Category: catholic news

If you were at “Radicals and The Rule,” you may know what I am going to write about. And no, it’s not Joan Chittister’s challenge to confront “the wholly owned subsidiary of pious males” about inclusive language, for God and for people. The most trenchant comment I heard after the session was “Forty years later…
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Why not? If you’ve been following the news about the Synod on the Amazon, you know that one major topic of discussion is ordaining viri probati, married men who could celebrate the Eucharist in the scattered small settlements in this enormous region. Of course, when it comes to women, we’re one step behind. Do you…
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Take a short break from thinking about the synod on the Amazon to reflect on what it means that Pope Francis begins his Apostolic Letter on the Word of God with the thought that the Scriptures should open minds. Not to be confined in a narrow literalness (#9), but to be the source of the…
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I seem to be compiling a daisy chain of blogs. “Last week I wrote about” was the way I began the last one, and the way I am going to begin today. That’s because I want to focus again on the Amazon Synod. Last week I wrote about the implications for all women of the…
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I expect more from the Jesuits. I admit that I idealize the intellectual tradition I have always believed they embody. So I cannot understand why America magazine has begun publishing Pia de Solenni, who recently ended her tenure as Chancellor of the Diocese of Orange in California. Her first article in May is “What the…
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Are our bishops men with poor, even malicious intentions? Is that why abuse and corruption have flourished? Not quite. Acknowledging this reality does not excuse their countless moral and, at times, criminal failings. But to solve a problem, it must be accurately diagnosed. The philosopher Hannah Arendt’s concept of the “banality of evil” seems fitting:…
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“It was painting, he said, that brought him to theology.” The “he” is Brother Emmaus O’Herlihy, an Irish Benedictine monk, whose liturgical paintings fit so beautifully in a ‘new church for a new day’ or even for revitalizing an old one hobbling along in its entrenchment. I’m so glad I save articles that I’m too…
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I came across a piece I saved from the February 19, 2019 issue of NCR about the need for warmth, which, believe it or not, may be even more relevant now that it is summer rather than chilly mid-winter. In August, our warmth is easy to gain; just step outside. We become complacent about how…
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Looming over my August has been the letter Pope Francis wrote to priests on August 4. Apparently this is what he did on vacation. As the organization having its unique purpose to ordain women priests, WOC should know what the Pope is thinking about this role. Not that he’s thinking about women in it –…
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Marie Collins of Ireland will be the speaker for the third Tipping Point tour sponsored by Catholic Organizations for Renewal. Collins was a member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and resigned because – well, this is the quote used to publicize the tour: “Survivors will not be satisfied with more…
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