This is a quote from John Allen in Crux, who notes that every twenty years, “the Vatican has felt compelled to issue a major statement on the role of women.” Leave it up to Crux to remind us of Inter Insigniores in 1976 and Ordinatio Sacerdotalis in 1994. This time the major statement has been…
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The season of Lent can be a particularly trying time for those of us who are experiencing great sorrow. It can also be a trying time for those of us who are looking inward – and outward – to contemplate what sacrifices, what alms, what prayers we might make, give, offer up, to relieve the…
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Well, it’s not quite that bad. But it’s a bad situation. You may think it’s just in your parish, but it’s not only there. Just last week, a new book was published in Italy and Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, wrote the preface. Rita Ferrone in Commonweal…
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Over two weeks ago, my beautiful daughter died, leaving a husband and three young sons. She also left this – which I send on to you: Why the Woods Family Are Still Catholic By Laura Woods It was the first funeral since my father died, a cousin removed from me by generation and distance, and…
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Living alone, I read during breakfast. During Lent and Advent, I read the PaxChristiUSA reflections. For Thursday this week, the scripture verse is “Tend to the Flock of God in our midst.” 1 Peter 5:2. Brayton Shanley of the Agape community writes about college student interns searching for deeper meaning as parents and schools stress occupational…
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Sometimes you cannot avoid the image of the Pieta, Mary with the body of her dead son in her arms. That deep, deep sorrow holds onto you as she held onto him. These days we are held in the grip of the tragedy in Parkland, and all those similar tragedies here and around the world.…
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“Winning the battle, losing the war” became the frame for this post at a performance to celebrate the Chinese New Year on Valentine’s Day/Ash Wednesday. Watching this talented family of immigrants perform their traditional music, I realized that the lunar New Year is called “Tet” in Vietnam. The Tet Offensive in 1968 was the turning…
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This past summer I took a writing course called “The Power of the Pen” focusing on using poems or plays to address a social issue about which we were passionate. You can guess which one I chose! Our first assignment was to write a short monologue that someone in history who had inspired us might…
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I am indebted to Simone Campbell for this week’s theme, courtesy of Marian Ronan. In The Georgetown Voice, the ever-revolutionary Campbell “then took audience questions, leading to a profession of her personal ‘heresy,’ her belief that women can and should be ordained. “’Ordination is an extension of baptism, and there are different kinds of baptism……
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I know everywhere we look there is something wearying. I’m not even going to mention any examples. You know what they are and where they are. In spring, summer, and fall, we can bury the discontent and weariness we feel in all the bursts of life and color and activity around us. In winter, we’re…
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