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No one wants to be the innkeeper in a Christmas pageant. You know the one, the door-slamming landlord who turned away Joseph and Mary before they became the Holy Family. Any other role is better that that one. Even wearing the scratchy sheep costume is better or being the rope pull on the flying angel—anything Read more
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The hills around Salzburg are alive, we hear, “alive with the sound of music.” Young and old, the people sing and hum and strum. The water in the brooks laughs as it trips and falls downstream. Church chimes sigh with the breeze. This music, we also hear, has been sung for 1,000 years. Maybe. But Read more
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As a cradle Catholic, I never thought I’d get a divorce, but I ended up with one earlier this year. Since we came to the decision, I’ve been dreading Christmas — the decorations, the Santa visits, the holiday cards. Christmas seemed all about perfect families and frameable moments, and this year I didn’t want any Read more
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The show trial of Archbishop Philip Wilson has backfired badly. The trial caused hurt to many people, most especially victims of child sexual abuse who thought the law was being rightly applied to put an errant Catholic bishop in the frame. Wilson was charged under a provision of the New South Wales Crimes Act, section Read more
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Recently, the heads of six continental Catholic bishops’ conferences issued a rare joint statement. Their subject was climate change. The conferences, including the Federation of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Oceania, to which Papua New Guinea belongs, decided that climate change warranted the unusual time and attention to develop a globally united statement. The reason is Read more
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A survey of sports clubs in New Zealand has revealed nearly two-thirds of them are either losing money or breaking even. And in the New Zealand Amateur Sport Association’s inaugural national survey of clubs, 22 percent of respondents said their memberships had fallen over the past five years. The survey was undertaken by the Association Read more
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China is waging an unprecedented war on religion. Over the past year alone, China has detained Muslims because of their faith, forced Buddhists to pledge allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party, and coerced Christian churches to take down their crosses or shut down. The sinicization of religion The Party, which is officially atheist, has for Read more
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A leading expert in cyberpsychology describes a digital culture today in which children and pre-teens have virtually unfiltered access to online pornography, and she predicts that one day parents who fail to monitor their children’s online activity may be found guilty of criminal child abuse. “I can see later down the line that parents or Read more
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Rocio Figueroa Alvear is a theologian, an abuse survivor and a consecrated woman-turned-whistle-blower on scandals in her former community. After trying unsuccessfully to raise the alarm both in her order and in the Vatican, she left, and is now a researcher and activist pushing for a change in Church structures that allow abuse and cover-up Read more
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One of the radical insights of the Second Vatican Council is the salvific character of married life. Marriage is not a secondary vocation for those who are not strong enough to embrace celibacy, but instead offers an icon of love that the entire church is called to contemplate. The married couple’s self-gift, embodied in the Read more
