John Lavenburg In response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe vs Wade, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore stated his appreciation but kept an eye towards the future and the need to redouble Church efforts supporting women and couples who face unexpected pregnancies, as well as opening the hearts and minds of those with a different perspective. “My…
Last Friday, June 24, we celebrated the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The spirituality of the Sacred Heart is an invitation to be intimate with God. The theme of intimacy is central in the Bible. The symbol of the heart is considered to be the seat of emotions and human affectivity. It can rejoice…
If I don’t appear at my local church over a couple of Sundays, other parishioners are kind enough to notice my absence: people very sweetly ask me afterwards if I’ve been away – usually the reason – and if I had a pleasant trip. One of the social advantages of being part of a parish…
On the eve of the World Meeting of Families and with a view toward the beatification September 4 of Pope John Paul I, attention turned to his initial openness to softening Catholic teaching on contraception and his later support for the teaching of St Paul VI. The editorial director of Vatican News, Andrea Tornielli, and the…
There’s a tension among Christians today between those who would extend God’s mercy everywhere, seemingly without any conditions, and those who are more reticent and discriminating in dispensing it. The tension comes out most clearly in our debates concerning who may receive the sacraments: Who should be allowed to receive the Eucharist? Who should be…
Michael D. Higgins is a very popular president, and I think there’s a special reason why he is well suited to the Irish temperament. Many outsiders who have observed Ireland and the Irish have remarked that a feature of Irish life is a difference between what people say in the public sphere – and what…
The View In 2018, then Tánaiste Simon Coveney said that he was willing to support repeal of the 8th amendment and legalisation of abortion on demand to 12 weeks because he had been assured there would be “strict guidelines”, including a three-day waiting period for women to reflect on the decision before they underwent an abortion.…
An immediate scaling up of aid is now the only hope to avoid starvation for hundreds of thousands of people, writes Liam Fitzpatrick Forty-eight seconds. In the time it takes to brew a cup of coffee, one person in the Horn of Africa is likely dying of hunger in one of the most severe humanitarian…
Even before Pope Francis stages his latest consistory on August 27, inducting 20 new members into the Catholic Church’s most exclusive club, the event has managed to make news – in this case, not so much for the new cardinals who’ll be there, but the one erstwhile cardinal-designate who won’t. This past Thursday, the bishops’…
Pope Francis gave the editors of 10 Jesuit magazines a glimpse into how he makes decisions, background on one of his more controversial comments about the war in Ukraine and insight into what he sees as the refusal of some bishops to accept the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. Meeting in May with the…
Mary Kenny
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
John L. Allen Jr.