Three renditions of St. Francis of Assisi by AnnaMarie Prono. Watercolor and ink were used to create the likenesses at left and above, while the depiction of the saint holding a cross and dove is acrylic on wood.
Guest Columnists
The Vatican, China and Evangelical Prudence
Recent remarks by the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, have fueled speculation about a possible exchange of diplomatic representation between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Renew Commitment To Care for Creation
“Young people demand change. They wonder how anyone can claim to be building a better future without thinking of the environmental crisis and the sufferings of the excluded,” Pope Francis wrote in his 2015 encyclical on the environment “Laudato Si’.”
They’re Confessors, Not ‘Culture-Warriors’
LIKE SHELBY FOOTE’S three-volume masterpiece, “The Civil War: A Narrative,” Francis Parkman’s seven-volume colossus, “France and England in North America,” is worth reading and re-reading for its literary elegance as well as its historical insight.
Missing Mercy
POPE FRANCIS ADDRESSED the question of why he called for a Jubilee Year of Mercy in his homily for First Vespers for Divine Mercy Sunday:
Quebec: Catholicism’s Empty Quarter
Québec, a flourishing Catholic region for centuries, is now Catholicism’s empty quarter in the western hemisphere. There is no more religiously arid place between the North Pole and Tierra del Fuego; there may be no more religiously arid place on the planet. And it all happened in the blink of an eye.
He’s Not ‘Turning His Back to the People’
Cardinal Robert Sarah caused a rumpus this summer by proposing that the Catholic Church return to the practice of priest and people praying in the same direction during the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
Good News for Churchgoing Women
TEN YEARS AGO, I wrote a column called “The Health Benefits of Going to Church.” In it, I reviewed two studies that examined whether attendance at religious services could be beneficial for overall health.
Joe Biden Is Father Isaac Hecker’s Fault?
U.S. Catholics generally know little about the Church’s history in our country. But whether you’re trying to fill gaps in your knowledge or just looking for a good read, let me recommend Russell Shaw’s “Catholics in America – Religious Identity and Cultural Assimilation from John Carroll to Flannery O’Connor” (Ignatius Press).
God and Brexit
I’d like to suggest another, perhaps deeper, answer to the question of the EU’s current distress: to put it bluntly, the “democracy deficit” is a reflection of Europe’s “God-deficit.”