It’s a measure of where we’ve come to in public debate that I have thought more than twice about writing this piece. The days of civilised debate, of accepting different opinions seem to be disappearing. None of us likes being yelled at or chastised for our views. The pleasure of exchanging opinions, exploring them and Read more
Battle lines have been drawn for October’s highly anticipated Vatican summit on the Amazon region, where the proposal to give isolated communities access to the sacraments by ordaining married men has led to uproar — frustrating some of the meeting’s organizers for distracting from other pastoral concerns at stake in the region. Father Michael Czerny, Read more
The European Union and representatives from seven countries denounced the worldwide persecution of Christians on Sept. 27 at the United Nations. The panel discussion, held during the 74th session of the U.N. General Assembly, was co-hosted by the permanent missions of Hungary and Brazil. The event, “Rebuilding Lives, Rebuilding Communities: Ensuring a Future for Persecuted Read more
Perhaps someone very dear to you has already died, and you know the pain of losing them. Our Christian faith teaches that through our dying, “life is changed, not ended”. Not only that: it teaches that “… all the good fruits of human nature, and all the good fruits of human enterprise, we shall find Read more
My good friend John von Heyking published a marvelous book in 2016, The Form of Politics: Aristotle and Plato on Friendship. The book argues for something important: We should recover a sense that politics is not about a partisan competition or any effort to win by defeating somebody else. Politics is friendship—and really the highest Read more
A new priest named Mindar is holding forth at Kodaiji, a 400-year-old Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan. Like other clergy members, this priest can deliver sermons and move around to interface with worshippers. But Mindar comes with some … unusual traits. A body made of aluminum and silicone, for starters. Mindar is a robot priest. Read more
We know what to do for someone who comes to church, but we don’t know how to get someone to come to church. We know how to be Christian when we are poor, under-educated, and culturally marginalized, but we struggle to be Christian when we are affluent, educated, and have a full place in the Read more
Once more, I take my good friend Jesus to the Theatre of my Life. We are going to see a rerun of the show” The Seven Deadly Sins.” “Not again!” Jesus sighs We sit in comfortable seats near the back of the theatre but even from a distance, the players look tired, more dead than Read more
Is it just me or has climate change become a religion? I ask this because I opened the newspaper this morning to be confronted by a campaign that virtually all the major news outlets have signed up to for this week: Covering Climate Now. It’s an international campaign. 170 odd news organisations around the world Read more
It’s good, it’s wise and it sounds so nice: “Season of Creation” – a time for us to stop taking the wonderful God-given gift of creation for granted. A time to wake up and smell the flowers! The Season of Creation is an annual month long ecumenical celebration of prayer and action to protect creation. Read more