Month: November 2018

Why does religion still matter?  Why does it still have a hold on people?  Why do people stay in and with the Church in an age in which reason, secularism, and materialism have become the new enchantments? At a recent meeting of Catholics Organized for Renewal (COR) in San Antonio, Texas, Michele Dillon, Ph.D. Professor…
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In contrast to their blathering around the sex abuse crisis, the USCCB did approve “open wide our hearts: the enduring call to love. a pastoral letter against racism,” oddly titled in lower case. It’s pretty good. As a young person, I was deeply inspired by the bishops’ 1958 pastoral on the same subject. I took…
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“It’s not about passing the torch.  It’s about firing up another’s torch so there can be more light for all.” I’m quoting one of the mentors in Call to Action’s 20/30 Project paraphrasing part of a speech by Gloria Steinem to explain why this particular mentor chose to become a guide, champion, and support for…
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It is hard to understand how Pope Francis can both condemn clericalism and override the American bishops’ attempt to establish a lay review board to oversee their own actions on sex abuse. Or appoint Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta to organize the world meeting on abuse prevention in February as part of a new role…
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“Where do you see yourself in five years?” If my 19-year-old self were to look into a crystal ball and see where I was now, she would see someone very different than the woman she was on the path to becoming. Flash back to 2013, before the Trump administration took office, before the “Me Too”…
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On August 1 it was announced that Pope Francis changed the catechism of the Catholic Church to make the death penalty unacceptable. On October 27, a shooter killed eleven people worshipping in a synagogue in Pittsburgh. I have wanted to write about the death penalty since the Pope’s proclamation, but first the sex abuse crisis…
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October 14 was a significant day for Vatican-watchers, Catholics, the long-suffering people of El Salvador, and people of all religious faiths or none who have been inspired by the life, words, courageous witness, and ultimate martyrdom of Archbishop Oscar Romero. That day, Archbishop Romero was finally formally proclaimed a saint and martyr by the Catholic…
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Christopher Lamb in The Tablet brings a certain British irony to his observations of the synod on youth: “It seems like going on retreat, with a generous helping of church politics thrown in, and a complicated Roman structure.” Yes to all of it. I sense that the lay people and reporters in Rome experienced the…
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