Please allow me a moment of grief and frustration. I am, you see, worrying about friends who are missing and, to be blunt, no one knows if some of them will be fatalities in the the great Hurricane Helene catastrophe in the mountains of Western North Carolina. But this is a Rational Sheep post. This is a story about mass media, screens culture and our lives. I am poised, this week, to move into a house in the Tri-Cities of Northeast Tennessee in a neighborhood that was flooded at the end of last week. Our house survived, but we have work to do. Can we move our big furniture in this week as scheduled? It certainly is an interesting time to move to a community that dates back to the American Revolution. What we have here is a painful two-part post — with one truly American story and the othe...

‘In all my years knowing him, Archbishop Chaput witnessed to a joyful heart, even in the difficult times…’ Editor’s Note: Bishop James D. Conley celebrated Mass commemorating Archbishop Charles J. Chaput’s 80th birthday on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. Please find the full text of the homily below printed with permission.  Today’s Scriptures speak about the generosity of the Holy Spirit, bestowing gifts on those who are near the teacher, Moses and Jesus respectively, so it is fitting that all of us are gathered here in honor of one of the great teachers of our time. Each of us in our own way are beneficiaries of a grace that flowed from his ministry. Each of us is like Eldad and Medad in the Old Testament reading, and the unnamed person in today’s Gospel who ...

In a recent interview with The Pillar, Dr. Frank Ronge, a veteran German Catholic bureaucrat who coordinates the German Synodal Path, described the Synodaler Weg’s rationale and work. Many of those deeply engaged in the Synodal Path imagine it as a model for the world Church – or at least those parts of the world Church that aren’t a bit behind the cultural curve as construed by enlightened Germans. It’s thus worth asking some questions about the German experience of “synodality,” with an eye to what that experience might suggest about other paths of renewal in other ecclesial circumstances – or indeed about the path to be taken by Synod 2024 in Rome over the next month. The first question involves the origins of the Synodaler Weg, which began, Dr. Ronge said, as a response to revelations ...

By Phil Lawler ( bio – articles – email ) | Sep 25, 2024 If you count the flight home, Pope Francis made two shocking statements during his recent trip to Asia and Oceania: first telling an audience in Singapore that all religions are paths to God, then suggesting that Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are morally equivalent. Those two statements were of course highly questionable, and have been widely questioned. But before we forget the papal voyage and turn our attention to other subjects, could I point out a third controversial statement that the Pontiff made—and the media coverage generally missed? “How wonderful that here in East Timor there are so many children,” Pope Francis said during a homily preached at an outdoor Mass on September 10. That sentence is not taken out of...

By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky ( bio – articles – email ) | Sep 30, 2024 Most pastors are familiar with the unpleasantries of patrolling parish grounds after dark. After disrupting a young couple seeking privacy in the darkness of the parking lot, a young man rolls down the car window. As he zooms away he yells, “I’ll see you in hell!” Many may not believe in God, but they believe in hell. It’s a good start. The Gospel directs our attention to the reality of hell with the words of Jesus. Jesus refers to the everlasting fires of Gehenna for unrepented sins. Traditionally, we’ve translated that word as “Hell.” The words are interchangeable. Gehenna was a fiery pit of child sacrifice and a metaphor for the everlasting torment of those who offered their children to the Demon Moloch. Jesus w...