On Saturday the atheist polemicist Christopher Hitchens went up against former British prime minister Tony Blair in a debate in Toronto on the topic Religion is a force for good in the world Hitchens his head shaved from cancer treatment was in cracking form outrageous witty and clever Bla

David Gibson exegetes the Holy Father s recent comments on the use of condoms to prevent the transmission of HIV AIDS in the light of the Catholic moral theology specifically the concepts of the lesser of two evils and double effect When Pope Benedict XVI said last week that using condoms cou

Advent is preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ nbsp It is anticipation waiting Yet as the readings for the First Sunday in Advent demonstrate it is not simply the waiting for Christ at his first coming as a child in the manger but for his second coming at the end of time when all things

The Church of England s parliament has overwhelmingly approved the Covenant which the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams hopes will prevent the worldwide 70m-strong Anglican Communion from falling apart see my earlier post The three houses which make up the General Synod -- nbsp bishops

nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp In a recent fit of downsizing I was sorting through a box of forgotten possessions in the garage I rsquo m not even sure which daughter had left behind this jumble of school supplies and adolescent accessories Determined to get rid of one more carton of unn

When I was in high school I was responsible to deliver the morning announcements over the intercom system This seemed to be an awesome responsibility at the time and I reveled in that my nbsp voice boomed the nbsp vital pronoucements such as upcoming student council meetings and permission slip d

Knowing I could not master Wisdom but by the gift of God - and it is a gift of God to know to Whom I owe the gift - I turned to the Lord to entreat him Wisdom 8 20 Someday may all Americans be blessed to know to Whom to credit all our gifts John Kilgallen S J nbsp

Now that we can move onto other interesting parts of the Pope s interview in Light of the World I haven t seen any comment on what Pope Benedict says about the Church in China It seems poignant in the light of today s news -- a powerful Vatican condemnation of a state-appointed Catholic bishop In

In the technical breakdown of Pauline letters which are simply Hellenistic letters with a Christianizing twist they begin with a Salutation senders recipients and grace and then move on to the Thanksgiving with the notable exception of Galatians The Thanksgiving sets the tone for the letter

I ve written here often about the Archbishop of Canterbury s game-plan for saving the Anglican Communion known as the Covenant It is his response to the fallout over the 2004 consecration of Gene Robinson which saw the 70m-strong Anglican Church worldwide begin what has seemed at times an inexora

Yesterday s Vatican clarification -- one that quite exceptionally was made by its spokesman Fr Lombardi by reporting the Pope s answer to his question leaving no room for doubt nbsp -- is as Fr Jim says a gamechanger in Fr Tom Reese s words it blasts out of the water the notion that condom

This morning I e-mailed some questions to Father Matin Rhonheimer in Rome and received his kind reply a few minutes ago I asked him if Pope Benedict were aware of his controversial position on church teaching and the use of condoms in 2004 s Tablet He responds I published my article in The Tabl

Austen Ivereigh discussed this a few days ago but I suspect the import of it is getting a little lost in the media kerfluffle over the church s shocking about face on condoms My apologies to those who argue this is not new but seriously you ve got to be kidding at least insofar as how church

The previously out-of-bounds discussion about whether condoms can be used as a means to prevent the spread of disease is now in-bounds.

At a press conference earlier to launch Light of the World the Vatican s spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi acknowledged there had been confusion over the question of the gender of the prostitute cited by Pope Benedict And he got the Pope to clear it up for him He said the Italian version of the bo

Light of the World Peter Seewald s book-length interview with Pope Benedict XVI has already drawn much attention here and elsewhere on the Web Today November 23 is the official publication day and we are happy to provide excerpts from the book for our readers Here you will find Pope Benedict

With Thanksgiving approaching we might ask: Where does gratitude fit in the spiritual life?