Articles by Kathryn Jean Lopez
Abortion kills a potential saint, but it’s not a saintly deal killer
Sep 7, 2011 / 00:00 amThey say you shouldn’t talk about religion or politics in polite company. In a jarring opinion piece on CNN’s website earlier this summer, a religion professor, seeming to talk about both, served up a poisonous cocktail of confusion, one that might deny souls the balm of God’s mercy.
Exclusive: Santorum outlines campaign vision, says religion is essential to democracy
Jun 8, 2011 / 10:35 amIntroduced by his wife Karen and joined on stage by his seven children, former Republican Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum officially launched his campaign for president on June 8 at a rally held at the Somerset, Pa. County Courthouse.
At a DC conference, Rick Santorum announces and Catholic vote is seen as key
Jun 6, 2011 / 14:18 pm“Are you coming down to the altar?” the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s executive director Gary Marx, asked after one especially evangelical speech at its annual conference Saturday morning.
Lost in South Bend
May 20, 2009 / 00:00 amThe day I knew Hillary Clinton was in trouble last year was the day I saw Barack Obama at the Meadowlands in New Jersey last February. A sports arena is his venue. A sports arena with young people, even better. Stevie Wonder and Sheryl Crow not required. He, of course, had all three and more when he was finally nominated, appearing at Mile High Stadium in Denver this summer. I was there too. And, like at the Meadowlands, the nothingness was delivered with such an attractive vacuousness that it rocked the house. Something similar happened at the University of Notre Dame’s Joyce Center this Sunday. Yes, on the Lord’s Day, the president seemed to win over enough of the Notre Dame community to make it look like another victory march. And why wouldn’t he? The choices before those on campus appeared to be: standing with (a) Alan Keyes (the loser in the Barack Obama’s one and only campaign for U.S. Senate) defending aborted-fetus banners or (b) a supposedly healing historic rock star of a president.It’s not like the University of Notre Dame did much of anything to suggest that there is a reason to be anything but proud of Barack Obama. The priority for Fr. John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame, appeared to be to laud the president, of course, and to justify his own decision to have Obama honored at the commencement exercises. One could try to dismiss the event as appropriate, one among many campus events during a given year. And, other presidents, after all, have spoken at Notre Dame commencement exercises. Further, the commencement doesn’t represent everything that happens at the university. Besides, even N.D.’s website says (courtesy of Fr. John Jenkins, of all people): "We have a much more challenging mission than most universities. Most universities strive simply to be excellent educational institutions by the accepted standards of the profession. We do this at Notre Dame, and we have had great success. But we also foster and celebrate a distinctive mission to be a Catholic university, inspired and guided by a great spiritual tradition."The N.D. defender there would have a point: Other things do in fact happen at Notre Dame. There’s the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture and the Notre Dame Fund to Protect Human Life, the Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education, and the Edith Stein Project.But none of those things were on the cover of the major national newspapers Monday morning. None of them had events that were covered live on the cable news channels and live streamed on the Internet. Faithfully Catholic groups and individuals there are sowing seeds but in a soil that just got dumped on by a poisonous confusion. Fr. Jenkins talked Sunday about being tested. Unfortunately, in his words and in his actions, he failed a significant one: Would Notre Dame witness to the world, as Mary Ann Glendon, who passed up the school’s highest honor did, or succumb to its moral confusion? At the commencement, Fr. Jenkins said: "When we face differences with fellow citizens, we will be tested: do we keep trying, with love and a generous spirit, to appeal to ethical principles that might be persuasive to others – or do we condemn those who differ with us for not seeing the truth that we see?"He continued, "The first approach can lead to healing, the second to hostility. We know which approach we are called to as disciples of Christ."The gospel – literally – he was teaching was one where you make nice with the moneychangers in the temple. You don’t love and respect your neighbor enough to even tell him what’s true, never mind engage in any prudent but clear fraternal correction. Jenkins went on, explaining to the graduates: "The world you enter today is torn by division – and is fixed on its differences."