Growing up Protestant and Republican in Kansas, I began life as a political conservative. But when I was in college, John F. Kennedy changed that. He and Pope John XXIII opened the door to the Catholic Church for me, and for most of my adult life I considered myself a Catholic political liberal. I a

When we pray for peace, we pray for peace for everyone,” said the Rev. Yoel Salvaterra, who serves the Catholic community in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, after a morning in which more than 20 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip landed in the city. “Our prayers have no borders. W

Around 62 percent of adult U.S. Catholics have a profile on Facebook; 58 percent of Catholics 30 and under share pictures, articles and comments at least once a week; and nearly a third say they would like their pastors and bishops to use blogs. Those are some results of a study released by the Cent

For the Jewish people Peter Fink S J once wrote God is the one who ldquo comes rdquo who ldquo leads rdquo who ldquo abides rdquo and who ldquo hides rdquo The early Christian community appealed to the same four dynamics in speaking of Christ ldquo the Christ who comes lsquo mara

El Salvador is not your typical tourist destination. It has been wracked by earthquakes and frequently finds itself in the way of devastating hurricanes. It is also the smallest, most densely populated and most violent nation in all of Latin America. So why have so many North American Christians mad

The visit to Cuba last March by Pope Benedict XVI focused attention on the emergence of the Catholic Church as an influential actor in that island nation. If, by comparison, the 1998 visit of Pope John Paul II was heralded as a watershed in church-state relations in Cuba, the more recent visit refle

The Way of the Kingdom Re “Defending Hyde,” by Richard M. Doerflinger (11/19): It’s good to hear people pushing back on the “war on women” rhetoric. It is such an empty, manufactured slogan concocted by political consultants. There is a serious problem in the pro-choi

A pastoral plan approved by Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston calls for the archdiocese to organize its 288 parishes into approximately 135 groups, to be called parish collaboratives. Led by one pastor, a pastoral team of priests, deacons and lay ecclesial ministers will provide pastoral ser

Rwandan-backed M23 rebels took control on Nov. 20 of Goma, the capital of North Kivu Province, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Amnesty International called on all sides of the escalating conflict to take steps to safeguard civilians. Thousands fled the besieged city and rap

Certain dates in history have a powerful hold on the American imagination When we think about World War II we remember Dec 7 1941 mdash a date President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed would forever live ldquo in infamy rdquo Our minds also turn to D-Day June 6 1944 when Allied forces led by

If you’re wondering why the European Union budget talks collapsed in November, you might look to the euro, the common currency of more than half of the E.U.’s member states, to gain a clue. I don’t mean the currency’s market position but the actual printed paper. All the euro

Digging Deeper; Don't Call Me A Saint?; Occupy in Action

Because of the recent synod on the new evangelization, and because I study Catholic religious education, the question of how best to converse with the wider world about faith is often on my mind. This is especially true when I am on Facebook. I have a variety of friends: some believers, some unbelie

Congress should avoid measures that harm at-risk students, low-income families and the global poor who benefit from international assistance, said Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, Calif., and Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, in a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives and the S

During the public sessions, on Nov. 12–13, of the annual Fall General Assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore, among other actions, the bishops: • Approved their first document on preaching in 30 years, “Preaching the Mystery of Faith: The Sunday Homily,&rdq

A modest proposal for controlling health care costs

In Port-au-Prince at St Pierre parish one of the few Catholic churches that didn rsquo t collapse in the January 2010 earthquake which devastated this city of 3 7 million people everyone is dressed as smartly as they can at Sunday Mass in the evening the way people in New York did when I was a k

Cambridge MA This is the second of my Advent reflections occasioned by the Sunday readings reflection on the state of my soul and our souls and other things as well See the first here I just finished ndash on CD while driving home from my parish - Jennifer duBois rsquo fine first novel