Words are funny things. We all use them, with varying degrees of success, to communicate with each other. Sometimes when we use them in a careless or slipshod manner, their meaning becomes confused and misunderstandings easily occur. One such word is ‘critical’. Unfortunately, the tone of the word is often one-directional. It implies that something Read more
Washington: Just when you’re feeling proud of America, she finds a way to break your heart. At the end of June, it looked like the US was about to pass a remarkable milestone in its fight against the coronavirus. After plummeting for months, the seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases appeared poised to drop below Read more
One hundred million people worldwide now have Calm on their smartphones, a meditation app that monetized doing absolutely nothing. The app’s popularity skyrocketed during the pandemic, as anxieties ran high and finding peace and quiet proved harder to do. Calm provides mindfulness meditations, breathing exercises and bedtime stories to encourage users to take some time Read more
The gender pay gap remains a thorny and persistent problem in society. In the U.S., women are underpaid relative to white men at every education level and in most occupations, on average earning only 82 cents for every dollar a man earns. This disparity is even greater when we consider race/ethnicity, where Black women (63 Read more
An image has been occurring to me of boats that have become unmoored. They end up on the rocks, or colliding with one another. There are features of our Western world’s culture that seem to fit the image. Important aspects of our lives seem to have become disconnected from what gives them meaning. If this Read more
The appeal of the Olympics is that they decide who can claim the title of best in the world. They also, less gloriously, decide who can claim the title of second best in the world. Despite beating out every competitor on Earth but one, silver medalists can feel a special type of disappointment. In a Read more
One of the first big crises the Church faced was one that Jesus had probably not anticipated. He certainly did not leave any instructions or even advice on how to deal with it. The problem appears in the Acts of the Apostles: “Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists Read more
The Assumption matters because it reminds us, with almost embarrassing boldness, of the shocking materiality of Catholic belief in the afterlife—a facet of our faith that we’d often rather forget. Most of us learn something like this in catechism: At the end of our lives we will all be judged by God. Depending on the Read more
Scientists are warning us that because of global warming, civilization is headed toward the worst catastrophe in human history. Unlike a war, a pandemic or a depression, this is not a disaster we can recover from in a few decades. This is a calamity that will take centuries, if not millennia, to recover from, if Read more
With greater numbers of people being vaccinated and countries looking to reopen borders safely, the introduction of some form of vaccine passport seems increasingly likely. For New Zealand, where the elimination strategy has been largely successful but which remains vulnerable to border breaches, proof of vaccination may well be a condition of entry. Health Minister Read more