Most know the Super Bowl is a week away – a secular holiday if there ever was one. However, how many are aware that Iranian mercenaries killed three U.S. Soldiers in Jordan.  More to the point, how many know we have troops in Jordan?  What about the recently concluded World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland? The WEF has been meeting annually for 54 years, just four years less than the inaugural Super Bowl in 1967.

As the NFL bread and circus brigade marches blindly toward Super Bowl Sunday, the league finally tipped their hand when it streamed one of their wildcard playoff games between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins. Perhaps you were one of the 23 million who flew over that paywall by subscribing to Peacock for the privilege.  

The woke mob’s list of statue teardowns is historically unprecedented in American society: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson Robert E. Lee, Columbus, and Theodore Roosevelt among others.  Destruction of religious statues especially outside Catholic churches both here and in Canada have also been on the rise.

- Like Roe v. Wade did last year, this case will have a huge and lasting ripple effect regarding future taxation that should concern everyone.

Like the year it followed, 2023 was defined by a hefty dose of wokeism, inflation and polarized politics – expect more of the same, if not more, in 2024.

The horde of cards was as commonplace as ornaments and lights on the Christmas tree. They would arrive daily sans for Sunday at a half dozen a clip. Initially, it started as a trickle but once the calendar sunk deeper into December, the numbers grew. Many were from people I did not know. By the time Christmas arrived the avalanche of cards became part of our family’s Christmas décor – all in service to induce a sensation of good cheer throughout the Maresca abode. 

Those who attended Mass each Sunday at the Carmelite Monastery in Elysburg knew their time was running short.  For the past two years, the “For-Sale sign” had been standing guard prominently outside the monastery’s entrance as a vivid reminder of what awaited.

Having the opportunity to write a weekly column, I was ready for the first four – a month in column time – without trepidation.  Pursuing a weekly topic to write an 800-word essay after that was another story and something I would have to adjust to and quickly. My initial word limit inflation of 800, which had nothing in common with Bidenomics, was soon dropped to 700.  

MOUNT CARMEL – In an era where Catholic churches continue to consolidate or worse, close, there remains a segment of the faithful that is actually growing, albeit slowly.  This mustard seed growth is miraculous because it is happening in the midst of confusion and an ecclesiastical crisis running throughout the universal Church.

As Ohio was celebrating the enshrinement of abortion into their state constitution, Pennsylvania’s state legislature went about trying to create their own abortion haven.  The difference was at the state house in Harrisburg, their vote flew under the radar and just in time to welcome the Thanksgiving holiday.