Trusting God or Grasping for Control?

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nfp-week-facebook-cover-470

Welcome back! It's Day 4 in our weeklong series on natural family planning (NFP). This post is linked up with NFP Link Week hosted at the blog NFP and Me. DISCLAIMER: This series is meant to inform and spark conversation about the Church's teaching on respect for human life. While these answers are in-line with Catholic Tradition, they are by no means exhaustive or comprehensive. We are not bioethicists nor moral theologians and do not claim to speak on behalf of the Church in answering them. … [Read more...]

Despoiling God’s Plan for Sexuality

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Welcome back! It's Day 3 in our weeklong series on natural family planning (NFP). This post is linked up with NFP Link Week hosted at the blog NFP and Me. DISCLAIMER: This series is meant to inform and spark conversation about the Church's teaching on respect for human life. While these answers are in-line with Catholic Tradition, they are by no means exhaustive or comprehensive. We are not bioethicists nor moral theologians and do not claim to speak on behalf of the Church in answering them. … [Read more...]

Dumping Contraception for Natural Family Planning

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Welcome back! It's Day 2 in our weeklong series on natural family planning (NFP). This post is linked up with NFP Link Week hosted at the blog NFP and Me. DISCLAIMER: This series is meant to inform and spark conversation about the Church's teaching on respect for human life. While these answers are in-line with Catholic Tradition, they are by no means exhaustive or comprehensive. We are not bioethicists nor moral theologians and do not claim to speak on behalf of the Church in answering them. … [Read more...]

What Ever Happened to Reason?

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Photo by: Scout Tufankjian for Obama for America, used under creative commons license.

Civility can eventually lead to Chesterton, or at least Jurassic Park. Now that the debates are over, I must admit I was less than impressed. Often the tone pitched, the attacks personal. Candidates didn’t discuss why the opposition’s policy proposals might not be in the best interest of middle-class Americans. Instead, they accused the opposition of not caring about middle-class Americans. Big difference. When in closing remarks one would drop the gloves long enough to refer to the other as a … [Read more...]

What Catholic Women Think

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Lisa and Lydia

A preliminary report, “What Catholic Women Think About Faith, Conscience, and Contraception,” co-authored by Mary Rice Hasson and Michele M. Hill, offers new data about the views of church-going Catholic women, ages 18-54, on faith, conscience, and contraception. This report is part of a larger research effort called the Women, Faith, and Culture Project. Report Highlights 13% of church-going Catholic women completely accept the Church’s teachings on family planning. Acceptance of the … [Read more...]

5 Steps to Embracing Natural Family Planning

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Natural Family Planning

Editor’s Note: In honor of Natural Family Planning Awareness Week, welcome back Renee McGuire to The Practicing Catholic. Read Part 1 of Renee’s testimony 6 Things I’ve Learned Since Dumping the Pill.  * * * Once we removed the pill from our marriage, my husband and I experienced healing we didn’t know we needed. This truly was a turning point in our marriage. But after the birth of our first son, we had to trust in God another way … postponing pregnancy. Here comes the responsible parenthood … [Read more...]

The Smoke of Satan in Steubenville

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Steubenville Logo

City Council agrees to remove image of chapel from new logo. UPDATE: August 3, 2012 – According to Steubenville City Manager Cathy Davison, the mayor, City Council, and administration are reviewing all options regarding the city logo. At this point, no lawsuit has been filed against the City of Steubenville. Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly Alliance Defense Fund) is reportedly considering setting up a national escrow fund to help the city fight this issue. A couple quotes: "All of the … [Read more...]

Indivisible: Jay Richards on Natural Law and Reason

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Indivisible: Restoring Faith, Family, and Freedom Before it's too Late

Christians need to facilitate dialogue without arguing politics and religion. Congratulations to last week’s giveaway winner Sally Pap! Enter to win a your own copy of Indivisible! Simply leave a comment here. Next Wednesday, July 25, we will randomly select this week’s winner. Giveaway sponsored by The Maximus Group. You also can buy Indivisible from Ignatius Press (with Voting Guidelines for Catholics bonus CD). This is the third installment from our interview with Dr. Jay Richards; … [Read more...]

Indivisible: Jay Richards on Morality and Economics

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Indivisible: Restoring Faith, Family, and Freedom Before it's too Late

Distinctions between social and economic issues are artificial. Congratulations to last week's giveaway winners Jessica Kiesling and Rita Rawson! See details below to enter this week's Indvisible giveaway. You also can buy Indivisible from Ignatius Press (with Voting Guidelines for Catholics bonus CD). This is the second installment from our interview with Dr. Jay Richards; read Part One here. In the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision regarding the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare), it … [Read more...]

Power to the Sheeple!

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good-shepherd-icon

The faithful should embrace this barb for what it really means. I had a Facebook dialog a few weeks ago with a couple Catholic friends who struggle with some of the Church’s teachings. The subject of the exchange was Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget proposal. One of them suggested he should be denied communion because he supposedly doesn't care about the poor. After I refuted that bit of nonsense, the conversation quickly turned toward the HHS contraception mandate. One of the two interjected: Why, … [Read more...]