Ten United States seminaries across several denominations will receive a combined US$1.5 million in grants to include science in their studies. The grants were announced by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Funding has come from the John Templeton Foundation, in an effort to bridge gaps between science and faith. Catholic institutions to Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Jesuits’
US Jesuit penalised after liturgy with woman priest dies
Friday, August 15th, 2014An American Jesuit who spent his last two years under restricted ministry after taking part in a eucharistic liturgy with a woman priest has died. Fr William Brennan, 94, died in a rest home in Wisconsin. A Jesuit for 75 years and a priest for 63 years, he was a former missionary in Belize and Read more
Martin Scorsese to make movie about Jesuit mission in Japan
Friday, August 8th, 2014Famed movie director Martin Scorsese is to make a film based on the Jesuit Catholic mission to Japan in the 17th century. The film will be based on “Silence” by Japanese author Shusako Endo. It is based on the story of Tome Ferreira (1580-1650), a Portuguese Jesuit missionary, who renounced the Christian faith under torture Read more
Faith and life in Brazil
Tuesday, June 17th, 2014
It’s official: the deep Amazonas is more remote than Siberia. In all of the visits I have made to provinces of the Congregation of Jesus (CJ) all over the world, never have I been without a signal for my BlackBerry… until I visited one of our sisters living and working in a community along the Read more
Substance behind Pope’s style
Tuesday, May 27th, 2014
It’s clear that Pope Francis has a style and approach to his job that contrasts sharply with those of his predecessors over the last 50 years. The frequently asked question is whether there is substance behind the style and if so, what does it look like? Traces of what he draws on are there to Read more
Jesuit theologian from India under doctrinal scrutiny by Vatican
Friday, May 16th, 2014
The Vatican is investigating a Jesuit theologian from India for allegedly espousing unorthodox beliefs. Censure has reportedly been threatened against Fr Michael Amaladoss, whose best-known book is “The Asian Jesus”. But the Jesuit provincial of Fr Amaladoss’s Indian province said there had been no condemnation or censure. Rather, there has been an ongoing dialogue that has Read more
The Way of Holy Week
Tuesday, April 15th, 2014
We are people of the Way, an ancient term for the first Christians which is found in the Acts of the Apostles. Jesus showed us that way throughout his whole life on earth, but this way becomes particularly clear and calls to us most profoundly in the events of Holy Week, not only by Jesus’s Read more
New versions of martyrdom
Friday, April 11th, 2014
As I have mentioned in a previous posting, there are many different sorts of martyrdom–in the broad sense of bearing witness, at a high or ultimate cost, to an awkward truth or passionately embraced cause. Independence movements, environmental campaigns, investigative journalism, humanitarian missions to war zones. They all draw inspiration from sons and daughters who perished in Read more
Ukraine: A spiritual journey in political guise
Tuesday, March 18th, 2014
The recent events in Ukraine are not what many news sources, even respected ones, imagine them to be. First, Ukraine was not a battleground where Russia and the West were hammering it out. Indeed, 99% of what was taking place on ‘the maidan’, the central square in Kyiv, was based on issues internal to Ukraine. Read more
We Christians live in fear in Syria
Tuesday, March 18th, 2014
Lent will see churches crowded across the globe. But here in Syria, where St Paul found his faith, many churches stand empty, targets for bombardment and desecration. Aleppo, where I have been bishop for 25 years, is devastated. We have become accustomed to the daily dose of death and destruction, but living in such uncertainty Read more