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| Sr. Constance Veit |
Each October we observe Respect Life Month in dioceses throughout the United States. Although ending abortion remains a priority of the utmost importance, threats to the disabled and those at the end of life deserve our attention as well.
The legalization of medically assisted suicide in Canada in June should serve as a wake-up call compelling us to reach out in solidarity to our most vulnerable brothers and sisters.
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Revealing one of the most significant themes in Catholic theology, namely, the play between nature and grace, St. Luke tells us that people came to John the Baptist, asking what they should do to reform their lives. John responds with good and very pointed moral advice.
To the tax collectors he says, “Don’t take more money than you ought” and to the soldiers he urges, “Do not practice extortion, do not falsely accuse anyone; be content with your pay.”
In so saying, he was addressing very common practices of that time and place. Tax collectors regularly demanded more money than was just and skimmed the surplus for themselves — which helps to explain why they were so unpopular. And soldiers — young men with weapons and too much time on their hands — predictably acted as bully-boys, extorting money through threats of violence.
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| Veronica Arntz |
In this four-part series discussing Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia (AL), I hope to establish a clear understanding of marriage and family in the first and second parts.
In the third and fourth parts, I will clarify some confusion over the nature of the divorced and remarried and the reception of Communion, looking at the document itself.
Our next step shall be to link what we previously said about marriage to what the Church says about family.
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Recently I emailed questions to the auxiliary bishop of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Bishop William Shomali, asking him to share his first-hand insights regarding the many injustices and violent environment in the land of the Prince of Peace. He sent back a recorded audio response upon which this column is based.
Bishop Shomali said one of the most pressing problems facing Palestinians is Israeli-imposed restrictions on movement. For example, he said Palestinians living in Bethlehem or Ramallah need to obtain a permit to go just six miles to Jerusalem. And permits are only given during principle feasts. He said the ongoing illegal building of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land in the Occupied Territories is an extremely serious roadblock to a peaceful solution.
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For the past week, I have been sequestered at the Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum in Rome, an institution about five miles west of St. Peter’s Basilica.
I’m here for the Formation for New Bishops’ program, more colloquially known as “Baby Bishop School.” My colleagues are about 150 other bishops from around the world who have been appointed in the last 12 months.
The accommodations are fairly spartan: my room reminds me of my quarters in the college seminary, the bed is about two and a half feet wide, and there is no air conditioning. The meals, however, are tasty, and the conversations even tastier.
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Second in a two-part series on a Pew Study about why young people are leaving the active practice of Christianity. Part one looked at, first, the relationship between religion and science and, second, the dismissive “psychologizing” of beliefs. In this second part, Bishop Barron examines two more reasons young people offered in the study for “walking away from Christianity.” His analysis of the source of the problem, included in part one, is reprinted here in the first two paragraphs.
For the past 50 years or so, Christian thinkers have largely abandoned the art of apologetics and have failed (here I offer a j’accuse to many in the Catholic universities) to resource the riches of the Catholic intellectual tradition in order to hold off critics of the faith. I don’t blame the avatars of secularism for actively attempting to debunk Christianity; that’s their job, after all.
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Allow me to share with you one of the high points of my life — a short, yet deeply enriching encounter with a saint.
Nearly 30 years ago, I worked at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington’s emergency food warehouse. Missionaries of Charity Sisters caring for HIV/AIDS patients at their Gift of Peace House in Washington, D.C., used to regularly stop by for food assistance.
Since I helped with food distribution, I got to know the Sisters. One day while picking up food, one of the Sisters said to me, “Mother is coming.”
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| Fr. Richard Heilman |
On Friday morning, August 26, at 6:45 a.m., I read an article about the miraculous closing of the Appleton, Wis., Planned Parenthood.
I say “miraculous” because “exactly to the day” one year prior, Bishop David L. Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with the specific intention to close that Planned Parenthood, and then proceeded to the Planned Parenthood site with many other prayer warriors to offer special prayers for its closing.
That’s right . . . one year. To. The. Day. And, it happened on the memorial of the Queenship of Mary (August 22). WOW!!
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| Lindsay Becher |
“God thirsts that we may thirst for him.” — Catechism of the Catholic Church no. 2560
I thirst.
These words spoken from Jesus on the cross were also imprinted on the heart of St. Teresa of Kolkata (Mother Teresa) on September 10, 1946, and every day forward.
These words, and what Jesus revealed to her about them on a train ride that “Inspiration Day,” changed her life. Through the Church’s newest saint, they have also changed mine.
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First in a two-part series on a Pew Study about why young people are leaving the active practice of Christianity.
After perusing the latest Pew Study on why young people are leaving the active practice of Christianity, I confess that I just sighed in exasperation. I don’t doubt for a moment the sincerity of those who responded to the survey, but the reasons they offer for abandoning Christianity are just so uncompelling.
That is to say, any theologian, apologist, or evangelist worth his salt should be able easily to answer them. And this led me (hence the sigh) to the conclusion that “we have met the enemy and it is us.”
