“Legacy is for other people to determine.” So said Victorian Premier Dan Andrews, in Tuesday’s press conference announcing his resignation. Much ink will be spilled and many column inches dedicated to his legacy in the weeks and months ahead. But besides the list of Dan’s accomplishments, needs to sit his record as the most anti-life, Read more
If “demography is destiny,” then a certain narrative is baked into the data describing the Catholic Church in the United States. Change is the primary theme, the constant reality over decades. In today’s parlance, the church is often said to be at “an inflection point.” Such points certainly seem ubiquitous during the Francis papacy. Change Read more
A well-worn jest about Ireland goes like this: A lost tourist in Limerick asks for directions to Dublin, and the convoluted directions leave the tourist utterly bewildered. Finally, the tourist gazes into the distance, resigned to the fact that reaching Dublin is impossible. At this point, the local utters the famous words, “Well, if I Read more
Young women today are being told that anything goes, there is no objective truth, do whatever makes you “happy.” We’re told, in essence, that we’re our own Gods. With confusion around identity in such a fluid and conflicting world, is it any wonder why young Catholic women are adhering to a more concrete and traditional Read more
Conventional wisdom holds that it takes a century for an ecumenical council to flower and bear fruit. Altering customs and thought habits, especially when linked to faith, takes a long time. Simply getting the word out of a council’s teaching and its implications can take decades. Then, there are people and institutions for which new Read more
Martha Ligas learned about the Community of St Peter in Cleveland six months before she ventured into a worship service. She hesitated because she did not want to step over an invisible line that she had straddled for so long, one foot in and one foot out of the Roman Catholic Church. For this young Read more
In my ministry with LGBTQ people, I sometimes meet people who feel profoundly, even paralysingly, discouraged by the lack of forward movement in the Church. Even when something positive happens in the Church, they will say, “Not enough!” or “Too little, too late.” In his opening address to the Second Vatican Council, Pope St. John Read more
Scientists have created a human embryo without the use of sperm or an egg — a true test-tube baby. Such embryos cannot (yet) develop into full-grown human beings. Even if transplanted into a uterus, the specimen could never attach to the uterine wall. Yet, what we have here is still a (disabled) human embryo. Without Read more
Every fall, our family returns to church. We don’t intentionally walk away during the summer months, but between vacations and camp drop-offs and lazy mornings and opportunities to see family and friends, we tend to tie our church attendance to the school calendar. Come September, we have to remind ourselves why it’s worth it to Read more
I stood alone in a cemetery, staring at a teenager’s grave. The headstone was covered in baseball caps and necklaces – colourful tributes to a life cut short. I’d travelled to Kawerau, a former milling town on the East Coast, to report on a spate of youth suicides that had rocked the town. Back then, Read more