As we go to press, no one knows what all may now know: the identity of the our next pope. Yet even to have seen the white smoke, to have learned which cardinal has been elected and what name he will take is not yet to know him. We will shortly learn the details of […]
Editorials
Church and Money
The Church is always asking for money! And with good reason. Jesus keeps bringing the subject up. Sometimes He is approached by someone with an urgent moral question. The rich young man: What do I need to be perfect? Peter: How often must I forgive my brother who sins against me, seven times? Jesus responds […]
A Clear Vision
With great emotion His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI celebrated his final Sunday prayers in St. Peter’s Square, restating his conscientious conviction that his decision to retire is from the Lord. “If God is asking me to do this, it is precisely so I can continue to serve with the same dedication and love as before […]
Reconstructing Marriage
Once we knew it simply as “Confession.” In post-conciliar years, it’s been referenced as the Sacrament of “Reconciliation” or of “Peace.” Now we are back (officially) to Penance. All these descriptors reveal aspects of a great healing sacrament. Whatever name we call it by, it remains the same sacrament with the same four elements: contrition, […]
The Pope Resigns
We find no good reason for honoring the decision of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to resign the Petrine office at the end of this month with anything less than the gratitude and prayerful best wishes one would offer any good servant of the Lord who has labored long and hard in the vineyard. Though […]
Real Communication
Lent always seems to take us by surprise. Maybe that is how it should be: a jolt in the arm of “Ordinary Time” that wakes us up to the realities of what really matters so that we do not get too locked up in routine. It is time for something extraordinary. So much of our […]
Sacrament of Peace
The American Bishops have just issued a Pastoral Exhortation of the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation (“God’s Gift of Forgiveness”), urging all Catholics to take advantage of this extraordinary gift of the Risen Lord during Lent. This sacrament is so full of opportunities of grace that it is no wonder it has been known under […]
Speaking the Unspeakable
Whether in season or out of season, it falls upon any people who believe in objective truth and values to speak the unspeakable. What is or is not comfortable or politically correct, fashionable or unfashionable can neither postpone nor mitigate the timing or the urgency with which the message is delivered. In an age in […]
The Year That Was
The 2,012th year of the Common Era draws to a close as editorialists dutifully rise (or fall) to the urge to become chronologers and critics of all that transpired therein. Readers and writers of Catholic news services are not removed from that world, even if we strive to be not of it. If granted the […]
Loved and Forgiven
The temptation to expect each Christmas to be a reprise of storybook models, reality-free, where innocence is spared the inevitable confrontation with the mystery of evil is less likely to hit us this year. As the day approaches, we adults customarily form a little pact between our children and the child within us to once […]