NCRegister Blog:6 Pro-Life Things You Can Do Every Day

The anniversary of Roe v. Wade has passed us by, the March for Life is over, but the work is not done.

There are still the crisis pregnancies. There are still the mothers not sure if they can take care of the babies in their wombs. There are still the couples using abortifacient contraceptives. There are still the women not willing to make the physical sacrifices of being pregnant, but choosing to act in a way that will bring new human life into existence nonetheless. There are still lonely mothers in need of support from others. The fear and worry surrounding pregnancy that has led to legalized abortion is still rampant in our nation, even though deep down inside we all know that abortion ends a human life.

The March for Life is a beautiful thing. It reminds our nation of the tragedy of millions of lives lost through abortion. It reminds our political leaders that our nation needs to stop the legal murder of the unborn. And in some cases it might change peoples’ hearts or give them the courage to speak up for a cause they have never been able to before. But the real work of the pro-life movement happens during the rest of the year...

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NCRegister Blog: What I Learned From Victorian Literature about Priestly Celibacy

As I recently reread Anthony Trollope’s Barchester Towers I commented to my husband that one could use the events of the novel to argue for why the Catholic Church should not have married priesthood be the norm. The novel tells of the conflicts within the Anglican hierarchy of the fictional cathedral town of Barchester set in the fictional English county of Barsetshire in the mid-19th century. It shows what a hierarchical church looks like after nearly 300 years of mostly married clergy running the church from the curates to the bishops. I know that a church where the Queen is the head and the politicians appoint bishops does not perfectly show truths about the modern Catholic Church, but we can still learn lessons from their experience, even those expressed in novels. (I must confess from the get-go that most of my knowledge of the Church of England comes from my extensive reading of Victorian literature, so bear with me.)...

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NCRegister Blog: Sometimes, Our Plans are not God’s Plans

It was a cold, icy drive into Detroit on the Feast of Stephen. It had been snowing for two days at my in-laws’ house, but that was not a hindrance for our annual visit to the giant five-story used bookstore in an old warehouse in the city. This year we added a new stop. Since the time of his beatification in November my husband and I had been planning a visit to the St. Bonaventure Chapel in which Bl. Solanus Casey is buried. According to the website the chapel was open that day, while the Center that tells about his life and work was not. We hoped to end a novena to him, asking for his intercession for a special family intention, beside his tomb.

As we approached the site of St. Bonaventure Monastery, the temperature registered in the single digits. We parked across the street, helped our well-bundled children out of the car and crossed the windy street, only to find the doors to the chapel locked...

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