On Scripture: Called to Suffer for Doing Good

“If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, Leaving you an example that you should follow in His footsteps.” — 1 Peter 2:20b-25 As I listened to these words from the Second

Enablers in the Murder of Little Tommy Valva

Angela Pollina, like her live-in lover, NYPD cop Michael Valva, has now been convicted of murdering Valva’s autistic 8-year-old son Thomas, and sentenced, like Valva, to the maximum 25 years-to-life in prison. Good. Now it is time to focus on who else bears responsibility for this horrific case of child abuse and murder. “How did

Weaponizing the FBI

Congressional scrutiny of the FBI is being criticized as a single-party, Republican undertaking; which it is, but the reasons say more about the bureau’s ideological partisanship than the GOP’s. Consider the FBI’s repeated, heavy-handed intrusions into politically-charged controversies throughout the Trump and Biden years: All have been blatantly one-sided endeavors in favor of Democrats and

A Catholic Editor, and Much More

Some thoughts, if I may, on the recent passing of a fellow Catholic diocesan newspaper editor.   Don Zirkel, who died Jan. 23 at age 95, worked at the venerable Brooklyn Tablet (the first, and now last surviving, diocesan publication in our NYC-Long Island area) for 37 years—17 of them, from 1968-1985, as its editor.

Cardinal Pell’s Prison Journal: A Spiritual Retreat

Only this I want: But to know the LordAnd to bear his cross, so to wear the crown he wore When I first learned of Cardinal George Pell’s death, I thought of those words from Dan Schutte’s beautiful hymn; for clearly, in the last years of his life, Cardinal Pell bore the cross of persecution

Cardinal Pell’s Disgraced Persecutors

While I did not know Australian Cardinal George Pell, who died last week at age 81, his ordeal of recent years has had a profound impact on me. Assisting with research at the Catholic League as his case unfolded, I became convinced that Cardinal Pell was the target of a scandalous injustice. Now, reading his

A Reader’s Thoughts on Father Pavone

So many things to write about, from my promised follow-up to the horrific murder of eight-year-old Thomas Valva by his NYPD cop father, to my recent piece on the George Santos scandal, to articles still in the works on the deaths of Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal George Pell. Meanwhile, the ongoing controversy over the

Santos Should Not Take Seat in Congress

When I first contemplated writing about the George Santos scandal, I assumed I would be chiding those on both sides of the political and ideological spectrum for the double standard I was sure would emerge. Democrats and progressives, I knew, would be hammering the Republican Congressman-elect from Long Island for re-inventing not just his academic

The Hope of Advent

Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved. – Psalm 80 Each month, I am privileged to do a half-hour segment on host Eric Gajewski’s TradCatKnight podcast. While I am not a traditionalist Catholic, Eric invites me on to talk about issues impacting the Church and the

Throw Away the Key

While I am a strong supporter of law enforcement, I am often moved with compassion for criminal perpetrators when certain root causes—mental illness, horrific mistreatment from family or peers, or other traumatizing life experiences—have given them little chance to avoid growing into isolated, anti-social, violence-prone individuals. While I know they must be incarcerated to protect