In 2018, a national survey exploring the impact of loneliness revealed that this condition is now at epidemic levels and poses a severe health risk to the general population. Survey results were released by Cigna, a global health service company, based on the UCLA loneliness scale, an instrument that measures and assesses subjective feelings of Read more
There is a popular story about four blind men who wanted to know what an elephant was. They stood around an elephant and the first blind man grabbed the rail. “An elephant is a thick rope,” he said. The second mam felt the elephant’s leg. “No,” he said. “The elephant is a strong pillar.” Blind Read more
We continue to hear of incidents that more than suggest that Catholics – and, in particular, their bishops – have learned very little from the clergy sexual abuse crisis. This is quite alarming and depressing because the Church in North America has been dealing with issues regarding priests who abuse children and teenagers for at Read more
Having a religious faith makes people feel healthier, the latest government figures suggest. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) today published data linking religion and health in a bid “to understand the circumstances of people of different religious identities”. It found that people aged 16 and over who had no religion were significantly less likely Read more
Lent: No booze. No meat. No french fries. For millions of Christians around the world, 40 days of “fasting” kicked off on Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of Lent. In the United States, even as younger Americans drift further away from organized religion, the practice of Lent persists. The Lenten season culminates on Holy Thursday, Read more
One test of a given thinker or leader’s impact is the ability to shape language. Karl Marx, for instance, gave us “the bourgeoisie” as an all-encompassing bogeyman of modern capitalism; Ronald Reagan gave us the “evil empire” as a slogan of opposition to the Soviet state Marx’s thought helped to create. By that standard, Pope Read more
Why does God care if you give up chocolate? It’s a question I get asked in some form at least a couple of times each Lent, from Christian and non-Christian friends alike. While it’s a good question, I can’t help but find it a bit strange. Restrictive food fads are the rage From my perspective, Read more
If sperm was an animal, science might worry that it’s heading toward extinction in Western nations. Total sperm count in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand dropped by up to 60% in the 38 years between 1973 and 2011, the research found — an acceleration of a trend that began in the 1940s. More Read more
It’s freezing cold and the kids don’t have proper shoes, but the elderly Samar couldn’t risk it. Overnight, the bombings got too close. They fled their village in a panic, the older children carrying the little ones, walking for seven hours just to getaway. The youngest children are shaking, their cheeks are bright pink from Read more
Pope Francis’ post-synodal apostolic exhortation is only the beginning of the story. As church conservatives and progressives take to the internet and supposed neutral writers enter their own spins, everyone is forgetting about the forest and the trees. It is about the Amazon Basin, not about married priests or women deacons. Except it is. There Read more