Pope Francis’ post-synodal exhortation, “Amoris Laetitia,” was released one year ago this past week. The Church has been discussing it and debating it ever since.
Editorials
Feast of Priesthood
We enter this week once again into the most sacred time of the Church’s year. This is, for us as Catholics, our “High Holy Days.” Beginning on Sunday, we commemorate Palm Sunday as we prepare to enter more deeply into the Lord’s Passion. We come to that week in which we reflect as a Church on those days that changed the world, those days by which our Lord opens his arms wide on the Cross with an embrace of love, and, by his wounds, heals all humanity.
Health Deserves Better
Sanctity of life is the single most important issue that we face in our nation today. No life is more vulnerable than the child in the womb. And that life must be protected.
Confession Available
Pope Francis held his yearly penitential service at St. Peter’s Basilica on March 17. In it, he urged confessors to go to the peripheries of evil and sin, despite it being, at times, “ugly;” nonetheless, the priest is called to go “and his work represents an authentic pastoral priority.”
Papal Continuity
Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, D.C., in a recent interview in America Magazine concerning Pope Francis, comments:
Trump’s Choice
Last week, President Donald J. Trump visited St. Andrew’s Catholic School in the Diocese of Orlando, Fla. Accompanying him were Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, and Governor Rick Scott. During his visit, the president told Bishop John Noonan, Orlando’s Ordinary, “You understand how much your students benefit from full education, one that enriches both the mind and the soul. That’s a good combination.”
Lent Has Begun
One of the great Roman traditions is the Station Church Masses each day during Lent. Coming out of the traditional Mass calendar, those of the North American College, the priests of the Casa Santa Maria and the seminarians on the Gianicolo go each day to a different Roman church as a pilgrimage early in the morning for Mass at 7 a.m. Each day, many other English speakers in the city who make this a major part of their Lenten experience join at the Station churches.
Fake News
President Donald Trump tweeted The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!”
Not Numerous Center
The past two Fridays have seen media attacks launched on Pope Francis in Rome. First, a series of posters were placed (illegally, without any permission) on billboards with a rather unflattering picture of the Holy Father with the following message in Italian (in the local Roman dialect): “Eh, Francis, you’ve commissioned Congregations, removed priests, decapitated the Order of Malta and the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, you’ve ignored cardinals … but where’s your mercy?”
Call for Civility
There seems to be a general lack of tolerance on both sides of the political spectrum. Tempers flare and emotions take hold, and words come out, harsh words that have repercussions in our lives and the lives of others.