Christmas can be a magical time, especially when enjoying the season through the eyes of children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews.  However alongside the lights and festivities, the joy and wonder of this special time, many can quietly struggle with a sense of grief and loss. You don’t have to be an Ebenezer Scrooge to recognize that the expectations for an idealized Hallmark Card Christmas by the fireplace fail to match up to the complex realities, the uncertainty and fear that are part of many…

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By Kevin Burke, MSS Let’s imagine that abortion was legal in March of 1945 in the United Kingdom. A 16yr old girl named Patricia takes the bus to her local Planned Parenthood center for a pregnancy test and discovers she is pregnant. Patricia explains to the counselor that she was impregnated from a torrid affair with Edward, a married soldier who will be ending his time of service in the next few months. Edward will be returning to his wife…

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  By Jen Reed,  The Catholic Witness Twenty-five years of utter grief and guilt from two abortions before the age of 16 was more than Becky Biter could stand. So relentless was her anguish that she planned to take her own life. “I started searching for a tree to slam my truck into, because I couldn’t take it anymore,” she recalls. The tears come fast as she recounts the lowest points of her life, with her husband, Shawn, sitting close…

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