Photo: The Evening Sun A couple who had been married for more than 60 years died within hours of one another. Something about the one-flesh union and the intimate bond of marriage. I’ve heard about this sort of thing a number of times and even was privileged to know a couple who had been married for six or seven decades and died within days of one another. It doesn’t always happen that... More

Three big news items about Rick Santorum today. CatholicVote, of course, endorsed Santorum yesterday. Read the press release here. This endorsement has generated a great deal of attention and press which should find its way into today’s lunchtime reader (stay tuned). First, his poll numbers in the next two primary states, New Hampshire and South Carolina, have improved dramatically in poll... More

Back in June I wrote The Catholic Case for Rick Santorum. Now that Santorum has registered a strong tied-for-first finish in Iowa and is the talk of the chattering classes, far-left Catholics have woken up and swooped in for the attack. The most notable example of this attempted theological assassination is by John Gehring of Faith in Public Life, who previously worked for Catholics in Alliance fo... More

I know that Newt Gingrich is now the GOP frontrunner. And he is also a favorite among Christian conservatives. Catholics, too. Heck, he even won the CatholicVote Thanksgiving Straw Poll. I believe that if Republican primary voters nominate Newt Gingrich, it will undermine and harm the pro-family cause. And I also think his campaign will have several train wrecks, causing Newt to ultimately l... More

Gay activists intent on redefining marriage and thereby marginalizing and stigmatizing Christian viewpoints on family, marriage and sexuality are utilizing some very contradictory arguments these days. Consider these two examples I came across recently which illustrate the point well. Example 1: John Shore, author of “UNFAIR: Why the ‘Christian’ View of Gays Doesn’t Wor... More

Newt and Callista Gingrich My friend Joshua Mercer is concerned with Newt Gingrich’s three marriages and their effect on Newt’s ability to defend DOMA and promote the traditional definition of marriage. As I tend to do ’round these parts, I disagree. I’m not sure Mercer is doing this, but I fear too many conservatives are trying to find an angel by whom to be governed. We w... More

Newt Gingrich might just be the new flavor of the month, says political pundit David Freddoso. This Republican presidential cycle has featured many candidates that have vied for the role of Not Mitt Romney. Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain have all dominated the field at some point over the last three months. Freddoso suggests Gingrich, who converted to Catholicism in 2009, might be n... More

In his iconic movie role as World War 2 military hero General George Patton, actor George C. Scott delivered this memorable advice to his American soldiers: Now there’s another thing I want you to remember. I don’t want to get any messages saying that “we are holding our position.” We’re not holding anything. Let the [enemy] do that. We are advancing constantly and ... More

Minnesota will vote on the definition of marriage in November 2012. As a result, gay activists have been targeting religious communities in that state who oppose same-sex marriage and are trying to sow dissent there. It’s not surprising that a group of people who believe they can simply redefine what marriage is also thinks they can simply redefine what it means to be Catholic. At any rate, ... More

Welcome to the Lunchtime Reader, where we assemble important stories to keep your eyes on. I consider this good news: Support for the death penalty has dropped to a 20-year low, according to a CBS/New York Times poll. In October 1988, when death penalty became a major issue in the Bush/Dukakis presidential race, 78% of Americans supported the death penalty. The number is now at 60%. Opposition gre... More