Health care proposals currently going through the House of Representatives have met with a mixed reaction from US bishops, praising “critical life protections” but taking issue with other “troubling” issues under consideration. In a letter to House members about the American Health Care Act, introduced to repeal 2010’s Affordable Care Act, the chair of the…
Month: March 2017
Become a March hare or an Easter bunny
Erin Fox
We’re now nearing the middle of Lent and Easter is fast approaching. Seeing as we are still in March and Easter is right round the corner, this March hare/Easter bunny head piece is just the craft to make. If you’re having an Easter party or a birthday party, make several of these for you and…
14 tips for marrying the right person
Jennifer Roback Morse and Betys Kerekes Jennifer Roback Morse and Betys Kerekes of the Ruth Institute offer advice on how to meet your life partner We all want reliable love in our lives. In this, we are no different than people in any other time in history, despite the tatters of failed marriages all around…
Our shadow and our self-understanding
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
What is meant when certain schools of psychology today warn us about our ‘shadow’? What’s our ‘shadow’? In essence, it’s this: we have within us powerful, fiery energies that, for multiple reasons, we cannot consciously face and so we handle them by denial and repression so as to not have to deal with them. Metaphorically…
Irish people still turn to prayer in face of tragedy
Dear Editor, The loss of four good people with the crash of the Rescue 116 helicopter off the Mayo coast last week was a tragedy, and yet it was one which revealed a side of Christianity and of God that we often overlook – that of compassion. I know of no person who, upon hearing…
Iconic Chaldean church liberated in Mosul
A Chaldean Catholic church whose image announced the fall of Mosul in 2014 has been liberated. When so-called Islamic State (ISIS) swept through Iraq in June 2014, a ‘before-and-after’ picture of the Church of Our Mother of Perpetual help in Mosul emerged showing the crucifix topping the building replaced by the black banner of the…
Congo’s hidden conflict
Paul Keenan
The latest news is as grim as any emanating from the bloody battlefields of the Middle East currently dominating airtime with the international media. But this is Africa and, more specifically, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Thus, as embedded journalists in Iraq warned us to prepare for the worst as mass graves turned up amid…
UN urged to bring peace to Syria
The Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations has urged the international community to forge an enduring peace for Syria. As the conflict in the Middle Eastern nation reached its sixth anniversary in March, Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic told a sitting of the UN in Geneva that “six years of ongoing conflict indicate the failure…
Kidnapped aid workers freed in South Sudan
Eight Christian aid workers kidnapped in South Sudan have been freed unharmed. The eight members of the US-based Samaritan’s Purse charity were reportedly snatched by armed gunmen on March 13 in the central Mayendit area. Despite subsequent claims by the county’s military that the aid workers were being held for ransom, no such demand was…
Church rejects invite to join Philippines violent anti-drug campaign
The Church of the Philippines has rejected an invitation from the national police to become part of President Duterte’s murderous campaign against drug dealers. Following the call, issued by police chief General Ronald dela Rosa, the Filipino bishops’ conference insisted that it supports “whatever strategy there is, for as long as there’s no killing and…