BY LILIANNA SERBICKI Photo by Nazareth College; some rights reserved. Spring Commencement at Franciscan University is an exciting event. While some graduates may be so exhausted, nervous, or distracted that they do not even process the entire commencement speech, they generally expect the speaker to endorse the school's Catholic values. This is anticipated even if the speaker is not Catholic; while Franciscan employs quite a few non-Catholic individuals, they ask that all

BY CAROLINE PILGRIM Photo by George Ruiz; some rights reserved. I am in the training grounds of the front lines of the abortion holocaust. Abortions happen in our healthcare system every 23 seconds. I am a Physician Assistant student. In less than two years I will have the legal authority to prescribe emergency contraception, refer to abortionists, and, depending on the evolution of our legal system, perform surgical abortions. By the time I become a certified PA, there w

BY KYLE & AIMEE MURPHY For Greater Glory, formerly titled Cristiada, is a recent film set during the Cristeros War in Mexico. In the 1920s, the Mexican government led by President Elias Calles began to persecute the Catholic Church in Mexico, forbidding public Catholic worship. While the Catholic clergy and faithful continued to practice their faith, government forces destroyed churches and executed many of the faithful. For Greater Glory is unabashedly pro-Catholic, showin

BY NICHOLAS NEAL In the 142nd episode of Life Report, a pro-life podcast hosted by Josh Brahm, Scott Klusendorf (a famous pro-life intellectual and president of the Life Training Institute) stated, "I would like to take the seamless garment and use it on my car to dust off the wax. It is a horrible, horrible way -- and I'm not saying that as my own outside-the-[Catholic]-Church position. This is what leading Catholic thinkers have said about it. It has justified the killin

BY CATHERINE O'MARA Photo by Elvert Barnes; some rights reserved. A frigid rain falls over Washington, D.C. and drenches a young teenager clenching a sign in their trembling hands that reads, "I am the pro-life generation." This is the image of a typical member of Teens for Life, a pro-life group at Lutheran High School of St. Charles County. Students in Teens for Life are used to putting themselves in uncomfortable situations in order to support the cause they all fight fo

BY MARY STROKA The United States Supreme Court ruled June 28 that the Affordable Care Act the Obama administration developed and made a law in March 2010 was constitutional in a 5-4 decision. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts' surprising affirmative vote made the final decision, which found that the mandate is constitutional because of Congress' ability to tax. However, the Supreme Court did not rule on the constitutionality of the part of the law that would require mo

BY AIMEE MURPHY Photo by NMR Photography; some rights reserved. I promised this issue that I would expound a little greater upon the theory of just self-defense and what it means to the consistent life ethic, and the Life Matters Journal. While we've certainly been attacked on all sides, I was a little surprised that pacifists objected to my theory of just defense. That being said, much of this moral problem is exceedingly complex -- but I would argue that the principle is

BY JOHN WHITEHEAD History has a way of challenging your beliefs. Past human experience, with all its complexity, ambiguity, hard cases, and agonizing choices, can cast doubt on previous certainties about justice or right and wrong. Advocates of the consistent life ethic might find their beliefs challenged in this way by the extremely dark chapter of human experience recounted in Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin (2010), by Yale historian Timothy Snyder. The hist

BY ROSE EVANS Rocked in the dark the inch long man swims in the warm. Love watches him, love once himself small and unborn. No sun for him hard hands invade his little room. No breath of air sharp blades destroy him in the womb. But not alone his brother, lord, companion, friend, stays by his side, and with him faces death, shares his end. Rose Evans is a long-time Consistent Life member and the former editor of Harmony, the magazine of Consistent Life. #volume1issue4 #aborti

BY NICHOLAS NEAL Legalized homicide takes many forms in America. Two examples are abortion and the death penalty. Ironically the opponents of these forms of homicide are usually divided by political ideology. Progressives oppose the death penalty while supporting legalized abortion, and conservatives take the opposite position. However, there are those who connect abortion and the death penalty as both being immoral and unnecessary forms of homicide that should both be re

