Category: CatholiCity 2010
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Toning Down the Immigration Debate among Catholics
Deal W. Hudson May 16, 2010 On the heels of the health-care debate comes a potentially more contentious furor over proposed immigration legislation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who helped secure abortion funding in the health-care bill, is now telling us the bishops came to her and said, “We want you to pass immigration reform.” But Pelosi wants…
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Can the Bishops Fix the Health Care Bill?
Deal W. Hudson May 24, 2010 When the health-care bill passed, the bishops’ reaction was twofold: disappointment at federal funding for abortion, while universal care was applauded. For some, including myself, the sound of the bishops’ clapping was far too loud given the immense tragedy of our federal tax dollars being committed to supporting abortion under the…
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Glee and the Search for Postmodern Innocence
Deal W. Hudson May 31, 2010 The musical comedy-drama Glee debuted on Fox just over a year ago. The story of a high school Spanish teacher’s attempts to resurrect the Lima, Ohio, high school glee club surprised critics by ending its first season ranked at 33 in the Nielsen ratings. Now in its second season, the show’s…
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How My First Catholic Mentors Taught Me Spirituality
Deal W. Hudson June 27, 2010 When I arrived at Emory University for my doctoral studies in 1974, I had just finished three years at Princeton Theological Seminary as an aspiring Southern Baptist minister. Despite being a Southern Baptist from Texas, and having pursued Reformation studies – Calvin, Luther, and the Anabaptists – at Princeton,…
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A Catholic Governor Embraces Subsidiarity
Deal W. Hudson July 11, 2010 The new governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, is distinguishing himself in two ways as a Catholic politician. Not only he is pro-life, but he is also aggressively pursuing a set of policies grounded in the principle of subsidiarity. At a time when most prominent Catholic politicians – Nancy…
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The Pro-Life Leader Who Is Also an Exorcist
Deal W. Hudson July 18, 2010 Having just read Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuers’s new book, Exorcism and the Church Militant, one of the first things I asked him was whether he was afraid of demons. I shivered more than once reading through its short chapters, arranged as basic questions about the devil, demons, possession, and the…
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Honoring a Bishop from the Northwest
Deal W. Hudson August 16, 2010 Too often, Catholic commentators, including myself, speak about American bishops in the plural. The existence of a national bishops’ conference, unfortunately, encourages this habit, one that obscures a basic fact about the Catholic Church: It is individual bishops who are responsible for sanctifying the lives of the Catholic faithful. There’s no…
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More Problems at the Catholic Campaign for Human Development
Deal W. Hudson August 23, 2010 The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), the anti-poverty program run by the USCCB, came under fire this past year for funding groups who were explicitly supporting abortion, contraception, and same-sex marriage. After its internal investigation, the CCHD claimed there were problems with only five groups out of the 51 listed…
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What Nietzsche Can Teach America
Deal W. Hudson August 31, 2010 I have often learned my most valuable lessons from my worst enemies. In graduate school, I spent several years wrestling with the texts of the atheistic philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who taught me one unforgettable lesson: Those who lack the tragic sense of life are apt to invent realities to…
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The USCCB and Cultural Diversity
Deal W. Hudson September 8, 2010 The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has set five goals to pursue until the end of 2011. They are: Strengthening marriage Faith formation focused on sacramental practice Priestly and religious vocations Life and dignity of the human person Recognition of cultural diversity The USCCB Web site contains a link…
Deal W. Hudson 