The Gift of Growing Old
I remember an incident that happened at a 5 p.m. Mass, the first time I ever preached at the parish at which I am stationed. It was 2008, the year I was ordained a deacon. Just before the Mass, I...
Tagged: elderly
WYD 2023: The Pilgrim Cross and “Unlocking Down” the Faith
LISBON, PORTUGAL — July 31, 2023 The pilgrimage of the symbols was one of the highlights discussed at the opening press conference for World Youth Day (WYD) today. In the weeks leading up to each WYD gathering, two symbols are...
Alliance of the generations
Today’s General Audience address by Pope Francis brought tears to my eyes. It was the second installment of his Catechesis on Old Age. The title of this week’s teaching was “Longevity: symbol and opportunity,” and he spoke about why he...
Responding to Charles Camosy’s open letter to the pope
Two weeks ago Charles Camosy, a professor of ethics at Fordham University, published an open letter to Pope Francis in which he asks the Holy Father to give defense of the unborn a “more central place” in his formal teaching....
Pope Francis: Human life demands we make space for it
Today, December 9, is the first anniversary of my mother’s death. She died on a Monday evening. Because December 8 fell on a Sunday last year, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception was observed that day. It was one of...
A throwaway culture is a culture of death
Members of the pro-life movement often describe policies that work to undermine the recognition of human dignity and to devalue human life as promoting the “culture of death.” This term was made popular by Pope St. John Paul II in...
New Podcast! Peter’s Field Hospital, Episode 1
Yesterday I got together with Paul Fahey and Dan Amiri to discuss Pope Francis’s extraordinary Urbi et Orbi ceremony and how it has been received. We also talked about the need for respect for the lives of the elderly during...
Now the Elderly Need a Pro-Life Movement
Over the last several decades, those in the pro-life community have fought tooth and nail for the rights of unborn children. We are convicted of their inherent dignity and value. The energy and passion that swells in the pro-life movement...
Loneliness Today, Part III: The Loneliness of the Old
The 1970s country-western song “Pancho and Lefty” was written by Townes Van Zandt, and is most famous in the form of a cover by Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson. (For what it’s worth, I personally prefer the Van Zandt original,...
Youth unemployment and the loneliness of the old: Serious social evils
“The most serious of the evils that afflict the world these days are youth unemployment and the loneliness of the old. The old need care and companionship; the young need work and hope but have neither one nor the other,...
Popular Posts