Here is the lead role in the tragedy – Cardinal George Pell – having to endure the humiliation of facing charges for alleged sexual abuse. The October 6th “mention” at the Melbourne Magistrates Court did not specify charges but reported that there would be up to 50 witnesses testifying in court proceedings. The “mention” occurs Read more
Kazuo Ishiguro, the Japanese-born author of The Remains of the Day, Never Let Me Go, and five other acclaimed English-language novels, was awarded the Nobel Prize on Thursday. No doubt, Ishiguro’s many Catholic fans, myself included, heartily applauded the news. In striking contrast to many modern novelists, his deeply moral stories go to the heart of the Read more
Pope Francis has changed Catholic Canon law – and met with some intense reactions. At stake here is the language used for the Mass and the question of who has the responsibility for translating the Catholic liturgy into regional languages. So why should this issue be so very controversial in the 21st century? Early history As a Read more
What does it look like to be consumed by bitterness? It looks like the way an awful lot of Catholics speak to and about one another. Bitterness isn’t born ex nihilo. Bitterness is the festering of a spiritual wound, and many Catholics are infected by bitterness because they have suffered real, penetrating, stinging wounds at the Read more
Fifty years is a long time to endure forced suffering. Since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War when Israel captured and occupied the Palestinian territories of East Jerusalem, the remaining part of the West Bank and Gaza, the Palestinian people have lived under the heavy yoke of Israeli military occupation. According to Human Rights Watch’s Middle East Read more
The ashes of Hugh Hefner, founder of the Playboy magazine empire, were buried Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 91. The Washington Post has proclaimed him to be something of a hero, calling him a “visionary editor who created Playboy out of sheer will and his own fevered dreams.” On the flip side, Australian journalist Shelly Horton has written a scathing piece about Read more
It is said that God walks behind us, picking up those parts of our life that we choose to discard. The imperfection, failure, shame we try to leave behind in our desire to live “good” lives, is God’s treasure, the true gold of our life story. It is the precisely that part of us, and Read more
Pope Francis likes to stir things up, to create debate. In this, he reminds me of nothing more than another frequently misunderstood popular figure, one Jesus of Nazareth. Just imagine Twitter’s reaction to the bit about giving back to Caesar what is owed to Caesar. Half would have denounced Jesus as a stooge of the Romans Read more
As I write these words I’m looking at an untitled cartoon from the National Catholic Reporter in the Wojtyla-era 1980s. It’s an image of an elaborate canopy with praying angels draped over a Chair of Peter—in this case, a toilet with the papal insignia. It’s tied to a column that argues, among other things, that the “Catholic Read more
LISBON — On a broken-down set of steps, a 37-year-old fisherman named Mario mixed heroin and cocaine and carefully prepared a hypodermic needle. “It’s hard to find a vein,” he said, but he finally found one in his forearm and injected himself with the brown liquid. Blood trickled from his arm and pooled on the Read more