When the psychiatrist diagnosed me with post-traumatic stress disorder at the end of our first session early this March, I finally had to accept I was unwell. The flashbacks, the anxiety, my emotional numbness and poor sleep had long worried my wife, Mary. I had played down the symptoms, denied I had a problem. Five Read more
Archbishop Jozef De Kesel of Malines-Brussels, Belgium, is one of men who will be made a cardinal this Saturday. In an interview with ZENIT, the cardinal-designate expresses his belief that Christians must “accept wholeheartedly the culture in which we are to accomplish our mission: a pluralistic culture, a secularized society.” “This culture is also an opportunity,” Read more
It is difficult to discuss Brian Tamaki and his discourses without making a few basic points. The first is this: As Christians we do not accept every word of the bible as being the literal “word of God” addressed to us at this time, directing our lives. We do know that the Bible contains writings Read more
On November 8, 60% of voters identifying themselves as Catholic cast their votes for the now president-elect, Donald J. Trump. White born-again or Evangelical Christians supported Trump even more strongly, with 81% of their vote. It has been a long, contentious campaign, with historically low levels of trust and personal likability for both major party Read more
Pope Francis said, “Fundamentalism is a sickness that is in all religions … Religious fundamentalism is not religious, because it lacks God. It is idolatry, like idolatry of money … We Catholics have some — and not some, many — who believe in the absolute truth and go ahead dirtying the other with calumny, with Read more
Any attentive reader of the Synoptic gospels will see that Jesus works a significant amount of miracles in His ministry; when one reads St Mark, thanks to the brevity of the account, it seems that Jesus is portrayed primarily as a miracle worker, and in particular as a Messiah who comes to rescue people from Read more
As waves of refugee crises continue to make international headlines, Southeast Asian nations face their own challenges to support and protect millions of refugees and asylum seekers. Across the region, people continue to flee conflict and political persecution and have sought to make new homes with varying degrees success or failure. For some nations the Read more
1. Church of Saint Simeon Stylites in Syria In northern Syria, the ruins of this Byzantine church still display a very beautiful architectural ensemble dating back to the 5th century. The church was built on the spot where St. Simeon had retired atop a pillar to pray. This is the origin of the name “Stylite,” the Read more
Charred by the pulsing heat, the earth has turned to dust. Rivers have thinned to threads. Wells and ponds have parched. Across the sun-punished lands of Colombia’s La Guajira province, the northernmost point of South America, the symptoms of drought are stark. Water carriers walk for hours, bucket handles digging into their hands. Goats and Read more
A minor miracle occurred on a dark train platform in a provincial Cuban town in 1981. I had been a Cuban-American exile for two decades, and had managed to wrangle a visa to visit my sick mother. After seeing her, I had traveled to the train station with some unfinished business. The middle-aged woman in Read more