BY JACQUELINE CARPENTIER The film was for a course that focused on exploring different methods and materials in making art. The final assignment was to use either miniatures or monuments and to express change over time in a non-realistic and/or nonlinear fashion. I was really intrigued by the concept of having something growing and melting -- of having the process itself speak directly to the question of existence I have always been so fascinated by. This idea quickly and

BY ANTHONY BEDOY Rarely do I come across a band that shocks me with their ability to stand out. Many artists strive for that recognizable voice or style that will carry them down in stardom. While Fun hasn't created its name in stardom just yet, this New York-based alternative rock band has definitely set its sights on an even greater goal than just popularity: that goal is to send a message. The most recent single to rock the radios and YouTube pages lately has been "Som

BY NICHOLAS NEAL We often hear partisan pundits criticize their opponents for the opponents' inconsistencies about killing people. We hear that pro-life advocates do not respect the sanctity of life in war zones. We hear that peace advocates are not so peaceful when it comes to unborn children. What is the answer to this inconsistency? The simple answer is being consistent. This ideological position is known as the consistent life ethic. The foundation for this ethic is

BY NICHOLAS NEAL The abolition of the death penalty in Illinois began when Governor George Ryan placed a moratorium on capital punishment in the state in 2000, after seeing an alarming number of death row inmates being exonerated. Eleven years later, the Illinois General Assembly passed a bill officially abolishing capital punishment in Illinois. It was then up to Pat Quinn to sign it. Now, although Governor Quinn is a Democrat, he had previously spoken in favor of capital

BY OLIVIA MELDRUM While I am mistress of my mind, You will sleep safely every hour. No morning will you wake to find My warmth turned cold, or sweetness sour. A fragile burden do I bear (O precious visitor; flesh brand-new) - I forget my face and clothes and hair In pain and consciousness of you. My little one, your mama hurts. She shakes at every strange man's gaze. You've joined the Dance - this you deserve; But our dance, dear, limps through a maze. I am not mistress of my

BY MARY KRANE DERR The right to access the full range of voluntary family planning methods is often neglected or actively undermined in the name of prolife, especially but not exclusively in the United States. Yet there are nine good reasons -- at least -- why fostering this right is essential to respect in practical deed for all human lives, already born and unborn. 1. Family planning freedom prevents millions of human deaths every year. Voluntary access to modern methods o

BY NICHOLAS NEAL & AIMEE BEDOY On Tuesday, August 23rd, the rebel forces in Libya stormed Gadhafi's capital of Tripoli, thus declaring victory over the tyrannical leader who had once imposed unjust and inhumane purification laws against his own people. After 42 years in power as an autocratic dictator in Libya, Muammar Gadhafi has been removed from power by rebels within his own borders. Gadhafi is currently out of power and in hiding from NATO forces, but in an effort to k

BY AIMEE BEDOY & STEVEN OETJEN A quandary of major proportions faces our nation in this day and age. It could be a matter of life and death for countless persons -- we cannot truly be sure. This paper seeks to examine abortion through the lens of Constitutional law, science, and justice, and lastly to apply these faculties to the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act recently passed in Nebraska. In brief, our recommendation is always to stand for justice and ultimately

BY AIMEE BEDOY I am writing this ten years to the day that those towers fell. And ten years later, I want us to discuss what we have learned from September 11, 2001, and where we as a nation must continue to grow. I am speaking as someone who grew up in this culture, immersed in it wholly from the time I was 12 years old. Perhaps I am not the wisest, or the most sage member of society to speak on these points, but this is what I have learned from my childhood to the present

BY BILL SAMUEL What should our attitude -- as individuals, social movements and nations -- be toward war? When, if ever, is war justifiable either as to our own participation or as a decision of a nation or social movement? How do we get to a meaningful peace? These questions have been discussed and debated for millennia, and may be even more vital in this day of advanced weaponry. They have been discussed by people from many different religious traditions, and from none.