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Recently, I applied to become an astronaut. I would like to be able to say that there is a non-zero chance I will be accepted, but sub-zero is more like it. Not a whole lot of people who can actually recall Sputnik—which, for the record, was launched on Oct. 4, 1957—quite make the age cut to climb on top of a rocket. Still, I filled out the nine-page form and sent it in, even if I have no doubt I’ll wind up in the cosmic slush pile. You, however, may have more luck. NASA is hiring; on March 5 it opened its doors to a new class of 12 or so astronauts and will be accepting applications until April 2, though it is considering extending the deadline to accommodate more candidates. The salary is $152,258; the place of employment is the Johnson Space Center in Houston—with work trips to, you kno...

By Clement Harrold April 11, 2024 In reciting the Apostles Creed, the Christian faithful affirm that Jesus “descended into hell” following His crucifixion and death. But is this literally the case, and does the Creed use the word “hell” in the same way that we understand it today? The hell which Christ descended into following His death was not quite the same as the hell we imagine today. This is because, prior to Jesus’s saving work, “hell” was a more generic word (known as sheol in Hebrew, or hades in Greek). This generic hell is what is referred to in the Apostles Creed, and while it included the souls of the damned, it wasn’t limited to them. Prior to Jesus’s descent, hell was a differentiated reality made up of two different spheres. One of those spheres was composed of the souls of t...

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio – articles – email ) | Apr 12, 2024 One of the problems many highly committed Catholics have when they read and respond to documents issued or approved by Pope Francis is that we do not trust Pope Francis’ ability or willingness to address challenges to the Catholic Faith clearly and correctly. This is no great secret: Everyone is aware of the conundrum it presents. However, we must also realize that this confusion cuts both ways. It is true that we must be on guard against the real deficiencies in the current pontificate. But we must also guard against our own tendency to assume that anything that does not match the way we think an issue should have been treated, or does not express things as we would have liked them to be expressed, must represent one ...

At the conclusion of Sunday’s Regina Coeli, Pope Francis makes a heartfelt appeal to halt the spiral of violence in the Middle East and for all nations to favour negotation and peace efforts, while assisting those suffering in Gaza. By Vatican News Pope Francis made a heartfelt appeal on Sunday following the Regina Coeli, when he called for a stop to any actions that may fuel the “spiral of violence” in the Middle East that risk plunging the region into an even wider war. The Pope said he is following with “prayer and concern, even sorrow” the news arriving in recent hours about the worsening situation in Israel following the intervention by Iran. He emphasised that nobody should threaten the existence of others, and that instead all nations should “take...

By most accounts, Dignitas Infinita, the Vatican’s new declaration on human dignity, has been received by the Church largely without a hitch. In fact, it might be one of the least controversial high-profile documents we’ve seen from the Francis pontificate in recent years. This is especially true when compared to the last declaration issued by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández and the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Fiducia Supplicans. Over three months after that document’s Dec. 19 publication, its approval of non-liturgical blessing of same-sex couples is still generating controversy.  By contrast, Dignitas Infinita is largely being hailed as a refreshing rearticulation of the Church’s teaching on human dignity (though it does have its detractors on both the progressive and ...

In May 1993, the “World Russian People’s Council,” a “meeting place” for those “concerned about the present and future of Russia,” was created at the instigation of Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk (now Patriarch of Moscow and head of the Russian Orthodox Church). Kirill is now the presiding officer of the Council, which met on March 27 in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, built to replace an earlier church dynamited in 1931 on orders of the Soviet Politburo. The March 27 Council meeting did its own dynamiting, however. In this instance, the truth was destroyed. So was any claim that Kirill is committed to Christian orthodoxy. In a document entitled “The Present and Future of the Russian World” (a notion already condemned as heretical by hundreds of Orthodox theologians), the Kirill-...