Half a century ago, the bishops’ conference of the United States commissioned an interdisciplinary study of the priesthood in that country. Key parts of it were led by two priests who at the time were celebrities in the Catholic community, Andrew Greeley the sociologist and Eugene Kennedy the psychologist. (Disclosure: as a seminarian I was Read more
Why do Catholics kiss the pope’s ring? And why doesn’t he want them to? Protocols evolve and changes can be confusing, especially when most people only meet a reigning monarch (or pope) once in their lives. As we have seen in the past few days, old habits die hard, even when the pope is trying Read more
Physician-assisted death includes both physician-assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia. The court and society have thrust assisted-death squarely into the laps of physicians and we are now left grappling with what this will look like. My perspective as a palliative care physician on living and dying has been shaped by the thousands of patients and families Read more
What took place next inside the Sistine Chapel was hidden from the outside world. Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re first explained the voting process and then asked the cardinals if they were ready to vote. They were! Everyone was anxious to do so, as this would reveal where the Holy Spirit was leading them. The first Read more
I remember going back to Iran when I was younger and listening to my grandmother describe New Zealand to anyone who would listen. She had visited us in Christchurch and her eyes gleamed with hope when she spoke of it. It’s just paradise. Heaven. In the polluted concrete jungle of oppression and poverty that is big Read more
Many have asked whether the Catholic Church can survive the shock of the conviction of Cardinal George Pell and the impact on its credibility, even utility. Yet to assume that the institution is exclusively the Church is to miss the point: Cardinal Pell has been sentenced, not Australia’s Catholics. Believers, and those who identify with Read more
One of the world’s leading geneticists says it will only be a matter of time before the genes of human embryos are ‘edited’ to enhance their health and intelligence – and it is something we should embrace rather than fear. George Church, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, said the current controversy surrounding the editing Read more
The image of God as the Potter and us as the clay, is as valid today as it was in Jeremiah’s tme. It is our faith journey and it becomes more meaningful as we get older. God chooses the clay. God works the clay. The clay is fashioned into a vessel, then the vessel is Read more
Three-year-old Crew Long has been gone a little more than a year and a half. But his mom still talks to him. Sometimes Mandy Long speaks to her son, who died on Sept. 18, 2017, through prayer or in her journal. Other times she posts notes to her son on her family’s Facebook group page, Read more
Imagine you’re sitting in front of your doctor, and he says that your health definitely needs to improve. He then looks you square in the eyes and says, “If you wish to live a healthy long life, you must stop eating junk food and living a sedentary lifestyle, and start eating plenty of healthy foods Read more