They are consulting with local clergy, taking online vocation surveys, signing up for “come and see” weekends, moving into convents and monasteries for yearlong immersion experiences, and professing solemn vows. They are professionally seasoned or just starting out; unmarried, widowed and divorced; ethnically and culturally diverse. All over the country, women currently discerning a call Read more
Those who survived Auschwitz called the man in charge an “animal.” Rudolf Höss presided over the extermination of some 2.5 million prisoners in the three years he was commandant of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Another half a million died there from disease and starvation. A year after his tenure came to an end, he returned Read more
On the eve of the fifth anniversary of the shooting that wounded former Representative Gabrielle Giffords, CNN hosted a town hall with President Barack Obama on the topic of guns in America. The live audience, at George Mason University, in Virginia, included people whom CNN had flown in: gun owners, gun sellers, survivors of shootings, Read more
What are the most addictive drugs? This question seems simple, but the answer depends on whom you ask. From the points of view different researchers, the potential for a drug to be addictive can be judged in terms of the harm it causes, the street value of the drug, the extent to which the drug Read more
For Muslims around the world, it’s become an almost daily heartbreaking experience to see Islam associated with all the shades of cruelty and inhumanity of so-called Islamic State (IS). It’s tempting to dismiss the group as lying beyond the boundaries of Islam. But this way of thinking leads down the same route IS has taken. Read more
In Bangladesh, Catholics—who account for just 0.2 percent of the population—have suffered from incidences of violence and persecution. However, the Catholic population continues to grow in the Southern Asian country, where Pope Francis has just established a new diocese. Catholicism came to the region in the 16th century with the arrival of Portuguese sailors. The Read more
We all know what it is to feel pain and loss. Whether from the loss of a loved one, a cancer diagnosis, or a natural disaster, everyone experiences suffering. According to Robin Ryan, an associate professor of systematic theology at Catholic Theological Union and a Passionist priest, the presence of suffering is the one thing Read more
Twenty-five years ago, one of the 20th century’s greatest Catholic theologians passed away in the Avenue de Breteuil in Paris in the care of the Little Sisters of the Poor. Born in 1896 as the Dreyfus Affair was tearing France apart, and dying while the Soviet Union imploded in 1991, Cardinal Henri de Lubac, SJ, Read more
In 1996, late US political scientist Samuel P. Huntington published the book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Following the collapse of communism in 1989, he argued, conflicts would increasingly involve religion. Islam, which Huntington claimed had been the opponent of Christianity since the seventh century, would increasingly feature in geopolitical Read more
Pastors have long hung out with workers. During the Industrial Revolution, they would preach from factory floors. Nineteenth-century Catholic teachings declared it the Church’s duty to support the working poor. And in the Great Depression, industry titans hired chaplains to visit workers on the Hoover Dam. But in recent years, a number of companies have Read more