Archbishop José Gómez, the de facto head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) as the body’s president, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, faces health issues, will travel to Rome the week after Easter to meet Vatican officials to discuss new measures for U.S. bishop accountability.
Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio spoke about Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI after the retired pope published a major essay describing some of the root causes of the global sex abuse troubles facing the Church.
Writing this series of columns based on the insights that Father Ronald Rolheiser has offered in his “The Passion and the Cross” (Franciscan Media, 2015) has been a wonderful experience for me. I feel as though I have just taken a course in theology. Better, I feel as though I have just taken a course in Christian spirituality.
That Easter Effect is worth keeping in mind in this season of Catholic discontent. Even amidst anger and embarrassment, Christians can do the work of evangelization because the first Easter told us that, for the truly converted disciple who has met the risen Lord, despair never gets the final word: God will vindicate his plan for the salvation of the world.
I was asked to write a reflection of my experience as a survivor of sexual abuse by clergy. This Lent, just as last year, I read from two diaries; the first was that of St. Faustina and the second was The Diary of Anne Frank.
Sitting at a table together in a Queens science hall filled with families and Catholic school students from across the diocese, two complete strangers try to get to know each other. The age gap is decades apart – on one end, a young professional and on the other end, an elementary student. With the help of preconfigured questions, the question and answer portion started off simple.
In an interview on public radio, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he would back legislation enabling terminally ill people to request life-ending medication, saying “I say pass the bill. It’s a controversial issue, it’s a difficult issue. But the older we get and the better medicine gets, the more we’ve seen people suffer for too long.”
Every Holy Thursday, we are reminded that Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his Apostles. This year, it took on new meaning for the students of Divine Wisdom Catholic Academy, Douglaston. Rabbi Gordon Yaffe of L’Dor V’Dor in neighboring Little Neck came to the school on Monday of Holy Week, April 15, to explain the Seder Meal of Passover.
Scammers have taken aim at pastors, parishes and even the bishop in the Diocese of Jackson in the past couple of months.
Monday’s stunning fire at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, which has left the magnificent Gothic structure a smoldering hulk of its former self, represents a devastating blow not merely to French Catholics but to Catholicism everywhere, since it’s one of those sites that transcends its nationality and culture.
