For more than four years, the fate of Australia’s most powerful Catholic cleric rested on the word of a former choirboy. For police, for the courts and the church, it all came down to the truthfulness, credibility and believability of a single witness, alone and unsupported in what he alleged against George Pell. In an Read more
Every Christian must preserve the communion of the Church; it does not mean uniformity but rather a way of living with differences. So says Father Sylvain Brison, ecclesiologist, assistant professor at the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic Institute of Paris. Brison unpacks the pope’s comments about schism in the Church with Anne-Bénédicte Hoffner. Are we Read more
On this journey of becoming we have not been left to ourselves. We belong to a community of saints and sinners who share the journey and support one another. Our relationship with Christ is personal, but not private. It is in and through and with the community of his disciples. What Jesus did for us Read more
After a break-up, people could easily lose touch with their ex, who could move or change phone numbers. Tracking them down, sans Google or social media, was at least somewhat difficult. Today, that has changed. An ex may be far from one’s mind, until a photo of their wedding, or baby, or recent vacation pops Read more
Can parenting be a missionary activity? In the current environment of secularity within the first world, where all belief systems compete for adoption, the Christian faith has distinct advantages. Much like the day of Elijah calling down fire as visible proof of the superiority of his God, the climate of secularity demands a new apologetic—one Read more
“I hated my body. It fundamentally let me down. The trauma of miscarriage, reproductive loss and infertility changed who I was, changed my whole life, and I blamed my body. My body had failed to do the one thing I felt, as a woman, it ought to be able to do.” With these words, Karen Read more
When the Vatican announced new procedures to hold bishops accountable in May, the main question was: Will it work? The legislation – called Vos Estis Lux Mundi – enacted what is known as the Metropolitan Model, in which archbishops would play a prominent role in policing those bishops in their ecclesiastical province. This week, the Read more
Father Tom Hartman’s first call was as a father. His second was as a Catholic priest. Hartman’s path to the cloth is one he loosely calls his resurrection story. It’s not a resurrection of mortal death, but the ending of one path and beginning of another he’d always felt called to. He married young. After Read more
Europe is sick. Despite its apparent material success, a spiritual sickness pervades it that politics will not cure. Pope Francis shares this view. In the United States, the pope may be known as a sharp critic of President Trump, but he has also been vocal about the trends that have led to populist backlashes in Read more
How does Pope Francis’ thinking about ecology compare with that of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI? Catholic teaching on ecology prior to Pope Francis In 1971 the document Justice in the World, issued by the Synod of Bishops, represented a major step in the development of Catholic teaching on the environment; Barbara Ward-Jackson Read more