Pope Francis has sounded a clear warning about respect for the environment – if we destroy creation, then creation will destroy us. At his general audience on May 21, the Pope said polluting or destroying the environment amounts to telling God one doesn’t like his creation. Safeguarding creation is safeguarding a gift from God, he Read more
“Listen to the words,” the young woman behind me stage-whispered to her chatty date. “Are you listening?” He wasn’t. But I was and so was most of the rapt, standing-room-only crowd that crammed the Greek Theatre at University of California, Berkeley, for the second of three sold-out Mumford & Sons concerts in late May. This Read more
“The Rohr Institute” is not a title you’re likely hear Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr use himself. But while he shies away from the name for fear that the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) will be misinterpreted as a “cult of personality,” the center’s staff is working diligently to transform its programming so the legacy Read more
The National Catholic Reporter, a widely-circulated United States newspaper, has called for the ordination of women to the Catholic priesthood. “Barring women from ordination to the priesthood is an injustice that cannot be allowed to stand,” the paper said in a December 3 editorial. Continue reading
I feel like an idiot. When the U.S. bishops came out so strongly against the new government rules regarding contraceptives and health insurance, they said the issue was one of religious freedom. And I believed them. When the bishops argued that it was not the administration’s place to decide whether Catholic hospitals or colleges fit Read more
While the following article concerns the US, much of what is reported here is reflected in Catholic parish life in Aotearoa New Zealand: A lot has changed in parish life in a quarter-century, yet American Catholics are still predominantly attached to territorial parishes headed by a priest pastor. The model is being stretched and transformed, Read more
Much has been written in recent years about the declining hold of traditional church boundaries on Americans’ religious and spiritual beliefs and their understanding of religious truth and how it is mediated. Catholics are not immune to these cultural changes. An overwhelming majority in our survey, 88 percent, agree that how a person lives is Read more
American Catholics continue to maintain a moderate to high degree of commitment to the church. As in past surveys, we assessed our respondents’ commitment by combining their responses to three separate questions: “How important is the Catholic church to you personally?”; “Aside from weddings and funerals, how often do you go to Mass?”; and “On Read more