Nearly 15,000 military personnel from some 40 countries will gather at the French Marian sanctuary in Lourdes May 24-26 for the International Military Pilgrimage. After the Bastille Day celebration July 14, France’s biggest national holiday, the Lourdes military pilgrimage is the most important gathering of its kind for the army.
Of all things, it was a car ride that started Zion Charles on the road to a closer commitment to his Catholic faith. It all began when his mother, Jeanneth Lopez, a car service driver, was sent by her dispatcher to St. Bernard of Clairvaux Church in Mill Basin to pick up a parish priest, Father Michael Tedone, and drive him to Kennedy Airport one day last year.
Luis Marquez was teaching at New Jersey City University several years ago when he came across a young woman in tears in the university library. It was a vulnerable time in her life, as she had just learned she was pregnant. At the moment Marquez encountered her, she was thinking about getting an abortion.
Pope Francis formally recognized a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Carlo Acutis, a 15-year-old Italian teenager whose birth in 1991 will make him the first “millennial” to become a saint.
Louisiana lawmakers passed legislation May 23 to classify the abortion-inducing drugs mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled dangerous substances, meaning that possession of these drugs without a prescription could lead to fines or jail time.
Adults in the world’s richest nations deserve “the Pontius Pilate Nobel Prize because we have become experts at washing our hands” of the violence and injustices in the world, Pope Francis said.
The Summer Paris Olympic Games begin in late July, and there’s a chance the local diocesan sports scene will be represented on the biggest stage. Or maybe the biggest pool.
As we come together on this solemn feast of the Most Holy Trinity, we celebrate the profound mystery of one God in three Persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This day holds a special significance for all of us, inviting us to meditate on the unity and love that binds the Trinity and every one of us in a divine family.
When I was reading the March 2024 edition of Commonweal magazine, I felt as though I had received a special gift. The magazine is approaching its 100th anniversary and is reprinting some outstanding essays from its past history.
“Greetings from the President of the United States. Your friends and neighbors have selected you to represent [them] in the Armed Forces …” And so begins the so-called “friends” letter notifying a young man that he has been conscripted. The “draft” has not been used since the Vietnam War, yet we still honor draftees on Memorial Day.
