Jesus in the dive bar. The meme popped up on my Facebook feed, shared by a friend and liked by a lot of people. It said, “Jesus didn’t dine with tax collectors and sinners because he wanted to appear inclusive, tolerant, and accepting. “He ate with them to call them to a changed and fruitful Read more
More than a year ago, Pope Francis announced the Synod on Synodality, an initiative to take the pulse of the Catholic Church. The U.S. Catholics have been mostly silent about this effort, but in several countries, including Australia, France, England and Wales, and Germany, things are moving full steam ahead. Two major problems have come Read more
I was born into a family with a simple faith that established Jesus as the children’s friend. There were many little hymns about this, some mentioning the mothers of Saalam who brought their children to Jesus. Remember that? The disciples tried to drive the children away, but Jesus rebuked his men, and gathered the children Read more
I didn’t always know what scrupulosity meant, but I always knew there was something different about me. I think back to the kindergarten classroom where I confessed to the teacher about doing something I did not do. There was the slightest possibility that perhaps I had done it but had forgotten. That bit of doubt Read more
With the local Synodal process completed, we now have to consider how this will affect our ongoing relationship with God and with each other and the fact that the church may be forever different from now on. Not surprisingly, the issue of the laity was prominent under several headings. These included leadership, formation and even Read more
“What is it about women and the Church?” Sister Patty Fawkner SGS, recently asked. Writing as a member of the just completed Plenary Council of the Catholic Church in Australia, she spoke of her experience during the moment of “protest” once the motion on women failed to get the required vote. But her very reasonable Read more
The Catholic Church in Australia voted in favour of the ordination of women to the diaconate and is putting the issue forward to the 2023 Synod of Bishops. Participants at the 1998 Wellington Archdiocesan Synod voted in favour of a lay pastoral leadership model rather than introducing the permanent diaconate, the major motivator reportedly that Read more
The war in Ukraine has raged on for nearly five months, and the Rev. Oleksiy Zavada, a Greek Catholic priest in Lviv, has had hardly a moment’s rest. Zavada is quick to point out the city of Lviv has been spared the brunt of violence that’s ripped through many other parts of the country, especially Read more
My cradle Catholic parents instilled in me the importance of going to Mass religiously (no pun intended) but were never able to articulate why we went, answering only “because we are Catholic and that is what good Catholics do.” It wasn’t until a youth minister explained the significance, depth and beauty of the Mass that Read more
Pope Francis’ trip to Canada to apologise for the horrors of church-run Indigenous residential schools marks a radical rethink of the Catholic Church’s missionary legacy, spurred on by the first pope from the Americas and the discovery of hundreds of probable graves at the school sites. Francis has said his weeklong visit, which begins Sunday, Read more