Letter from Rome
The small, but tenacious group within the Synod of Bishops that’s leading the fight against any development of Catholic doctrine on marriage and human sexuality is growing more and more nervous.Word is...
View ArticleLetter from Rome
Everyone knows that Rome wasn’t built in a day. And Roman Catholics know even better that it takes a long time, a lot of patience and especially divine (and clerical) benefices to launch new...
View ArticleLast Word: Bring A Guest
I recently married a non-Catholic. Kayla joins me for Mass from time to time, bringing with her the perspective of a guest. Her family did not go to church regularly when she was growing up; she never...
View ArticleLetters | The politics of abortion, the timing of confirmation, etc.
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View ArticleBackhanded Complementarity
The refutation of feminist theology, with its troubling interrogation of traditional gender norms, has been building in both the scholarly and popular worlds of traditional Catholicism for several...
View ArticleLate to the Font
Discussions of the state of U.S. Catholicism today often fail to note a worrisome trend: a steep recent drop in the number of adults being initiated into the faith. In fact, adult baptism in the United...
View ArticleFrom Silkworms to Songbirds
Flannery O’Connor understood the challenge of telling stories in a modern world.2 comments
View ArticleSetting the Table
I cringe when a priest begins Mass by asking everyone to shake hands and introduce themselves to the folks around them. To me, there is something false and forced about that, a simulacrum of the...
View ArticleLetter from Rome
When Pope Francis speaks, people listen. And blessed are those who can understand him without the need for a third party translation. That was clear again last week during his moving, six-day papal...
View Article'His Own Received Him Not'
The prologue of John’s gospel has everything: poetry, mysticism, creation, redemption. It is a hymn to the pre-existent Christ, the Word who is “light.” It announces the stunning good news that those...
View ArticleLetter from Rome
The yearlong Jubilee of Mercy is officially underway and Pope Francis is hoping it will make the Church less judgmental, more forgiving, and even more open to the world. But before he unlocked the Holy...
View ArticleLetter from Rome
It has taken almost three years since his election to the papacy. But, finally, Pope Francis is going to Mexico. The Vatican officially confirmed his February 12-18 visit to the world’s second-largest...
View ArticleLetters | Arguing about the synod, John’s gospel
RESISTING RUDDYKudos for Commonweal’s array of assessments of the Synod on the Family. Above all, Christopher Ruddy’s contribution forced me to ponder aspects of the deliberations I had not considered;...
View ArticleLetter from Rome
It’s hard to believe that Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent is only one month away. And for only the second time since 1962, when John XXIII revived the sixth-century tradition of Rome’s Lenten...
View Article'Welcome to the Orthodox Church'
Converts make excellent apologists. They are enthusiastic about the new thing they have embraced, yet retain insider’s knowledge of the thing they have left. They can therefore address questions that...
View ArticleLetter from Rome
Pope Francis will fly out of Rome early on Friday morning for a five-day pastoral visit to Mexico. But before his plane arrives in what is arguably Latin America’s most Catholic country (no offense to...
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There is an uneasy feeling in Rome and all over Europe this Holy Week.These are the most important days on the Christian calendar, centered on the Easter Triduum’s remembrance and celebration of the...
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Some hailed it as the defining moment of his pontificate. Others said it was “an extraordinary piece of political theater.”But whatever one makes of Pope Francis’ dramatic visit last Saturday to...
View ArticleLetter from Rome
Those of us who specialize in covering the Vatican and the papacy routinely receive invitations to address groups interested in the church. In the past three years it has been even more pleasurable to...
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