Growing up in Massachusetts, I naturally imbibed a patriotic atmosphere. In the movies I was treated to the foot-tapping music of George M. Cohan performed with patriotic gusto by the inimitable Jimmy Cagney. In school, we were obliged to memorize Sit Walter Scott's "The Lay of the Last Minstrel". The intimidating power of the opening lines has never left me.

If we claim to be Catholic, we need to act like it — all the way, all the time, without excuses.

The passing of President Ronald Reagan into eternity is evoking an array of emotions and thoughts. People recall his winsome and shining character, his classic American optimism. That is in sharp contrast to what his critics always assailed as his intellectual shallowness.

American courts are taking a steadily more suspicious attitude toward religious interests, and the trend is likely to continue unless Catholics and their allies take a keen interest in future judicial appointments.

This past weekend, an historian remarked that the twentieth century in America will be divided into two eras. The first half of the century will have been defined by Franklin Roosevelt and the second half by Ronald Reagan.

The United States of America is fast approaching yet another important referendum in the form of the 2004 national elections that will pit the remnants of Americas Judaic-Christian/natural law heritage against the forces of modern secularism/social constructionism and which will impact on the direction of the present culture war.

Aristide's "liberation theology" became Haiti's problem. Plus the case against anger in politics.

If you attend Mass in the crypt of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame, you may be startled to notice, as you walk up to take communion, that your steps take you directly over the final resting place of Orestes A. Brownson (1803-1876).

The defenders of judicial activism, properly understood as the judicial usurpation of politics, count on wearing down their critics over time. Robert H. Bork is not easily worn down.

On August 27 of this year, under the direction of U.S. District Court Judge Myron Thompson, a small monument (not even four feet high) of the Ten Commandments was removed from the back end of the towering rotunda in the Alabama state courthouse.