First Things RSS Feed - Matthew Hennessey https://www.firstthings.com/author/matthew-hennessey en-us Copyright 2025 First Things. All Rights Reserved. ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:57:14 -0500 https://d2201k5v4hmrsv.cloudfront.net/img/favicon-196.png First Things RSS Feed Image https://www.firstthings.com/rss/author/matthew-hennessey 60 How to Fix a Hole in the Heart https://www.firstthings.com/article/2023/11/how-to-fix-a-hole-in-the-heart https://www.firstthings.com/article/2023/11/how-to-fix-a-hole-in-the-heart Wed, 01 Nov 2023 00:00:00 -0400 The doctor turned to face us. He was a tall man, athletic and thin, put-together and with a quiet, intellectual air. He wasn’t what you’d call handsome, but he carried himself well and had a lot of things going for him: crisp posture, trousers neatly creased, expensive loafers. He even smelled nice, which is hard to do in a hospital. Removing a pair of rimless glasses and slipping them into the breast pocket of his lab coat, he eased himself onto a stand-up stool. The digital light of the ultrasound machine reflected off his bald head.

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]]> Magdalena https://www.firstthings.com/article/2021/01/magdalena https://www.firstthings.com/article/2021/01/magdalena Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 -0500 M

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]]> St. Michael, Pray for Us https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2018/09/st-michael-pray-for-us https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2018/09/st-michael-pray-for-us Thu, 06 Sep 2018 06:00:00 -0400 I’m a student of pubs. Maybe it’s because my dad owned one. Maybe it’s because they smell so good, especially that front-door bouquet of stale beer, hamburger, air-conditioning, and disinfectant. The flavor profile at my dad’s place included the unmistakable overlay of nicotine, but even without that, the pub smell is a sensory experience beloved by the truly cultured.

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]]> Rambling Shambling Brian Doyle https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/11/rambling-shambling-brian-doyle https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/11/rambling-shambling-brian-doyle Mon, 06 Nov 2017 06:00:00 -0500 Eight Whopping Lies
by brian doyle
franciscan media, 192 pages, $18.99

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]]> Everything in Its Place https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/07/everything-in-its-place https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/07/everything-in-its-place Tue, 11 Jul 2017 06:00:00 -0400 A place for everything; everything in its place—that’s what crossed my mind as I listened to the surgeon talk. He was explaining the medical mystery of the  appendix vermiformis , the worm-shaped troublemaker he’d removed from my abdomen the previous Saturday.

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]]> Pack Your Bags https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/06/pack-your-bags https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/06/pack-your-bags Thu, 15 Jun 2017 06:00:00 -0400 When you’re sick and know you’re going to die you do what’s called putting your affairs in order. The phrase calls to mind matters financial. More often, however, the ordering of affairs involves repairing personal relationships and hurriedly inflating spiritual life rafts.

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]]> ​Love Among the Artifacts https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2017/02/love-among-the-artifacts https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2017/02/love-among-the-artifacts Fri, 17 Feb 2017 08:00:00 -0500 There’s nothing like a good flyleaf inscription. Salutations from an ancient friend inside the cover of a long-forgotten book are a rich thing. But time-travelers beware. You might just as easily find shouts from the grave or the embers of ill-fated romance. You might happen upon the sad story of a family’s loss of faith.

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]]> Pro-Life or Pro-Information? https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2015/04/pro-life-or-pro-information https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2015/04/pro-life-or-pro-information Fri, 17 Apr 2015 09:44:00 -0400 Amy Julia Becker is a writer and mother of a child with Down syndrome. For several years she has sought to debunk the frequently reported claim that 90 percent of babies with Down syndrome are aborted. Technically, she’s right. It’s not accurate to say that 90 percent of all babies with Down syndrome are aborted. That’s false. It’s also immaterial.

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]]> Don’t Make Down Syndrome A Death Sentence https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2015/02/down-syndrome-shouldnt-be-a-death-sentence https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2015/02/down-syndrome-shouldnt-be-a-death-sentence Mon, 23 Feb 2015 16:37:00 -0500 In her   Yahoo! Parenting article “I Terminated My Baby with Down Syndrome,” Sophie Horan is not shy about painting her abortion as choice made with her baby’s interests in mind. She claims her unborn baby “deserved better than a life of struggle and frustration due to a condition that he or she would never be able to change.” Bad news, Sophie Horan, this is true for all of us, Down syndrome or no.

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]]> That Our Children May Be Born https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2015/01/down-syndrome-and-abortion-extortion https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2015/01/down-syndrome-and-abortion-extortion Fri, 30 Jan 2015 00:00:00 -0500 A bill before the Indiana state legislature has revived what is becoming a perennial debate : what information should be provided to pregnant women who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome? The bill in question proposes to ban abortions due to either the sex of the fetus or a prenatal diagnosis of a genetic difference such as Down syndrome. The law would criminalize the actions of doctors who encourage and perform such abortions, not women who obtain them.

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