That ministry that is Peter’s is carried out today by Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who has taken the name Francis. Pray for him daily by name. Let the Pope not just be a distant figure in a faraway country but a real and true Pontiff, which means bridge.
Author: settinger
More on Freedom
Ever since I began reading existentialist thinkers when I started teaching at a four year college seminary many years ago, the mystery of freedom has fascinated me.
Faith Under Attack
For the second weekend in a row, we have to report an attack upon organized religion. Last week, we deplored the horrific bombings of Sri Lankan Catholic churches on Easter Sunday. This week, we have witnessed the all-too-famiiar scene of a lone crazed gunman shooting up a synagogue in California on the final day of Passover observances.
Do We Have the Resources to Rebuild Our Christian Faith?
Michel Houellebecq, France’s best-known contemporary novelist, published his novel “Submission” in 2015. The novel takes place in 2022, when the candidate of an Islamist party wins the presidential election and starts dismantling the democratic order in France.
Thank You, Pamela
Dear Editor: Thanks to Pam for being so brave and telling her story (“Pro-Life Group Helps Women Recover After Abortion,” April 13).
We Put Our Faith and Trust in What the First Disciples Saw
Every day, as the Mass is celebrated on altars throughout the world, we, the faithful, extend our hands to touch His wounds in love, and thus be healed by them. We bring Him our fears, our broken hearts and lives, as well as our deepest joys and gratitude. We place our shattered hope in Him once more, and witness the glorious resurrection promised to Thomas and the others who put into practice the trust modeled by Mary.
Assault on Christianity
There is a stirring image that has been circulating around the internet this week after the horrific attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday by Islamic militants against Christians and Western interests. It is a picture of a statue of the Risen Christ, taken in a Catholic Church that was a site of an attack. The statue of the Resurrected Lord Jesus is covered in blood, the blood of Christians killed in a terrorist attack.
Come to the Tomb and Believe
This day, as we commemorate the Resurrection of the Christ, we are reminded that life and goodness have the final victory in God’s cosmic design, as well as in every individual soul that places its trust in Him. Carrying our burdens with eyes fixed on Him, feeling the nearness of death yet rejecting its tempting despair, we taste the glory of this present feast in all of its refreshing goodness.
My Heart Forgives
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.
Life Means More
Easter Sunday is the great feast of the Christian faith. Without the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, Christianity would be reduced to some nice humanistic feeling and nothing more – a nice set of rules to live in peace with one another. But with the Resurrection, we are given the assurance that life means more. It is a sharing in the life of the Creator and a prelude to what is to come.