The response of Catholic moral theologians to the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been universally negative. “The war in Ukraine is a spiritual, human and ecological catastrophe,” said Eli S. McCarthy, a peace activist at Georgetown University’s Justice and Peace Studies, in a recent email to me. The view is shared by Catholic pacifists as Read more
It was around 4 pm on Thursday when I checked the global news and saw the words of Vladimir Putin’s invasion speech coming through minute by minute; I had just finished an overnight tramp, something I had done in-part to escape the overwhelmingness of the local and global situation. I often check international news sites Read more
Pope Francis expressed gratitude, Friday, for the cease-fire in the Holy Land. “My thoughts turn to the events taking place these days in the Holy Land,” Francis said, referring to the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. “I thank God for the decision to halt the armed conflicts and acts of violence, and I Read more
Pope Francis is urging Israeli and Palestinian leaders to put down their arms and spare the children, in the latest round of hostilities between Israel and the Gaza Strip. The injury and death of so many innocent people puts the entire area at risk of sinking into “a spiral of death and destruction,” he says. Read more
Peace is more than just the avoidance of conflict or the absence of a feud, or on a more grand scale, war. Peace is the work for justice and the output of charity. The Church preaches peace because peace is a sign and fruit of the promise of Christ, the Redeemer. Peace is more than Read more
Sometimes you need to catch your breath when a Vatican official’s speaking echoes a theologian’s writings. Which way is this going to go? Not long ago, the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, echoed a 50-year-old passage from a book by … wait for it … Swiss theologian Hans Küng. Speaking on Spain’s church-owned Read more
I’m not a Catholic. Unless you can genetically inherit religion I am most certainly not Catholic. My Irish grandmother was Catholic, but I think she had God whipped out of her by the nuns at Erskine College at age 13. She was one of the naughtiest girls in her year, and the reckless auburn-haired nymph Read more
In a joint St Patrick’s Day statement, Northern Ireland’s church leaders said they have not done enough in the past to heal divisions. Reflecting on the century since Northern Ireland’s partition, they say they hope this centenary year will provide opportunities to create a better level of mutual understanding. The Protestant and Catholic leaders went Read more
When did the church commit itself to better relations between Muslims and Catholics? I suppose the church really committed to dialogue and positive engagement at the Second Vatican Council, with the famous declaration on the relationship of the church to non-Christian religions, “Nostra Aetate.” There’s a paragraph in there dedicated to Islam and opening up Read more
Within an hour of Pope Francis arriving in Iraq, U.S. President Joe Biden was calling the visit a “symbol of hope for the entire world.” “Pope Francis’s visit was a historic and welcome first for the country,” Biden said. “It sent an important message, as Pope Francis said himself, that ‘fraternity is more durable than Read more