“Learn from Me”
Reflection on the Scripture Readings for July 9, 2023 – The Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Listen to the audio version here. Perhaps there is some truth to the statement that much of what we know and are is learned....
Tagged: human dignity
The death penalty doctrine: Addressing a false binary
A few years ago, author and philosophy professor Edward Feser wrote an essay criticizing Catholic teaching on the death penalty. His piece centers on the following question: Does Pope Francis’s teaching on capital punishment amount to a doctrinal change or...
Pope’s Prayer for this Month: Abolish the Death Penalty
This month, September 2022, Pope Francis has asked us to pray for the abolition of the death penalty, saying, “Let us pray that the death penalty, which attacks the dignity of the human person, may be legally abolished in...
Gloria Purvis: None of this was planned
Listen on: Apple | Google | Spotify “It was in that silence, while we were in the crypt church of the cathedral during adoration with the monstrance exposed, that I had an experience that I could only call a mystical experience where I was— all...
Human dignity and holes in the seamless garment
It wasn’t until adulthood that I began to discover the breadth of Catholic social doctrine, a rich body of teaching that I’d somehow never been introduced to in all my years as a practicing Catholic. (The title of Mark Shea’s...
Ascension: New Dignity, New Purpose, New Hope
A reflection on the Mass Readings for May 29, 2022, the Ascension of the Lord. Audio of Homily will be posted here. Today we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension. I began writing this homily by asking myself, what relevance does...
To Restore Eucharistic Coherence, Fight for Social Justice
The long anticipated Bishops’ statement on the Eucharist has finally arrived, and the Catholic internet is already full of more-or-less predictable reactions. Unfortunately, many of these reactions are driven more by politics than by the Catholic Faith. Political controversy tends...
Misogyny and the abortion debate
The violence of abortion severs a baby from the mother’s womb—quite literally. And yet so often the way we approach the issue of abortion also severs baby from the mother in another way: by focusing on one over the other....
Work is a Gift from God
Today is Labor Day in the United States, a day of rest for workers in this nation. The Church teaches that work is integral to human development — it is how people support families, save for the future, utilize their...
No, the Native graves weren’t good, actually
“And make no mistake, the residential schools were first and foremost Christian.” In this, Declan Leary, the author of a particularly discourse-driving article in the American Conservative, got it right. The Canadian residential schools run by the Catholic Church—which killed...
Vaccine Equity is a Human Right
Pope Francis has repeatedly insisted that the countries manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines (such as the U.S. and U.K.) ensure they be equitably distributed, especially to the Global South. During his historic trip to Iraq, he said that “This crisis calls for...
Dignity & Justice: A Call to Conversion
In recent years, Americans have experienced a significant surge in anti-immigration rhetoric. This rhetoric has been targeted at people from Muslim nations and from south of our border. For the latter category especially, the rhetoric has often dehumanized migrants from...
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