Loving wealth destroys the soul, and cheating workers of their just wages and benefits is a mortal sin, Pope Francis said. Jesus did not mince words when he said, “Woe to you who are rich,” after listing the Beatitudes as written according to St. Luke, the pope said in a morning homily. If anyone today Read more
The Chilean bishops announced their collective resignation last Friday following a series of sex abuse cases that have shaken the church. But far from ending the crisis, the decision heralds the beginning of a long rebuilding process in which Pope Francis will have a free hand to choose their successors. After their week in Rome, Read more
Like many Catholics across the Northeast and Midwest, parishioners in Pittsburgh are adjusting to a difficult new reality. On April 28 Bishop David A. Zubik announced plans to reduce the diocese’s 188 parishes to 57 by 2023. The parish closings follow years of falling Mass attendance—the diocese reports it is down by more than 40 Read more
“We, Paul VI… declare, in the case of infirmity, that it is presumed to be incurable, or of long duration… or in the case of another serious and prolonged impediment… to renounce” to “our office”. The top-secret letter on which many hypotheses were made but which no one had ever seen, clearly shows Pope Montini’s Read more
For believers, the Catholic Church is at once transcendent and mundane — the Holy Spirit working on Earth through 2,000 years of committee meetings. For those of a more secular bent, it is simply a terrific show, and hence the Met’s current exhibit of Catholic religious garments — and the Met Gala’s Catholic-themed fancy-dress ball Read more
In its 2018 budget, the Australian government announced $46 million towards the community visitors scheme which is designed to reduce loneliness in older adults. Earlier this year, Tracey Crouch was appointed the United Kingdom’s first minister for loneliness. While it may seem unusual to some to have government take a role in improving our social Read more
Flanked by his three wives and 12 children in his grocery shop in Kenya’s biggest slum, Kibera, Gilbert Wandera said men should marry multiple wives to prevent single motherhood and to ensure that children have fathers in their lives. “Getting a second or third wife is not a sin before God,” said Wandera, 38, who Read more
My father, Mutyala Satyanand, came from Fiji as a school student in the 1920s. For about 40 years, the Fiji government had a scheme, whereby they sent two Indian boys and two Fijian boys to secondary school in New Zealand. Schools like Palmerston North Boys’ High and Napier Boys’ High. My dad went to Wanganui Read more
The only great tragedy in life,” wrote the French novelist Léon Bloy, “is not to become a saint.” Pope Francis quotes this judgment approvingly in Gaudete et exsultate, his apostolic exhortation “on the call to holiness in today’s world.” He also quotes a less dramatic formulation of the same idea in Lumen gentium, the Second Read more
When you have children, everyone tells you that your life is going to change. They mean this in both the best and the worst possible ways: There are the predictable losses (lost sleep, lost money, lost time) as well as the wholly unexpected gains of loving a child beyond reason, beyond yourself. What people do Read more