The past week has seen the nascent leadership contest to replace Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister of Scotland turn nasty. The Scottish National Party is a broad church, it turns out, but some of its members seem to be finding difficulty in accepting that its breadth of opinion extends to traditional forms of Christianity. The Read more
Pope Francis “seeks to shape a practical ecclesiology — a church capable of shaping the world,” Father J. Bryan Hehir told an audience at Georgetown University in Washington Nov. 12. Bryan Hehir, a professor of religion and public life at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, delivered an annual lecture sponsored by the Read more
When Catholic bishops threatened to deny Communion to then-presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004 over his abortion stance, the ensuing media frenzy was described as “haunting” the Democrat’s campaign for months. But this year, when Vice President Joe Biden was denied Communion at a Catholic church in South Carolina for roughly the same reasons, coverage Read more
I’m often weary these days. These are dark, painful times for our church and country. The White House is occupied by a president who demeans people with rhetoric and hurts those on the peripheries with cruel policies. A former cardinal of Washington, D.C., has been defrocked for sexual abuse. As a Catholic writer and commentator Read more
Joe Biden is a proud Catholic. He carries a rosary to remember his late son Beau, and as recent headlines show, he attends Mass even during a grueling campaign. But when the former vice president presented himself for Communion at St. Anthony Catholic Church in South Carolina on Sunday (Oct. 27), a priest denied him Read more
Presidential candidate Joe Biden’s denial of reception of Holy Communion in South Carolina on Sunday has renewed scrutiny of his evolving views on abortion. Over the course of his decades-long career, the Catholic former Vice President has said that the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade went too far, but has now pledged to enshrine Read more
“We make our own history,” Eleanor Roosevelt said. “The course of history is directed by the choices we make and our choices grow out of the ideas, the beliefs, the values, the dreams of the people. It is not so much the powerful leaders that determine our destiny as the much more powerful influence of Read more
From time to time, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton invoke their respective Christian faiths as something that animates them and informs their world views. But unlike Republican and Democratic presidential candidates in the recent past, such as Jimmy Carter or George W. Bush, who were comfortable discussing their religious beliefs, the major party nominees in Read more