Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University is hosting a lecture series to mark the 50th anniversary of “Humanae Vitae.” The series promises to examine problems that have emerged since Pope Paul wrote on the ethics of human love and family-planning. Yet the absence of “Humanae Vitae” proponents among the lecturers does not fill me with confidence.
by Laura Kelly Fanucci
THIS SEASON SPARKLES with joy. We open our homes to family and friends, greeting each other at wreath-decked doors under twinkling lights.
ON SEPT. 29, 1952, the publication of the complete Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the Bible was celebrated at the National Guard Armory in Washington, D.C., and the principal speaker was the U.S. Secretary of State, Dean Acheson.
More often than not, that was the response I got when telling someone I was studying to be a Catholic priest. It was usually followed with, “You’re gonna be very lonely and miserable.”
FOUR CENTURIES AFTER his death, Shakespeare remains a peerless playwright because of his remarkable insight into the human condition. Love, ambition, fear, guilt, nobility, pomposity, patriotism, absurdity, sheer wickedness – you name it, Will grasped something of its essence. His work continues to help us understand ourselves better because whatever the changing of times and seasons, human nature changes very little.
IT IS ALWAYS a great joy and relief when a favor of something really needed shows up in the most unexpected moment. There is a sense of gratitude in the fact of being assisted and helped when you are trying to find out the best answer to your circumstances. Sometimes the best answer is that one that is according to God’s plan, and not what we have planned or thought.
MANY YEARS AGO, I was a young history teacher in a small Catholic school. It was, in most respects, a wonderful place, that was graced by a bevy of competent Ursuline sisters.
IN WRITING “Lessons in Hope: My Unexpected Life with St. John Paul II,” one of my secondary intentions was to bury two urban legends: that John Paul II asked me to write his biography and that “Witness to Hope” and its sequel, “The End and the Beginning,” are authorized, or official biographies. Alas, the straightforward refutation of these myths in “Lessons in Hope” hasn’t done the job in some quarters. So let’s try again:
How is God calling you? Start with the advice that Pope Francis offers. It’s where the story of Elijah leaves off: “Listen to God’s still, small voice in your heart where God loves to talk with us and embrace us in His Love.”
by Msgr. Steven Ferrari
“LET THE DEAD bury their dead” (Matthew 8:22), declared Our Lord Jesus when confronted by a would-be disciple. Yet, one of the corporal works of mercy in our Christian tradition demands that we, the “living” Body of Christ, bury our deceased sisters and brothers with dignity and honor.
