Abortion

July 28, 2018

An Unexpected 50-Year Anniversary

In 1985, I interviewed my grandmother, Cecilia LaHood, for an article I wanted to write about her life. Her children were planning a big 75th birthday party for her — she was born in 1910 — and I wanted to share her life story with everyone who attended the party.

March 17, 2018

What Can I Do? I’m Only One Person…

I’ve written before about how I graduated from Saint Louis University Law School in May 1982, moved back to Peoria with my wife and child during the summer of 1982, and opened my law practice in January 1983. A month after I started my law practice, my wife and I had our second child.

September 30, 2017

The Death of the Playboy

The year was 1970. I was in the eighth grade at St. Mark’s school in Peoria. I remember the day like it was yesterday. One of my classmates — I’ll call him Paul — brought a Polaroid picture to school to show to his friends. Paul and I were the same age — 13 years old. The person in the picture was the girlfriend of Paul’s older brother. She and Paul’s brother were in high school. She was a student at Academy of Our Lady and Paul’s brother was a student at Spalding Institute.

February 18, 2017

The Death of a Modern-Day Theologian

Michael Novak and his wife Karen greeting Saint John Paul II

October 29, 2016

Do Nuns Vote Differently Than Lay Catholics?

catholic-voteA couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article about how Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager had set up two dummy Catholic organizations for the sole purpose of undermining the Catholic church. After the article was published, several people asked me if the Catholic Church has any definitive guidelines for Catholic voters.

October 15, 2016

A Reason to be Scared

halloween-2016As you may recall, in October 2012, Bishop Jenky issued a directive to all the priests in the Diocese of Peoria to read a letter at each of the weekend Masses. I’ve republished the letter below. Please take the time to read it. After the letter, I have some comments that are relevant to today.

September 10, 2016

An Icon of the Good Samaritan

mother-teresa-and-childThe number one Catholic in the world, Pope John Paul II, called her “an icon of the Good Samaritan.” The number one atheist in the United States, Christopher Hitchens, called her “a religious fundamentalist, a political operative, [and] a primitive sermonizer.” Planned Parenthood called her a “very successful old and withered person, who doesn’t look in the least like a woman.”

July 2, 2016

Is Donald Trump A Christian?

Trump_PopeI had planned on refraining from writing anything about Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton because I felt that there was really nothing I could add to what’s already available on hundreds of websites. But I ran across an article last week that revealed some information that I haven’t seen anywhere else, and I figured you probably haven’t seen it either.

June 4, 2016

Harambe the Gorilla and Gender Education

Gorilla - HarambeThere was a news item last week that caught the attention of the media and then went viral on the internet. If you pay any attention to the news, you saw the story about the gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo who was killed by zoo officials because he was a threat to a 4-year-old boy