Backstabbing and gossip hurt people and harm God's desire for a united human family, Pope Francis said. Unity is a gift from God, "but often we struggle to live it out," he said. "We are the ones who create lacerations."The pope also asked people to pray for persecuted C

Parables are meant to change our perspective, and that is no small thing. 

Backstabbing nbsp Pope Francis does not approve and John O 39 Malley S J on a Vatican II pope Looking at stories of federal shutdowns past and Mr Cruz goes to town on Washington with Robert David Sullivan JP Morgan grand pubah James Dimon is in Washington today for a nbsp discussion with the J

What is the role of Catholicism in the life of the Catholic school student What should it do These questions recently arose as I spoke with a colleague about our efforts to endear the Catholic faith to resistant minds Thousands of pages of ecclesial documents address these questions and most of t

Most pundits are predicting disaster for the Republican Party if there rsquo s a federal government shutdown partly because President Bill Clinton is perceived as having stomped GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich in the court of public opinion after the shutdowns of 1995 and 1996 This perception has

What "I am a sinner" tells us about who Pope Francis is.

We think we know the papacy and tend not to expect many surprises from the Vatican. Indeed, part of its "mystique" lies in its apparent immunity to historical change. Yet it does change and it does surprise us. Whether it was the unexpected decision of John XXIII to call a Council, the ele

From Meghan J. Clark: the pope's radical call to community

From the moment he took the right name (I could not resist, dear Jesuits!), we knew something was different and even good. But little could we have imagined! Maybe we did have to go to “the ends of the earth,” as he himself said, to find such an extraordinary and compelling man as Jorge

From Karen Sue Smith: the pope hears the cries of his flock

Over 300 casualties are reported after a serious 7 8 earthquake is southwestern Pakistan Rescue teams and relief efforts have been swift in response Relief agencies in Syria are currently experiencing issues meeting the demands for assistance leading to the situation to worsen even more so than be

The latest blog post from Robert David Sullivan at '(Un)Conventional Wisdom'

From Rev. Robert P. Imbelli: additional questions for Pope Francis

From Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl: the pastoral message the world needs today

From John W. O'Malley, S.J.: Francis lives the council's message in word and deed.

The latest from "The Ignatian Educator," our new blog on Catholic education

We asked New York 39 s Cardinal Timothy Dolan for his reaction to the interview with Pope Francis published last week in America Here 39 s what he had to say about it America Many found Pope 39 s Francis 39 words blunt and more than a little shocking What was your gut reaction Dolan My gut

The fight to ldquo defund rdquo Obamacare see last week rsquo s post is a brilliant sleight-of-hand Keeping everyone focused on the implementation of one new government program distracts us from the deep cuts in government spending on practically everything else nbsp We don rsquo t know precis

This is the second entry in the Second Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians Bible Junkies Commentary You can find the first entry here nbsp In the first entry I discussed introductory matters such as the origin of the Church in Thessalonica its early history with Paul Silvanus and Timothy and

ldquo I know their suffering rdquo the Lord said to Moses in witness to the enslavement of the people of Israel ldquo and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land a land flowing with milk and honey rdquo Ex 3 7-8 Six