A Bad Moms poster placed right outside St Mary’s Catholic School in the suburb of Ellerslie, Auckland, last Monday caused outrage. The movie which stars Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn is the second-most commercially successful movie of 2016. “This despite—or perhaps because—it has offended all ends of the social spectrum,” says film critic Tom Teodorczuk The poster Read more
On a spring day about five years ago, when I was rector of Mundelein Seminary, Francis Cardinal George spoke to the assembled student body. He congratulated those proudly orthodox seminarians for their devotion to the dogmatic and moral truths proposed by the Church, but he also offered some pointed pastoral advice. He said that it Read more
Pope Francis is widely believed to be a cool Pope—a huggable, Upworthyish, meme-ready, self-deprecating leader for a new generation of worshippers. “He has described himself as a sinner,” writes Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Pope Francis’ entry on Time’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world, “and his nonjudgmental views on … issues such Read more
What makes for a happy home? Is it having plentiful sofas, nice neighbours, or perhaps super-fast Wi-Fi? Believe it or not, they all make the list according to a recent study cited on the Be Home Blog. As well as some (perhaps more surprising?) factors which would seem to make for less family time, but Read more
Although the Synod of Bishops on the family has sparked frank discussions about the direction of the church, the American archbishop who represents U.S. Catholics at the event said Friday it is “doing what it’s supposed to do.” In an interview with NCR, U.S. bishops’ conference president Archbishop Joseph Kurtz said the synod is starting Read more
On Sunday, Pope Francis convenes a special type of meeting of bishops — one held only two other times — meant to start a frank debate about the church’s teachings and practices with which Catholics seem to most disagree, struggle with and ignore: family, marriage and sexuality. The Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Read more
In the mid 1990s my husband and I lived together before we were married. In the interest of family peace we kept our living arrangement secret from my devoutly Catholic grandparents who would not have approved. I wonder what my grandparents, who died a few years ago, would have thought about Pope Francis’ decision last Read more
Ireland’s bishops have issued a public statement about the local results of the Vatican survey on family life, in a reversal of a previous decision. The bishops acknowledged that Church teaching can sometimes be a challenge, with some respondents seeing the teaching “as disconnected from real-life experience”. Continue reading
For his new book, author Andrew Solomon spoke with parents who have children completely unlike them — with autism, Down syndrome or dwarfism. SPIEGEL spoke with him about his findings and how they changed his parenting. SPIEGEL: Dr. Solomon, in your book you write about Jason Kingsley, who was a child star on “Sesame Street.” What’s Read more
An award winning advertisement for condoms paints a painful picture of family life. Beginning with a disclaimer “Don’t get me wrong. I love kids. They’re adorable and tons of fun to be around,” it goes on to “shows just how much damage kids can do”. The minute-long commercial has been described at “borderline melodramatic genius” by Read more