Earlier this year, I (Clara) had the opportunity to interview Catherine Ruth Pakaluk about her new book, Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth, released in March 2024. Dr. Pakaluk is an Associate Professor at the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America. An economist and mother, she is uniquely poised to investigate the global phenomenon of falling birth rates. In 2019, she interviewed more than fifty women around the country with five or more children to find out who they are, and why they are, in her words, “strangely immune” from the fertility c ..read more

“Mental health is a complex issue and the existing body of scientific work has not shown a causal link between using social media and young people having worse mental health outcomes.” This is the statement that Mark Zuckerberg recently gave under oath to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Zuckerberg’s statement is just the most recent example of how Big Tech CEOs have publicly denied for years that their products are harmful to children. But the tide is finally turning.  In his new book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illnes ..read more

The name Francis X. Maier may not be well-known outside the inside circles of ecclesiastical life because he has worked diligently but effectively behind the scenes. He served for twenty-three years as senior aide to Archbishop Charles Chaput in the Archdiocese of Denver and then in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Before that, he served for fifteen years as editor-in-chief of the National Catholic Register newsweekly, and earlier as a screenwriter and story analyst based in Los Angeles. He is currently a senior fellow in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D ..read more

You’ve been reading the names of James and Emily LePage of Alabama in the news lately. Their surname heads LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine, the Alabama Supreme Court decision declaring that embryos conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF) are children, at least, as far as the state’s wrongful death law is concerned. In typical fashion, most commentators have avoided centering on the people at the heart of the matter. The case was filed by the LePages and other families after they were let down by the caregivers they trusted to protect their irreplaceable frozen embryos. In fac ..read more

It’s common to the point of cliché to hear engaged couples or newlyweds speak about how excited they are to marry their best friend. Others balk, citing the need to maintain friendships outside a marriage, lest one burden one’s spouse with expectations he or she cannot bear, or arguing that there’s no such thing as a “soul mate.” Nonetheless, in his discussion of the indissolubility of marriage in the Summa Contra Gentiles, Thomas Aquinas writes that “there seems to be the greatest friendship between husband and wife, for they are united not only in the act of fleshly union, which produces a c ..read more

The scholar M. D. Aeschliman wrote an essay for First Things last month occasioned by the republication of a little-known 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess, The Wanting Seed. I had not previously heard of this dystopian novel, and Aeschliman’s description drew me to read it: “In the fictional society of The Wanting Seed, abortion, homosexuality, and disdain for the family have become ascendant and are politically privileged.” Because, in the future Burgess imagines, overpopulation has overwhelmed the world’s resources, the state punishes any woman who has more than one child; even if a child dies ..read more

Since certain Republican presidential candidates have recently distanced themselves from, or outright rejected, pro-life state supreme court decisions in Arizona, Florida, and Alabama, while praising counter-legislation such as that examined here, a closer look at that legislation’s content and actual scope seems worthwhile. Political calculations about toning down the conservative party’s pro-life identity to win elections are being touted at the moment. But if sacrifices or concessions are to be made, one must at least know what is being given up and what is being gained. The new Alabama Act ..read more

In an incident that will surprise no one, a man sitting near me on a Manhattan subway began shouting incoherently at passersby. He spent much of the brief ride rambling about immigration, Bidenflation and the like. He also repeatedly displayed a large wooden cross on a necklace while declaring, “May Auschwitz be with you!” I exited the train after one stop to the sound of him shouting “Welcome to Auschwitz!” to new arrivals.  In New York City in 2024, subway lunatics are expected. This episode, though, stood out; it was almost as if a Twitter “groyper” had assumed human form.  I reco ..read more

“Neighbor love,” “loving one’s neighbor,” and “love for one’s neighbor” are everywhere in Christian discourse about social ethics. How could they not be? The principle comes from our Lord Jesus Christ in such places as Matthew 19:19 and 22:37–39, Mark 12:30–31, and Luke 6:31.  Last year, I wrote a long-form essay explaining the moral logic of loving one’s neighbor and what such a principle entails. The general thrust of my argument then was that loving one’s neighbor is a principle that calls us to will the good of others. In our interactions with others and in society, we are to cultivat ..read more

One of the unwelcome gifts of the “modern project” is our shrinking attention spans. So I’ll start where I plan to end: Mary Ann Glendon has written one of the best books I’ve read in the last five years. There’s nothing quite like it. And for good reason: a distinguished scholar and Harvard professor emerita of law, Glendon is a veteran consultant to the Vatican in multiple sensitive roles and a former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. The result, In the Courts of Three Popes, is a vivid, faithful, blessedly frank, and completely absorbing insider’s memoir of her years of service to the Holy S ..read more