The Trouble With "Sex and the City's" Fairy Tale Ending

Posted: Sunday, June 8, 2008
The popularity of "Sex and the City" suggests that many women accept the show's premise that a woman can spend decades treating people like things and things like people without compromising her future prospects for marriage and motherhood.  [Full Story]

The Bitter Irony of Sex-Selective Abortion

Posted: Friday, May 30, 2008
Missouri state Treasurer Sarah Steelman recently earned the opprobrium of abortion-rights advocates by calling for a ban on sex-selective abortions. Critics have derided this as an attempt by the Republican gubernatorial candidate to pander to pro-lifers. But a quick glance at international statistics suggests that sex-selective abortion is no dystopian fantasy.  [Full Story]

California Puts Judicial Activism Back on the Agenda

Posted: Monday, May 26, 2008
Just as pundits were dismissing it as a phantom threat irrelevant to this fall's election, judicial activism came back with a bang. By a margin of one vote, four judges on California's Supreme Court managed to flout the will of 4.6 million California voters last week by manufacturing a constitutional right to gay marriage.  [Full Story]

Schlafly Controversy Proves Her Continuing Relevance

Posted: Friday, May 16, 2008
After more than four decades in the national spotlight, Phyllis Schlafly still has what it takes to generate controversy. The best-selling author and St. Louis native reprised a familiar role as the target of protests this month when officials at her alma mater, Washington University, announced their intention to award her an honorary degree at Friday's commencement ceremony.  [Full Story]

Young Catholics Meet a Man Who Understands Them

Posted: Friday, April 25, 2008
At 81, Benedict understands a fundamental truth about fervent young Catholics that many of their middle-aged elders miss: Their enthusiasm for the faith is not about rejecting the world. It is about embracing a radical commitment to God that inspires them to influence the world with Gospel values.  [Full Story]

A Future Full of Hope

Posted: Monday, April 21, 2008
Young adults see connections, not conflicts, between their concern for the poor and their defense of the unborn, between their focus on a personal relationship with Jesus and their attraction to ancient Catholic devotions and between belonging to a hierarchical Church and embracing the universal call to holiness affirmed at the Second Vatican Council. They are buoyed to know that Benedict sees those connections, too.  [Full Story]

A Catholic Identity Overhaul

Posted: Friday, April 18, 2008
Benedict reminded his audience that Catholic schools exist to advance the Church's mission of spreading the faith by helping students seek truth through faith and reason. Since students who find truth also find God, the pope said, forming students in the Catholic faith is not a tangential aspect of Catholic education. It is its raison d'etre.   [Full Story]

Fight-Club Culture Glamorizes Girl-on-Girl Violence

Posted: Thursday, April 17, 2008
Any woman who has survived junior high knows that such subtle forms of female aggression as clique-forming and gossip-mongering are nothing new. Yet the rise in high-profile cases of criminal violence among teenage girls, and the star treatment the perpetrators receive for their crimes, is alarming.  [Full Story]

Benedict's Urgency and a Youth Response

Posted: Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Although the ranks of Catholic priests and religious sisters and brothers have fallen sharply in the past few decades, there are signs that this message of radical sacrifice and a countercultural faith appeals to younger Catholics. The National Religious Vocation Conference reported that most of those considering religious life are under age 30 and about one in five say they plan to enter a religious community in the next year.  [Full Story]

A Pope for the Counterculture

Posted: Tuesday, April 15, 2008
As Benedict makes the rounds in Washington and New York this week, we can expect to hear novel explications of the same themes that have dominated his encyclicals and public addresses since 2005: the compatibility of faith and reason, the necessity of interior contemplation preceding exterior action and the universality of the human hunger for a transcendent hope grounded in something greater than human progress or happy circumstances.  [Full Story]