Sheila Gribben Liaugminas
Sheila Gribben Liaugminas [log-meen-us] has extensive experience in both print and broadcast journalism. Early in her career she worked for the Dayton Journal Herald newspaper in Ohio, after which she worked for the Dayton CBS affiliate.
In Chicago, she reported for Time magazine out of the Midwest Bureau for more than twenty years. She has contributed to the Chicago Tribune, and did a year-long series on historic Chicago for Crain's Chicago Business. At WMAQ-TV, Chicago's NBC-owned station, she served as co-host of the award-winning feature magazine program YOU, and guest-hosted a morning talk show. She hosted The Right Questions and Issues & Answers for Relevant Radio.
She wrote a booklet titled Rome: Heart of the Church, Soul of a Pilgrimage for the Great Jubilee. The Adoremus Bulletin published this booklet in installments during the Jubilee Year.
She has written three cover stories for Crisis magazine: "Catholicism with a Latin Beat" (September 2001); "How the Media Twist the News" (October 2002) and "Media Bias: The State of the Problem" (April 2007) . She writes for MercatorNet, "Unrepentant Times", "Trashing the Icon of Altruism", "Campus Killings: the media at a loss", USA Today at 25 and Fear Religion: CNN's message to the nation.
She appeared as a guest on the Al Kresta show on Ave Maria Radio to discuss the issue of media bias. She is a regular guest news analyst on issues of media, news and politics on two Relevant Radio shows and other Catholic radio shows.
She is a correspondent for the National Catholic Register.
Mrs. Gribben Liaugminas lives in Chicago and is married with sons.
She is a member of Saints Peter & Paul Parish in Naperville, Illinois where she works with various pro-life efforts. She serves on the Archdiocese of Chicago's Vocation Committee and is a Founding Board Member of the Illinois Catholic Prayer Breakfast. She serves as a member of The Upper Room Network, an initiative of the new evangelization based in Chicago.
She is a member of (speaker for) Dignity of Women.
Her writing and speaking engagements cover a variety of topics, with her particular interest being matters of the Church, faith, culture, politics and the media.
Sheila Liaugminas' blog: www.inforumblog.com -- engaging the culture on the religion, culture, politics, news and current affairs fronts and drawing all people into a dialogue, while grounding the issues in truth.
Recommended Link: South Dakota abortion task force report.
Speaking Engagements
Voices articles online
Father Speaks to the Family -- Pentecost 2008
The State of the Union of Faith and Politics -- Eastertide 2008
Defining Political Terms -- Christmastide 2007
Gobsmacked by Logic: Will pro-lifers succumb to silencing tactics? -- Sheila Liaugminas, Michaelmas 2007, Vol. XXII, No. 3
The Abortion Movement Takes Cover — Sheila Gribben Liaugminas, Voices, Pentecost 2007
A Choice Battle, Heavyweights in the Heartland Wield New Strategy -- "How did the quiet, sparsely populated, Midwestern Plain state of South Dakota become the frontline of the pro-life movement?" -- by Sheila Liaugminas, Michaelmas 2006
Affirmation of an Ancient Priestly Tradition
- by Sheila Gribben Liaugminas Michaelmas 2004Carrying the Message -"Jesus Christ "makes all things new again". "Re-launching" evangelization, as the Holy Father has put it, must draw new ardor and expression from a personal encounter with Christ." - by Sheila Gribben Liaugminas Pentecost Season 2004 -Vol. XIX: No. 2
The Passion for Christ - Facing Jesus Christ, in the awesomely complex simplicity of who He is, can be terrifying and shattering. Why? Because when you face Him, it is a decisive moment. And when you really encounter Him, you can never be the same.
by Sheila Gribben Liaugminas Eastertide 2004 Vol XIX, No. 1Looking Forward - No matter how bleak current affairs are in the world, our culture, the government, the courts, the schools, the Christian faith and the Catholic Church -- and we do seem to be about one tick away from midnight on that doomsday clock -- how we see the overall picture of our condition in this civilization at this time depends on where we are looking. Or more specifically, on who is presenting the picture, what they're showing you, and how they are interpreting it for you.
