On Jan. 18, a video of Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann went viral. He was at the Lincoln Memorial standing face to face with a Native American man during the March to Life in Washington, D.C. On the basis of that picture, a frenzy of condemnations from reporters, commentators and politicians were heaped upon this student, accusing him of prejudice and hatred. Misinformation and lies spread like wild fire. Finally, when the facts were uncovered, the high school student was exonerated of any wrong-doing, even though much wrong had been done to him and his family. It was a rush to judgment.

On March 25, 2019, both the New Jersey Senate and Assembly passed the Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act. This means that, just as in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Washington, D.C., physicians can now help someone kill themselves. Legally! Doctors now become dealers in death. So contrary to the Hippocratic Oath that states “I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrong-doing. Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course.”

On March 14, 2019, the New Jersey Senate passed bill S477 to remove the state’s statute of limitations in cases of child sexual abuse. On March 25, 2019, the New Jersey State Assembly also passed the bill. The measure allows lawsuits to be filed against individuals and institutions, be they public, private, for-profit and non-profit, no matter how much time has passed. The effects of such a law will be far-reaching.

A few years ago, Paul Croituru and his young son went out treasure hunting near their native village in Romania. To their surprise, they discovered ancient Greek currency dating back 2,350 years to the time of King Philip II. The 300 silver coins turned out to be counterfeit. The father and son now hold the distinction of having discovered the oldest counterfeit money known thus far.

In February 1915, only six months after the beginning of World War I, Lancet, a British medical journal, used for the first time the expression “shell shock.” This newly coined expression was used to describe the feeling of helplessness that soldiers felt after exposure to constant bombardment. The term was new, but not the reality. After every war, soldiers return from combat, suffering “shell shock.”

Perched on Mount Moriah where God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac, Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem. Centuries later, Herod rebuilt and expanded it. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus lavishes praise on its beauty. “…The building wanted nothing that could astound either mind or eye. For, being covered on all sides with massive plates of gold, the sun was no sooner up than it radiated so fiery a flash that persons straining to look at it were compelled to avert their eyes, as from the solar rays. … all that was not overlaid with gold was of the purest white” (Ant. 15.391-395).

In the DNA of the American soul is a rugged individualism. We differ from our European friends whose history stretches centuries into the past and whose close borders touch one another. Our country is relatively young and vast. Our predecessors who first tamed the wilderness and planted cities from the Atlantic to the Pacific had to grapple with a vast expanse of land. They were self-reliant, creative, energetic and purpose-driven.

In Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey, the hero Ulysses on his way home from the Trojan War has to pass by a lovely island where the Sirens dwell. These beautiful sea-nymphs were known to lure sailors to their death by their sweet music. To avoid hearing their bewitching song, Ulysses orders his sailors to fill their ears with beeswax. With this ruse, his men successfully escape the fatal danger of the Sirens’ seductive song.

In The Innocents Abroad, published in 1869, Mark Twain humorously narrates his travels thorough Europe and the Holy Land. He goes out of his way to praise the great hospitality that Catholic priests offered to any pilgrim traveling through 19th century Palestine. They readily welcomed all, whether they came “in rags or clad in purple.” Twain was pleasantly surprised by this, because, as he readily confesses, he had been “educated to enmity toward everything that is Catholic.” Enmity toward everything Catholic! Not a thing of the past.

In May 2008, Russia established The Order of Parental Glory. This special recognition is awarded to parents who have seven or more children and provided for their physical, spiritual and moral development. When the seventh child is three years old, the entire family is invited to the Kremlin and honored for contributing to Russian society. Father Ioann Osyak Dean of Orthodox churches in Rostov-on-Don, and his wife, Nadezhda, were among the first to receive this award. They have 18 children. And four of their sons are priests. A fifth in the seminary!

The Berlin Museum houses two stone tablets found in the marketplace in the ancient Greek city of Priene (present day Western Turkey). The inscription on these tablets reads: “The birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning of the good tidings for the world that came by reason of him. From his birth, a new reckoning of time must begin.” The 19th century discovery of this inscription unlocks the political implications of Jesus’ humble birth in Bethlehem.

In 1995, to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, President Jimmy Carter, President Nelson Mandela, President Vaclav Havel, President Oscar Arias Sánchez, President Shimon Peres, and other world leaders met in Hiroshima, Japan along with scientists, physicians, Nobel Laureates, and business leaders. They came together in order to discuss a way forward in creating hope for society. They knew that the more wars are waged, the fiercer the battles, the greater the destruction and loss of human life. They did not want to see hope for the future snuffed out.

To all the faithful, my prayers and best wishes for a Blessed Christmas filled with the joy and peace of the Lord’s coming among us. On each, I invoke God’s blessing.

In 1223, St. Francis of Assisi created the very first Nativity crèche in the town of Greccio, Italy. He staged the birth of Jesus, using people to play the role of the biblical characters. His novel idea not only excited the imagination of believers, but it also inspired them and increased their devotion in celebrating Christmas. Within a few years, Pope Nicholas IV (the first Franciscan Pope) commissioned a permanent Nativity crèche to be set up in Rome in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Within a hundred years, every church in Italy had its own crèche.

Beneath the soil of every continent lie buried the ruins of fallen civilizations. The Sumerians, Akkadians, Mayans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Minoans, Romans: all of them, faded memories of past grandeur and glory. History records the collapse of at least 32 major civilizations that once thrived and prospered before our time.

The famous 4th century Greek philosopher Diogenes lived an extremely simple life even to the point of living inside a barrel. He was the archetype of the Cynics, a philosophical school that rejected wealth and promoted self-sufficiency as a means to contentment. One day, the philosopher Aristippus, who had won a place at the court of Dionysius of Syracuse, confronted Diogenes. He said to Diogenes, “If you would learn to compliment Dionysius, you would not have to live on lentils.” Diogenes replied, “But if you would only learn to live on lentils, you wouldn’t have to flatter Dionysius.”

Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher who lived four centuries before Christ, proposed the scientific theory of horror vacui. Based on his observations, he concluded that nature fills every empty space with something, even if it is only air. In his works Gargantua and Pantagruel, the Renaissance priest, doctor and scientist Rabelais popularized this idea with the phrase Natura abhorret vacuum (“nature abhors a vacuum”).

Some days before All Souls’ Day (Nov. 2), Italians, like many other Europeans, begin visiting the graves of their deceased relatives. The cemeteries are crowded with people adorning the graves with fresh flowers and praying for the dead. In some places in Italy, there still survive other traditions that commemorate the departed.

One of the most famous figures of all English literature is the ghost of Hamlet’s father. Three times he appears in Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. He demands that his son settle accounts with his uncle who murdered the dead king. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Julius Caesar and Richard III, ghosts also appear.

On Oct. 7, 1571, Don Juan of Austria led a coalition of Christians against the Ottoman forces seeking to gain control of the Medi­terranean. The Christian fleet was assembled together by the Republic of Venice and the Spanish Empire, along with the Papacy. In the Gulf of Patras near Corinth, Greece, the Christian and the Muslim forces engaged in the battle of Lepanto, one of the most important battles of history. On its outcome hung the fate of Europe. Would it remain Christian or would it become Muslim?