Matthew Schmitz

A reader of the New York Times’  Ethicist column asks if she needs to inform her fiancé about her egg donation: As a very broke and self-supporting 20-year-old college senior, I donated my eggs in exchange for money. It was a horrendous experience, and I rarely speak about it. . . . . Continue Reading »

Here’s an all-American story. A baby has been caught ” tebowing ” in the womb, reports a Denver station: I see two possible readings of young Champ’s actions. He is either a hero sent to confound and dismay blue America by doing the most wildly red-state things . . . . Continue Reading »

In the latest issue of  Sacred Architecture , Pablo Alvarez Funes describes how the eccentric and controversial Sagrada Familia became a nation’s church: The building of a church of this size could not be unconnected with controversy. In 1965 a manifesto against the continuation of . . . . Continue Reading »

The Female Screams We Don’t Want to Hear Fr. Raymond J. de Souza, National Post The Gospel in the Abortion Culture Russell Moore, Moore to the Point Transplants for the Disabled Art Caplan , MSNBC Meet the Alliance Defense Fund Tom McFeely, National Catholic Register New Direction for the . . . . Continue Reading »

The Independent  reports on a new documentary: It’s a girl, a film being released this year, documents the practice of killing unwanted baby girls in South Asia. The trailer’s most chilling scene is one with an Indian woman who, unable to contain her laughter, confesses to having . . . . Continue Reading »

I do not doubt that the four Republican New York state senators who voted for same-sex marriage are convinced of the rightness of their votes. I would, however, look askance at any suggestion that they are the courageous  new  heroes  of our time, with motives wholly principled and . . . . Continue Reading »

Bernard Yack reviews a volume on Macintyre’s debt to Marx and concludes that he is not the “revolutionary Aristotelian” he has claimed to be: His Aristotelianism may be critical, unseasonable, alienated, and anti-hierarchical; it is not really revolutionary. True, MacIntyre would . . . . Continue Reading »

Battle Over Birth Control Libby A. Nelson, Inside Higher Ed Funeral Directors Adapt to a Secularizing Clientele Max Rivlin-Nadler, The   Awl Benedict’s New Friends: Greenpeace and the Socialists John Allen, National Catholic Reporter Slim Profits from Online Gambling Michael Cooper, New . . . . Continue Reading »

Martin Luther King, Jr. makes a point that has been forgotten by some of his political heirs: Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values.The two . . . . Continue Reading »

Over at Commonweal , John Schwenkler takes R.R. Reno’s side in yesterday’s debate over libertarianism: As Reno points out, the WSJ ’s blinkered focus on the role of tax policy in encouraging economic growth assumes a social policy of its own, one according to which GDP is the sole . . . . Continue Reading »