THE CATHOLIC CHURCH’S teaching on responsible parenthood is often overlooked, or simply unknown.
Guest Columnists
How Two Non-Catholics Found ‘Humanae Vitae’
I STOOD AT the desk in my college apartment, holding a box of birth control pills. As I read the instructions, the lengthy list of side effects made me hesitate.
Nationality and Papacy
WITH HUNDREDS OF bishops coming to the Vatican in October 2001 for a Synod, I decided to spend that month in Rome conducting interviews for what would eventually become the sequel to “Witness to Hope” and the second volume of my John Paul II biography, “The End and the Beginning.”
Called and Blessed with Two Vocations
WHEN I WAS in grammar school, I felt a calling. I spoke to my parents and the nuns at school and my pastor. I felt that I needed to be with God.
Ireland Is Mission Territory Once Again
I WASN’T SURPRISED by the result of Ireland’s May 25 referendum, which opened a path to legal abortion in the Emerald Isle by striking down a pro-life amendment to the Irish Constitution.
Shootings Stem from Mental Health Issues
WHEN PLANE HIJACKING became a national threat, we immediately addressed the problem by upgrading preventive measures at our airports: X-ray surveillance, body searches, luggage inspections.
Lifting Up the Vocation Of Fatherhood
Many men today are redefining what it means to be a father. They are intimately involved in the raising of children and the responsibilities of family life, navigating the competing demands of work and home with love. How can we as a Church support their callings? What sources of inspiration in our Catholic tradition offer ways to honor fathers?
A Turning Point Helped Refocus My Vocation
BORN INTO a peasant family in a rural area of Central Vietnam, I am the second of five children. Growing up, I had to work very hard as a farmer.
Craving Approval Is Not Evangelizing
THE BIZARRE COMMENT and the weird gesture have not, until recently, been associated with high-ranking churchmen. Both, alas, were on vivid display last month when Cardinals Reinhard Marx and Gianfranco Ravasi had more than a few of us scratching our heads in wonderment.
Converting, Conforming Ourselves to God’s Will
by Rev. Mr. Alessandro Giuseppe Linardi
THE BEGINNING OF my conversion was in 2004 at the Sanctuary of Saint Pio, when I was almost 22 years old. During that year, I really started to feel the love of God in my heart and the desire to leave everything to follow Our Lord, Jesus Christ.