Right to Life Act

This is an interesting angle at sinking Roe v Wade. Sadly, many in the pro-life camp will immediately note that using the birth control pill would become illegal. That is why I place the likelihood of passage of this bill next to nil. With God, however, all things are possible.

State of US Catholic Church at beginning of 2006 - There is good news and there is not so good news. I pulled some choice quotes and I encourage you to read the rest.

For example, Catholics in the US make up six percent of the global Catholic population, but 12 percent of the bishops in the Church and 14 percent of the priests. The US alone has more priests than the top three Catholic countries combined (41,000 in the US to 37,000 in Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines combined). This makes talk of a "priest shortage" in the US almost laughable, at least in comparison with many countries struggling to care for much larger Catholic populations.
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The only religious congregations showing signs of life and attracting many vocations are strongly faithful and evangelizing men's congregations like the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and the Legionaries of Christ. Similarly, among women, congregations that wear full habit and have a strong prayer and community life are drawing many vocations — the Nashville Dominicans and Mother Angelica's Poor Clares being outstanding examples. The traditional Carmels also continue to attract a steady stream of young vocations.Full Circle: not to mention the fact that the dioceses that are producing the most vocations are the most orthodox ones
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Over the last 30 years or so, a dozen or more new Catholic colleges have been founded, partly in reaction to the increasing secularization of the nominal Catholic institutions. Most of them are flourishing, though many are not large institutions. Franciscan University of Steubenville, the University of Dallas, and the newly founded Ave Maria University stand out among the larger faithful institutions, while Thomas Aquinas College and Christendom College stand out among the smaller schools. All have a required core curriculum for the liberal arts, including theology and philosophy.
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More distressing is the American custom of reception of Holy Communion by virtually every layperson who attends Mass on Sunday. Given the dramatic decline in the reception of the Sacrament of Penance and the drop in belief in the Divine Presence in the Eucharist, there must be many objectively sacrilegious communions. Much catechetical work needs to be done.
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Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, Catholics tend to contracept at the same rate as the rest of the world. Hence the number of children per Catholic family is not significantly different from that of non-Catholics.

On conversion and rejection, or lack thereof

I think part of this has to do with the public school system actively pushing relativism. My entire generation is overwhelmingly infested with it, myself 10 years ago included. For example, it was quite clear to me when I first started reading the New Testament on my own that there were quite a few things that didn't quite jive with the "ho hum all is OK" theology that I was being fed at the church I was attending at the time. In reality, the brand of Christianity I was being taught was "let people in on this Jesus gig" and let them be after that. Focus on Jesus (Whatever your idea of that may be) and all of those frightening warnings from Paul and all of those other "divisive" teachings were just that ... divisive. The fact is the differences are important.

After my conversion I noticed that my friends divided into three camps.

1. Those that were vocally opposed to my conversion on doctrinal grounds
2. Those that were silently opposed to my conversion on doctrinal grounds
3. Those that thought it was A OK that Christ was doing such a wonderful thing in my life which happened to be strikingly opposed to what Christ was doing in their life.

In all honestly I initially felt most grieved by those in camp 1 because they dared to make a stink about my conversion. After a long time of thinking about it though, the ones in camp 3 disturb me the most. Those in camp 1 generally get upset because you challenge their comfort zone by telling them that what they believe to be true might have severe flaws. We all went through that in our own conversions. That said, truth matters and they know it. It wouldn't have upset them otherwise.

John 14:6a Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life."