The specter of Venezuela looms over a complacent American electorate. Mary Jo Anderson, a notable Catholic journalist and public speaker, gave a talk to an organization of Republican women in central Florida’s Volusia County on August 8. Her topic was Florida’s Amendment 4, a.k.a. Right to Abortion Initiative, a hot-button issue for discussion that preceded the group’s business meeting. The agenda included an introduction to Faustina Guzman-Trump [no relation to Donald], a Venezuela-born candidate for the office of Republican Committeewoman in the county. Continue Reading

Invitation To A Beheading

Maureen Mullarkey

August 3, 2024

Decapitated statues of Mary are not uncommon in European nations culturally enriched by Muslim migration. So the July 1 beheading of the Virgin Mary in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (a.k.a. Mariendom) in Linz, Austria, was a welcome detour from a political minefield. It shifted attention from Islam to a less threatening adversary: Catholic traditionalists. Let me explain. “Crowning,” a coarsely crafted sculpture of the Virgin Mary in labor, went on display at the cathedral as part of DonnaStage, a tangle of events celebrating the 100th anniversary of Mariendom’s consecration. Continue Reading

Sex Education, Then And Now

Maureen Mullarkey

August 2, 2024

Sex education was simpler when I was a girl. There were only two sexes back then. And the word gender had not yet leaped from the declension of nouns to an identity. Sr. Edmund Marie, the biology teacher in the girls’ department of our parish high school, visited the grammar school every year. She spent a day talking to seventh graders (or was it sixth?) about the biology of plants, and brought with her a black portfolio of over-sized botanical posters. Continue Reading

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A Florida Initiative, Abortion & The Lesson of Venezuela

Invitation To A Beheading

Sex Education, Then And Now

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