Left

Pope Francis holds two books he presented as a gift to cardinals and bishops on the occasion of his Christmas greetings to the Roman Curia, Dec. 21, 2019, in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican. (Andrew Medichini/Pool/AFP via Getty Images) ‘Querida Amazonia’: On the Question of Married Priests, a Papal Pattern Returns COMMENTARY: In Querida Amazonia, as in previous documents, clear questions were posed. Ambiguous answers were given, awaiting clarification by novel maneuvers. Father Raymond J. de Souza In regard to the magisterium of Pope Francis it’s not just what he teaches, but how. In both Amoris Laetitia and in regard to capital punishment, the manner of magisterial teaching was novel. The pattern is now repeated with Querida Amazonia, the Holy Father’s post-synodal apostolic exhortatio...

<div class="sqs-block video-block sqs-block-video" data-block-json="{"blockAnimation":"none","layout":"caption-hidden","overlay":true,"description":{"html":"Pope Francis released his official text on the Amazon Synod February 12 at noon Rome time, bringing with it what is sure to be a strong debate and controversy over its meaning for the life of the worldwide Church."},"hSize":null,"floatDir":null,"html":"\n","url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jEWgCcRSt4&feature=emb_logo","width":854,"height":480,"providerName":"YouTube","thumbnailUrl":"http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-jEWgCcRSt4/...

<div class="sqs-block video-block sqs-block-video" data-block-json="{"blockAnimation":"none","layout":"caption-hidden","overlay":true,"description":{"html":"Orson Bean shares his personal journey of finding God in brutally honest and unforgettable fashion."},"hSize":null,"floatDir":null,"html":"\n","url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDyoZlTRatE","width":640,"height":480,"providerName":"YouTube","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GDyoZlTRatE/hqdefault.jpg","resolvedBy":"youtube"}” data-block-type=”32″ id=”block-yui_3_17_2_1_1...

I’m about to write something extremely controversial and provocative. Proceed with the pitchforks and torches if you must. It will not change my opinion. Here goes. I’m glad—no, downright gleeful that my kids’ Catholic school does not celebrate Valentine’s Day. There. It’s officially out there. I’m truly happy there will be no shoebox “mailboxes” wrapped in red and pink paper and plastered with colorful stickers and foam heart decorations. No cutesy purple cupcakes heaped with gobs of frosting and sprinkles. No party with pastel streamers, balloons, Pinterest-inspired crafts, sugary drinks paired with adorable polka-dotted straws, and candy galore. Some of these things I look back on fondly from my own youth. I did really love those candy hearts with the pithy little sayings… miss you, be ...

There is nothing quite so depressing as politicians jerking nuns around. The Little Sisters of the Poor are returning to the U.S. Supreme Court for a third time. They’ve already twice defended their right not to comply with the Obamacare requirement that employers provide free contraceptive coverage in their health insurance. The Little Sisters are a Roman Catholic charitable order that cares for the elderly and poor by operating 30 nursing homes across the country. Those homes have lay staff for whom the Little Sisters provide group health insurance. Everything was fine until the Obama administration and certain state governments got it into their heads that the Sisters ought to ignore their beliefs and include contraception and abortion-inducing drugs in their insurance coverage. Li...

If something is very small, it does not follow that it is insignificant and meaningless. I enjoy watching and hearing the reactions of my students when I tell them that, if they were on the edge of our galaxy and their friend were on the other side, and if they sent a text message to their friend, the galaxy is so large that it would take 100,000 years for that message to get there. That is how big our galaxy is, and ours is only one among billions of galaxies. The awe practically drips off their faces; often it is audible. In the midst of this reaction, it is quite common for a student to then say something like this: “Wow, the universe is so huge! We are so meaningless and insignificant. Life has no meaning.” I can understand how the first statement makes sense. But the deduction of the ...

While many of the companies that feature so prominently in our daily lives (Google, Apple, etc.) are relatively new, many companies around the world are pretty old — older than countries like the US, in fact — and a few of the oldest have actually been in operation for more than 1,000 years. If you want to know which companies are actually the oldest around the world, you can check out this map from Businessfinancing.co.uk, that shows the oldest company in each country that is still in business. See a full-size image of the map here. And in greater detail, here are maps that show the oldest company in each country by continent. It should be noted that the maps are not exhaustive and do not include data on every single country and that when it comes to determining what business is the ̶...

The only surviving piece of bone thought to belong to St John Henry Newman has been stolen from the Birmingham Oratory. The Oratory announced the theft in its weekly newsletter on Sunday, saying the bone fragment had been taken from its casket in the Newman Shrine. The fathers appealed for anyone who had seen any suspicious activity to come forward. Newman was buried in a cemetery in Rednal, outside Birmingham, in 1890. His grave was excavated in October 2008, but other than the small fragment of bone, no physical remains were found save for brass coffin handles and an inscription plate. A spokesman said at the time that given the damp nature of the soil, total decomposition was not surprising. Newman was eventually canonised in October last year. The incident is the latest in a spate of r...

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio – articles – email ) | Feb 06, 2020 | In Scripture Series When we think of St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, we tend to recall only the part which addresses one of our most practical preoccupations, the relationship between husbands and wives. In this twenty-first century after Christ, our culture regards marriage as in RUINS (Restrictive, Unnatural, Incomprehensible, Nugatory, and Senseless). We cannot avoid endless wrangling over the thirteen verses in Ephesians that deal with it. We ignore the 118 verses which precede Paul’s comments on it (1:1—5:21), along with most of the small number of verses in the conclusion which follows (cf. 6:10-20). This is a huge mistake. The whole point of the letter is to explain to the new Christians in Ephesus what it...

With our archives now 3,500+ articles deep, we’ve decided to republish a classic piece each Friday to help our newer readers discover some of the best, evergreen gems from the past. This article was originally published in May 2011.  This is a guest post by Tyler Tervooren of Advanced Riskology. It’s learning how to negotiate to keep both sides happy – whether it’s for a multi-million dollar contract or just which show to watch on TV, that determines the quality and enjoyment of our lives. —Leigh Steinberg My old man was a master haggler; he could strike a deal with darn near anyone for darn near anything. To say I learned a lot about making deals while growing up would be an understatement. From buying a TV at the department store to negotiating over a used car in the local classifie...

Ecumenical optimists believe that Christians must find ways in which they agree with the other guys and build on those. Ecumenical partisans believe that Christians can’t find such agreements – not meaningful ones, anyway – and must maintain the space between themselves and the other guys. Both get it right and get it wrong, because they don’t understand how ecumenical friendships work. Catholic apologists will declare that Jesus wanted the Church to be one, but Protestants have thousands of churches (Ha!). Protestant apologists will dismiss some of Catholicism’s central dogmas with “That’s not in the Bible,” said with the confidence of someone throwing down a royal flush. Neither tries to see why the others believe what they do and think they are being faithful Christians in believing it....

In the Gospel today the Lord describes metaphorically what a Christian is and what He expects of us. Note five things about what God says: I. The Definitiveness of His Proclamation– The text says, You are the Salt of the earth. … You are the light of the World. … But if salt goes flat it is good for nothing. … No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket. The Lord is definitive in two ways. First,He says, “You.” He is not talking just to people long ago or to the person next to you. He is not merely talking to your pastor or the Saints. He is talking to you. Youare salt. Youare light. You. It’s too easy to say, “Look at what the Lord is saying to those people long ago near the lakeside.” It’s not long ago; it’s now. It’s you. The second way that the Lord is definitive isin saying that b...