1. Pope Francis this weekend:

I take this opportunity to appeal to all politicians, regardless of their faith convictions, to treat the defense of the lives of those who are about to be born and enter into society as the cornerstone of the common good.

And:

When life itself is violated at its emergence, what remains is no longer the grateful and enchanted welcome of a gift, but a cold calculation of what we have and what we can use. Then even life is reduced to a one-time-use consumer good.

2. Let Children Get Bored Again

3. Naomi Schaefer Riley: More than 400 foster placements. How does that happen?

4. Also: Children First: Faith-based foster-family agencies should be allowed to place kids according to their principles.


5. Ruben Diaz in First Things on Democrats and life

6. In the New York Times: The Dangerous Rise of the IUD as Poverty Cure


7. In City Journal: When Feminists Abandon Girls

8. David Harsanyi : Questions The Media Should Ask Democratic Presidential Party Hopefuls (But Won’t)

Do you believe that a mother should have the right to obtain an abortion of a viable baby up until the moment of birth if the mother claims emotional stress? Do you believe babies who survive botched abortion procedures should be, through the purposeful neglect of doctors, allowed to die if that is the mother’s wish? Do you believe doctors who allow infants to die should be afforded special protections by the law? Specifically, what limits, if any, do you believe should be placed on abortion?

9. All about my father: inheriting a lifetime’s collection of books

10. Three Writing Rules to Disregard


ALSO:

Thank The Atlantic for running Alexandra DeSanctis today. (See the very end for contact information.)

Follow Sohrab Ahmari on the pope in the United Arab Emirates. And we’ll be talking about his spiritual memoir in March in NYC. Details here. (My NRO Q&A with him here. John J. Miller’s podcast with him here.)

Today’s the feast of St. Catherine di Ricci, who left us a beautiful Canticle of the Passion. She also has 1,000 letters, most of which have not been translated. Some one ought to get on that.