Association Of Catholic Bloggers

photo: supremecourt.gov Being a Catholic American is certainly a privilege, often a joy. I make no claim that a U.S. government policy will do what the very gates of Hell can't do: prevail against Christ's church. Certainly nothing I experience here can compare to what our sisters and brothers in other parts of the world are suffering for the faith. Even so, a federal policy that calls contraception "basic preventive health care" gets my attention. Federal efforts to force me to pay for contraception and abortion-inducing drugs challenge the religious liberty I have thus far been afforded as an American. And I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the Little Sisters of the Poor, my sisters in faith, who are asserting their religious liberty in the face of federal policy. The Supreme Court has just accepted their case for consideration. Read more at Leaven for the Loaf .

Many women today suffer from chronic illness. It may be autoimmune related diseases like Rheumatoid Arthritis or Lupus or it may be digestive issues like Colitis or Crohn’s.  And those are only the very tip of the iceberg.  I don’t think there are verifiable statistics for this phenomenon because it doesn’t appear that there is a real awareness of the seriousness of this trend—but it is there. I see it. I hear it, too. Since I’ve spent the better part of the past three decades (and probably even more time than that but I just didn’t put the pieces together) with what can best be described as “chronic illness” that evades concrete diagnosis, I may just be more sensitive to seeing and hearing the telltale signs of this trend among our female population. read more here