A couple of months ago, I was sitting in my office working on a lesson plan when Veronica, a freshman student at my high school, abrasively stormed through the doorway. “So, Ms. Stapleton Smith,” she began rather brashly, “I have a few questions that the guidance counsellor told me I should come to see you Read more
Pope Francis has captured the imagination of the world in way that few people, let alone popes, ever achieve. There are people, usually actors and rock stars, that have the x-factor; something about them that attracts people. If I knew what it was I would be a wealthy man! But I am not a fan of Pope Read more
Belgium has taken the shocking but unsurprising step of legalising euthanasia for children. The law stipulates that the child must be terminally ill, incurably suffering and possess complete understanding of what euthanasia means. Campaigners for “assisted dying” often point out that the majority of people would back an assisted suicide law in the UK. Possibly. Read more
Pope Francis is shaking things up in the Catholic Church to such an extent that many talk about a “Francis revolution.” Yet the single most revolutionary act committed by any pope in at least the last 600 years fell one year ago, and it wasn’t Francis who did it. On Feb. 11, 2013, Pope Benedict Read more
“God made us for joy. God is joy, and the joy of living reflects the original joy that God felt in creating us” Blessed John Paul II The day before my ordination last summer I was giving my four-year-old nephew a lift in the car. I wanted to test him, so I said: “Tristan, what’s happening Read more
Much has been written about the Millennials, the generation born in the 1990s — or as early as the 1980s and I suppose as late as the new millennium which gives them their name. You can find articles about their political views, their work habits, and their buying trends. You can also find complaints from Read more
As soon as issues related to poverty, population growth and sexual behaviour arise, contraception is also called into question. At the moment this is also the case of Papua New Guinea. There is indeed a form of “voluntary” or natural contraception when people decide to avoid procreation by orienting their sexual behaviour; and a form Read more
The 20th-century Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote: “The only task worthy of our efforts is to construct the future.” My concern today is how to construct a new future for women around the world through the global outreach of the church. The 6th-century philosopher Boethius reminds us that every age that is dying Read more
Not too long ago, I was asked to put together a list of what makes successful youth ministries successful. As I was thinking about this, I found myself almost immediately coming up with a list of the opposite. I could readily come up with a list of traits that contributed to unsuccessful youth ministries. I Read more
With the sometimes rabid exception of people at the ultra-traditionalist fringe of Catholicism who sputter at seeing him being respectful toward non-Catholics and acting “undignified,” Catholics are very pleased with Pope Francis. More notable, though, is the wild adulation he draws from those outside the Church, even more adulation, it appears, than he draws from Read more