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Having just returned from a week covering Pope Francis’ triumphant journey to the United States, I can confidently tell you that the news media are in love with the Vicar of Christ.
Time and again, commentators, pundits, anchorpersons, and editorialists opined that Pope Francis is the bomb.
Parishioners and others […]
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I had the extraordinary privilege of following the pope’s pilgrimage at very close quarters. I had this access both as a bishop and as a commentator for NBC News.
It was thrilling indeed to witness just how rapturously the American people received the pope and how affected the Holy Father was by this reception. Many images stay vividly in my mind: the pope kissing the forehead of the 10-year-old boy with cerebral palsy, the rabbi and imam praying together at the September 11th memorial, a little boy from a New York Catholic school showing the pope how to maneuver his way around a Smart Board.
SINSINAWA — A discussion of Pope Francis‘ encyclical, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home, will be held at Sinsinawa Mound from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Oct. 6 through Nov. 10.
Over the course of six weeks, participants will read each of the six chapters of the encyclical, which calls us to re-examine our lives in light of the ecological crisis, and discuss what this means for us as a people of faith.
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As the first pope in history to address a joint session of Congress, Pope Francis defended the human right of masses of oppressed and poor people to immigrate.
He said “We must not be taken aback by their number, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation.”
The pope said, “We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays: to discard whatever proves troublesome. Let us remember the Golden Rule: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you'” (Mt 7:12).
MADISON — Care of Creation has scheduled a presentation on Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home on Thursday, Oct. 1, 7 p.m. at the St. Dennis Parish Center, 505 Dempsey Rd.
John Huebscher, executive director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference will be the presenter. Fr. Randy Timmerman, pastor, and Steve Coleman, resident expert on climate change, will also attend.
MADISON — A conversation on Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care of Our Common Home and sustainable agriculture in Wisconsin will be held Sunday, Sept. 27, from 1:30 to 6 p.m. in Anderson Auditorium in Predolin Hall at Edgewood College.
Panelists will include environmentalist Calvin DeWitt , Sr. Miriam Brown, Eric Anglada of the New Hope Catholic Worker Farm, and Edgewood economics professor Kevin Biller. The speakers will lead break-out sessions after the panel concludes.
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It’s courageous, it’s prophetic, it’s challenging, it’’ holistic, it’s wonderful: That’s what I think of Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home.
Quoting his patron saint, Francis of Assisi — who is also the patron saint of ecology — Pope Francis begins his papal letter with a beautiful verse from the saint’s Canticle of the Creatures: “‘Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with colored flowers and herbs.'”
“St. Francis of Assisi reminds us,” writes the pope, “that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. . . .
Dear Friends,
Around this time of year, things typically slow down in this space. Our Catholic Herald usually has a reduced schedule during the summer, and I always take a bit of a “summer recess” from writing these columns.
That being said, there’s been enough happening in the last two weeks to fill numerous columns, and so I feel compelled to write.
Two very major things happened this past Friday — the ordination of six men to the priesthood for the diocese, and the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision redefining marriage.
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Fourth and last in a series of reflections by Fr. Robert Barron on the life of Cardinal Francis George.
The other principal sign of the exhaustion of the liberal project is its hyper-stress on freedom as self-assertion and self-definition.
In Cardinal Francis George’s words, “The cultural fault line lies in a willingness to sacrifice even the Gospel truth in order to safeguard personal freedom construed as choice.”
