Such dispositions of the healthcare professional are important in all cases, but are perhaps perceived more intensely in the palliative care setting. Almost worldwide, we see a strong trend towards legalizing euthanasia. We know that when there is a serene and participative human accompaniment, the severely ill chronic patient or the patient in...
I heard Gerry O’Connell mention this on the latest episode of the “Inside the Vatican” podcast — As the people of Ukraine face frigid winter days and nights in the coming month, many are experiencing power shortages and many are displaced. Cardinal Krajewski, the papal almoner, has put out a call for donations...
[Author’s note: Conservative Catholics sometimes argue that Pope Francis puts too much emphasis on the social dimension of Catholic teaching; they worry that such an emphasis on the communal will distort the Church’s moral teachings. In reality, however, the Church is fundamentally communal, and its moral teachings are grounded in this communal essence....
Editor’s Note: This post contains the full text of all four installments of the series on “Vatican II and Theological Paradigms” by Michel Therrien, STL, STD, exploring the root causes of internal divisions and polarization in the post-conciliar Church, particularly the debate over the possibility of paradigm shifts in Catholic theology. Contents A...
There are, in every parish, those who can be relied upon to be always late for Mass. They are sometimes referred to as the “Gloria crowd.” My deacon in one parish was a retired military man, whose adulation for the clock was absolute. A certain family in that parish, a family of Gloria...
December 12, 2022 — The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Discerning Deacons and members of the Women and Ministeriality Thematic Core Group of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA) joined together to organize an intercontinental pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City August 31- September 5, 2022....
In his conversation with the editors of Jesuit journals in Europe last June, Pope Francis recalled the acute hostility of some conservative Catholics towards the Second Vatican Council during its aftermath, even among the Jesuits themselves.[1] Some Jesuits tried to derail the efforts of Pedro Arrupe, Superior General from 1965 to 1984, to...
Whereas the lectionary readings for the two previous Sundays have contained dire warnings about what is in store for us all if we fail to adequately prepare for Christ’s coming, today’s readings leaven these warnings with joy, a foretaste of the “good tidings” for which Christmas is known. The traditional nickname Gaudete Sunday...
A reflection on the readings for the Third Sunday of Advent, December 11, 2022. “Show and tell” was one of the things I most enjoyed in elementary school when I was a child. Do you remember this from your childhood, when you had an opportunity to show and tell your friends about your favorite...
St Alphonsus is one of the most popular saints of the 18th century because of his simple, immediate style and his teaching on the sacrament of Penance. In a period of great rigorism, a product of the Jansenist influence, he recommended that confessors administer this sacrament expressing the joyful embrace of God the...
Advent is a time of preparation, a time of celebration, and a time of reflection. If our minds and hearts are truly focused on the season as a time of preparation for the birth of Christ, then we must enter into an intentional examination of our relationship with the Lord and make our...
When he has finished purging the inner sanctuary, the tent of meeting and the altar, Aaron shall bring forward the live goat. Laying both hands on its head, he shall confess over it all the iniquities of the Israelites and their trespasses, including all their sins, and so put them on the goat’s...
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