our first responsibility is to fight for our democracy and resist reactionary attacks on our institutions and most cherished values. In the Washington Post, I… Read More How to Respond to Trump? Fight for Democracy
Last night, Georgetown University hosted an event on the economic realities, political impact, and moral dimensions of the national neglect of working-class families and communities. The event featured Tim Carney, columnist for the Washington Examiner; Bill Fletcher, Jr., a senior scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies; author and political analyst Thomas Frank; Fr. Clete Kiley… Read More Left Behind: Working Class Families and Communities
“It’s easier to be part of a gang than to go to school.” That’s what a young man, who I’ll call Daniel (for his safety), told me when I met him in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The Egan Fellows and the rest of the CRS delegation had weaved our way… Read More The Power of Redemption: He Joined a Gang at 10, But Now He’s Free
As the Church’s opposition to the death penalty grows stronger, a greater emphasis seems to be on the presumed inherent incompatibility of the death penalty with mercy toward the individual person facing execution, rather than its impact on justice or the common good. Depending on one’s theological views, this may be seen as a positive… Read More The Death Penalty is Fundamentally Unjust
Discussions of privilege are ubiquitous on the left these days, and the desire to make ethical purchases is common not only among “bourgeois bohemians” but a growing number of those who recognize a religious imperative to engage in ethical consumption. While scholars, activists, and everyday people try to figure out how to operate in the… Read More Purchasing Recreational Drugs and Fueling Violence
The use of chemical weapons continues in Syria, as the international norm against their use crumbles through a lack of enforcement: For the third time in just two weeks, chemical weapons were reportedly used against civilians in northern Syria. The United Nations is investigating the most recent case, which came Wednesday when barrel bombs thought… Read More More Chemical Attacks in Syria Highlight Costs of Inaction
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