A reflection on the readings for April 21, 2024 — The Fourth Sunday of Easter (also Good Shepherd Sunday and the 61st World Day of Prayer for Vocations) My wife and I recently traveled out of state for a visit with family organized around celebrating our nephew’s Confirmation. I had been asked to be his...
Regarding the ongoing standoff between Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth and the Carmelite nuns in Arlington, Texas, which I reported on yesterday, it did not take long for the cloistered Carmelite community to respond to the documents from the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (DICLSAL). And...
Thank you, women who work! You are present and active in every area of life-social, economic, cultural, artistic and political. In this way you make an indispensable contribution to the growth of a culture which unites reason and feeling, to a model of life ever open to the sense of “mystery”, to the establishment of...
UPDATE APRIL 20: The Arlington nuns respond. Yesterday, the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (DICLSAL) published a decree regarding the Most Holy Trinity monastery of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns in Arlington, Texas, entrusting them to the governance of “the President and Council of the Carmelite Association of...
Dignitas infinita, the new DDF declaration on human dignity and various contemporary practices that threaten it, reads mostly like a document that reaffirms traditional prohibitions—sometimes quite sternly so, such as in the section on “gender theory,” which section I think is thorny in some ways but don’t really want to complain about at...
I am the director of a nonprofit organization that cares for homeless teenagers and young adults in Burlington, Vermont. At Spectrum Youth and Family Services we have a drop-in center where they can come in any day of the week and receive a free hot lunch and dinner, clothing, take a shower, use...
Recently I became peripherally aware of a controversy in politically conservative media involving commentators Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens. My understanding (and please forgive me, I try to keep my knowledge of political punditry to a bare minimum) is that their feud centers around antisemitism, Israel, and the phrase “Christ is King.” Owens,...
On April 8th, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the DDF, released a new document about the infinite dignity of the human person, Dignitas Infinita. Dominic and I wanted to cover what this document says and our reactions to it, but due to my internship schedule, and Dominic still in the midst...
America’s Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell published an article Thursday reporting that Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Pope Benedict’s longtime private secretary and former prefect of the papal household under Pope Francis, has been appointed by the pope to serve in the Vatican diplomatic corps as a nuncio. Gänswein was not given a new assignment following...
A reflection on the readings of April 14, 2024 — the Third Sunday of Easter In our parish office we like to have a bowl of chocolates to offer to people who stop by. We are always amused at the fact that once St. Valentine’s Day is over, all the heart-shaped chocolates become...
And yet God, who is always merciful even when he punishes, “put a mark on Cain, lest any who came upon him should kill him” (Gen 4:15). He thus gave him a distinctive sign, not to condemn him to the hatred of others, but to protect and defend him from those wishing to...
Through the Church—the sacrament of God’s infinite love—her Scriptures, her Tradition, her prayers, and her liturgies, people can encounter the living Christ and experience his love, healing, and transformative grace. But what happens when the men and women tasked with mediating God’s grace, appointed to preach God’s word and preside over the sacraments,...
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