by Sheila Gribben Liaugminas -- Christmastide 2003 - Epiphany 2004 - Vol . XVIII, No. 4America, Baseball and Life Michaelmas 2003 Vol XVIII, No. 3
Know What You Are Doing Pentecost 2003 Vol. XVIII,No. 2
This Mystery of Faith Lent/Easter 2003 Vol. XVIII, No. 1
Whose Voice? Which Faith? Advent/Christmas 2002 Vol. XVII, No. 4
Making Words Count - Voters must be mindful of media manipulation Michaelmas 2002 Vol. XVII, No. 3
Mandate to Teach All Truth Pentecost 2002 Vol. XVII, No. 2
What Yield the Deposit of Faith? - Perspectives of Catechetics Lent/Easter 2002 Vol. XVII, No. 1
Guarding Education Michaelmas 2001 Vol. XVI, No, 3
Youth on Fire Pentecost 2001 Vol. XVI, No. 2
A Renewed Pentecost - Catholic Movements called to "A New Dynamism" December 1998 Vol. XIII, No. 4
Below is Sheila Gribben Liaugminas's letter to the editor of The Daily Herald, "Suburban Chicago's Information Source", written "to set the record straight about the local abortion clinic where many of us hold prayer vigil. They had earlier printed an angry and nasty letter from a clinic worker responding to a very decent letter by an Illinois Citizens for Life Leader (one of our clinic vigil organizers), and the clinic worker's letter was all distortions and emotion. So I wrote back to clarify it, but ... didn't know if they'd publish it. Just found out it ran on Thanksgiving day. Thanks be to God."
Don't distort what is happening at clinic
Manipulate words and you manipulate reactions to what you are describing. That is why the media have such a responsibility to speak and write honestly, with words representing truth. That extends to anyone who speaks or writes to convey accounts of events for people who were not there.
I have been at the Glen Ellyn abortion clinic, to which letter writer Amy Tauchman of Glen Ellyn referred in her letter "Demonstrators should demonstrate sensitivity" (Oct. 26). So I feel a responsibility to address the distortion that account presented of what really takes place there, at least in the times I have been present.
It is important that each side tries to respect each other and operate on the premise that everyone is out there doing what they think to be the right thing. That is why people who stand outside the parameters of the clinic want to be able to just talk with the clinic workers and the patients who go there. Information is good, as is an understanding of all the facts. Many women who go for abortions actually feel they don't have a choice, contrary to the common image. The people outside the clinic have literature filled with resources and information for women in every sort of need, medically and beyond, because it is an effort to care for women and the life they carry within.
Trouble is, that clinic has a restraining order keeping those outside from coming onto any of the property, even the grass at the outer edge, just to say something, whether to patients or to the clinic workers themselves. So any communication, regrettably, has to be projected for people to hear it.
Tauchman claims that "protesters verbally harass and intimidate the patients as they arrive." Actually, they call out, asking them to take the reading material in their hands. They call out that there is plenty of help available to them and offer to provide it for them, offering them another choice. Why would anyone want to stand out in the bitter cold, wind and rain, sometimes for hours, getting practically numb, just to harass women as they come to a clinic? Intellectual honesty would acknowledge otherwise.
The people outside are people of all faiths, and no faith but strong convictions. And as for why the people outside spend "countless mornings" at the clinic, either praying, holding literature or just holding vigil instead of becoming foster or adoptive parents, I have a couple of answers.
First, some of those people are adoptive parents or assist with adoptions, and some do volunteer work at orphanages.And second, if I knew you were out in middle of the forest behind some thick bushes, and I also knew the hunter nearby saw some rustling and, since he couldn't really see it was a human, and therefore wasn't certain it was a human, and didn't want to believe it was a human, I'd sure be out there beating the bushes to save you before he fired the shot.
Sheila Liaugminas
Glen Ellynprinted in The Daily Herald
11/28/02
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