When Pope Francis convened his now-famous press conference aboard the papal plane during his trip home from World Youth Day, international attention was seized on his comments on homosexuality, specifically his words, “Who am I to judge?” (Only the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.) But many in the church are raising their eyebrows–and Read more
The young priest preached on the sanctity of life at a Denver hospice. Afterward an older couple asked him if their son, who had died of AIDS, would be in hell forever. The priest said he couldn’t answer that. More than 20 years later Shawn Reynolds still remembers the anguish on the couple’s faces. “He Read more
Even before retired Pope Benedict XVI set up a pontifical council for new evangelisation and convoked a world Synod of Bishops on the theme, a new group of Benedictine monks was using Latin and liturgy to reach out to those whose faith was weak or nonexistent. Now they’ve added beer to the blend, and people Read more
It was in England that I heard for the first time of a football player being charged with bringing the game into disrepute. I was amused. From an outsider’s perspective the whole aim of rugby was to bring the game into disrepute. And the spectators seemed to relish its most disreputable features. I can now Read more
Pope Francis declared this summer that two of his predecessors, Popes John XXIII and John Paul II have lived documentably holy lives and are entitled to the hallowed title of saints! No one has to be reminded about the life of Pope John Paul II. He was dramatically on the scene until less than a Read more
Traditional theories of secularization maintain that religious decline led to the deterioration of the family. Not so, argues Mary Eberstadt in her new book How the West Really Lost God: A New Theory of Secularization (Templeton Press, 2013). Eberstadt is a leading cultural critic and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center Read more
Most things sound convincing when Morgan Freeman says them. The host of Through the Wormhole and the voice of God himself recently told told Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show that the Higgs Boson “explains everything – creation.” “Oh oh”, replies Ferguson, “that’s not going to be popular.” The “science puts God out of a job” Read more
Sagrada Familia, or the Basilica of the Holy Family, is a large, incomplete church in Barcelona, Spain. Work commenced on Sagrada Familia in 1882. A year later the project was taken over by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi, who transformed the project with his particular style. Dedicating the last years of his life to the project, Read more
As a sociologist my life is all about creating, taking and interpreting surveys of attitudes and opinions. So I sometimes feel a bit depressed at how knuckle-headed the media can be when reporting about research on same-sex marriage. Let’s look at a slogan which is being repeated over and over: Same-sex parents are just as Read more
Being homeless and watching over her three younger siblings whenever mum went off on a meth binge was a way of life for young Tangmo, and she accepted her fate without question; now the children are in school and they’ve got a roof over their heads instead of a road. Demure Miss Tangmo (Watermelon) tries to Read more