Religious education has taught generations of Catholics that grace is a free gift of God’s favour. It is received through the sacraments and makes our salvation possible. Unfortunately, this popular conception of grace is sometimes misconstrued, presenting grace as a commodity rather than a reality experienced in our lives. From this view, “receiving grace” through Read more
Living two lives breaks you. Having tried to live as a Catholic campus minister and as a lesbian woman, my authentic self, piece by piece, slowly broke apart. I was asked to hide, to “be discreet” about my same-sex marriage, and later was offered a severance package with an agreement to remain silent about the Read more
When an apparently innocuous teaching document comes out of Rome – and a pope calling us to holiness fits that description better than most – it’s always important on the Vatican beat to ask: Why this, and why now? When you apply the context lens, two recent events help answer that question. One was yesterday: Read more
When you stop and think about it, the humble plastic bag is a remarkable triumph of technology. It costs a couple of cents to make, holds a thousand times its own weight, is waterproof, surprisingly durable, and 100 per cent recyclable. After carrying your groceries home, it might hold feijoas off the tree, your togs Read more
When a disciple of Jesus takes his or her baptismal call seriously, that person’s words and actions live on long after he or she leaves this world. An outstanding example of this truth is found in the prophetic discipleship of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr King, with selfless courage, faithfully lived out his Read more
It was a fine Bible scholar who made me realise I was interpreting some passages of Scripture out of their cultural context. I suppose it’s okay to do that, if I’m reading Scripture as parable and letting the Holy Spirit connect the words with my life. However, if my literal understanding of a story is Read more
In my head, the teacher still taps her ruler on the backboard, saying, “A noun is a naming word. A verb is a doing word.” Now I want to ask, is the word God noun or verb? Surely it has to be a verb. I suspect that God as noun is an idol of my Read more
As scientific discoveries go, the male contraceptive pill has long been considered the unicorn of reproductive healthcare – much touted, but frustratingly elusive (in part, hindered by big pharma’s lack of desire to fund research). But on Sunday, Washington University scientists at the annual Endocrine conference hailed early trials which showed that a once-daily tablet that Read more
During the long reign of Pope John Paul II the Vatican’s semi-official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, was regularly derided as the church’s version of Pravda – the propaganda rag that the Communist Party in the former Soviet Union disseminated each day under the banner of “Truth.” The Vatican paper, which had devolved into a receptacle of Read more
If the recent conference at the University of Notre Dame — where speakers postulated reasons for young people’s disassociation from the Catholic Church — represents the approach going into the upcoming Synod of Bishops on young people, we would beg church officials to postpone the gathering. What we heard was a familiar litany, placing blame Read more