On April 21, Texas executed a 78-year-old inmate, Carl Buntion, by lethal injection shortly after the governor of Tennessee temporarily blocked the execution of a 72-year-old prisoner, Oscar Smith, citing issues with preparations of the lethal drugs to be used.
Pope Francis renewed his call for an Easter truce in Ukraine, as many in the country commemorate Christ’s resurrection under the shadow of war.
Local musicians are combining their talents for a benefit concert to help a Bronx church pay to repair damage caused by a post-Christmas fire in December.
Being against war and for peace requires more than urgent appeals and treaties, according to Pope Francis. It requires a demanding, lifelong process that starts in the human heart and boldly expands outward into a broken world, he has said.
Jesus of Nazareth, having died on the cross, lays on a platform, his body bruised, pierced and bloodied during His agonizing Crucifixion.
It’s been about four months since the Resurrection Parish community in Dawson Springs, Ky., relocated into a 20-by-20 foot steel shed after a tornado destroyed their church, and parishioner Rhonda Mills says there are still Masses where a wave of emotion comes over everybody for the simple reason that they’re worshiping together.
Today’s Gospel is easily divided into two parts: Jesus appearing to the apostles and giving them a mission, and then again with Thomas present.
In the golden age of the Catholic episcopate — the days of great Church Fathers like Cyprian of Carthage and Augustine of Hippo in the early and mid-first millennium — bishops were not infrequently in contact with each other, encouraging, consulting, and, when necessary, correcting.
A few years ago my friend Father Joe Kelly told me that he was writing a book and described for me what he planned to deal with in the book. I cannot recall exactly what Joe said, but I do recall thinking that Joe’s ideas were not good and I was certain that he would not be able to get a publisher.
There’s something about Jesus Christ Superstar, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s “rock opera musical,” that doesn’t resonate. In a 1971 Time Magazine interview, Rice commented: “It happens that we don’t see Christ as God but simply the right man at the right time at the right place.”
