Religious identity used to be “inherited.” “Cradle Catholic” is shorthand for born into the faith; within Judaism, the faith is passed through a Jewish mother to her children unless they grow up to proclaim a different religion. But children don’t just inherit parents’ spirituality, says psychologist Lisa Miller in her new book, “The Spiritual Child.” Read more
The twentieth century saw major advances in technology and communications, economy and human rights. It was also the bloodiest century in history. Think of the mass deportations, starvation and extermination of perhaps 14 million people in Stalinist Russia and even more in Maoist China; the Holocaust of 6 million Jews under the Nazis, as well Read more
The images and words are so very similar. Back then, the German chancellor said she was “deeply upset” — today she is “appalled.” Back then, the president of the European Commission said he would never forget the dead, and that something had to change — today he claims: “The status quo is not an option.” Read more
Back in 2007, a Catholic priest from Chicago uploaded a video on YouTube – not about social issues, church scandals, or religious observances, but about Martin Scorsese’s film The Departed. “Evil cannot be fought on its own terms,” Fr. Barron said, riffing on Jack Nicholson’s character. “You fight fire with fire, the world becomes hotter. Read more
A church like that can help a person, says Armen. It can help them from giving up hope — and that is indeed something. The fact that the church is even standing here — beautiful and steadfast in a place that was only recently the site of ruins — instills a sense of courage, says Read more
Eduardo Verastegui is a man of many talents: singer, model, actor, producer, pro-life speaker. After a successful career in music as a young man, he began acting in Mexican telenovelas, earning the nickname “the Brad Pitt of Mexico”. After moving to Hollywood to pursue a career in films he returned to the Catholic faith of Read more
Famous historical meals have been well documented to include who attended, where they took place, and what was eaten. Wine was often served at these meals, but the details behind those wines are lacking. With Easter coming up on April 5, Vivino has taken the challenge to investigate what wine would have been served at Read more
What will future Catholic Ministry look like as our priests age and numbers of priests diminish? In today’s faster paced world, are those un-ordained people living their faith and ministering to others as an integral part of who they are, their work, and their daily interactions with others becoming the new ‘priests’? Andrea O’Hagan and Read more
The kidnapper sounded polite, even deferential, when she called on a Tuesday afternoon last May. Melida Lemus and Alfredo Godoy had left their clapboard house in Trenton, New Jersey, to pick up their two daughters from school. Godoy, who works in construction, was late to meet a client for whom he was building a home Read more
Early one morning in February 1968, when the fighting in central Vietnam had reached a new level of insanity, a group of South Korean soldiers swept into a village called Ha My, a straggly collection of bamboo huts and paddy fields about an hour outside the city of Danang. They were from a unit called Read more