No Idle Dream
The Catholic world, and the world at large, is in need of unambiguous and prophetic spiritual guidance, and Pope Francis has provided just that in his new book with Austen Ivereigh, Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future...
Tagged: social justice
Towards an Inclusive Capitalism
One key to understanding the Church’s teaching on the economy is to ask—as Francis does in Fratelli Tutti—whether we “include or exclude those lying wounded along the roadside” (FT 69). This is, of course, a reference to the parable of...
Accompaniment as Antidote
Over the course of Pope Francis’s papacy, but particularly after the promulgation of Amoris Laetitia, some Catholics have expressed angst over what Pope Francis means when he calls for “accompaniment,” a term he uses whenever he describes ministering to those...
Loneliness Today, Part IV: The Invitation to the Feast
In this installment of the “Loneliness Today” series, I would like to talk about loneliness among disabled people.[1] This is a topic that a few regular commenters have brought up in the comment sections on previous essays in this series;...
Querida Amazonia: A Call for Authentic Inculturation
Vatican City — In his latest apostolic exhortation, Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis calls for “authentic” inculturation in the Amazon, so as to allow for the creation of a Church which truly bears the features of the region and the culture of...
10 Essential Quotes from Querida Amazonia
1. The title “Querida Amazonia” is Portuguese / Spanish for “Dear Amazon”–as in somebody’s female beloved, or the salutation of a letter. Oftentimes (not always), a papal document with a title in a vernacular language is meant to speak to...
Seamless Garment: All values are non-negotiable
“I have never understood the expression non-negotiable values. Values are values, and that is it. I can’t say that, of the fingers of a hand, there is one less useful than the rest. Whereby I do not understand in what...
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,...
On Capitalism: American Catholics Have a Choice to Make
The debate touched off by Senator Marco Rubio’s recent speech at the Catholic University of America reveals major fault lines within current Catholic thinking in the United States. What Rubio, who is Catholic, pointed out in his speech seemed straightforward...
Francis in the Far East: Two Languages of Catholic Ethics
Since Pope Francis’s election in 2013, a feeling has emerged that Catholic discussions about moral issues are essentially now being spoken in two different languages. There is a “Franciscan” language focusing on broad issues of what social philosophers call the...
Cardinal Müller is Disturbingly Wrong on Climate Change
Back in July 2018, Cardinal Gerhard Müller said that Catholics can safely ignore the Pope’s efforts to create an environmental conscientiousness in the Church. In what I can only describe as one of the silliest and most dangerous positions I’ve...
George Murry: Advocate of Liberty & Justice for All
As a Catholic in a small Ohio diocese, it is always interesting when our local Church shows up in the national news. This week, my bishop—the Bishop of Youngstown, Ohio—George Murry was elected as the chairman of the USCCB Committee...
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