I have found myself marveling this week at the small parade of gay-outings among U S politicians Like previous media outings of closeted politicians these expose men who have often built their reputations and careers on their passion for family values and their antipathy to anything that smacks o

Cardinal Christoph Sch ouml nborn conservative Archbishop of Vienna and an ordinary to Austria s Eastern Rite Catholics said this question should be considered as part of an ldquo unflinching examination rdquo of the possible causes of the scandal From The Times These included ldquo the iss

Expressing our desires brings us into a closer relationship with God Otherwise it would be like never telling a friend your innermost thoughts Your friend would remain distant When we tell God our desires our relationship to God deepens Desire is a primary way that God leads people to discove

Archbishop Charles nbsp Chaput of Denver has weighed in on the decision of the Catholic elementary school in Boulder part of nbsp the Denver archdiocese nbsp that has refused readmission to the child of a lesbian couple and about which we blogged here nbsp This was posted on the archdiocesan we

Good deeds at Loyola High in Los Angeles nbsp Woulda been nice if they mentioned the motivation for all those good deeds--gee let s see maybe it has something to do with the fact that the school has a beautiful chapel that the students seem to be gee praying that one guy has a photo of

Next week is the annual Los Angeles Religious Education Congress a giant Catholic cruise-ship of an event with typically upwards of 40 000 people from a broad array of pastoral work spending several days together in Anaheim for conversation inspiration and a hope for a holy break from the routin

Ben Smith rsquo s blog over at Politico com is a must-read on any day but today it is a stop-what-you-are-doing go-read-it-right-now read He looks at the growing suspicion among conservative evangelical voters of the libertarian impulses of the tea party movement The immediate worry is that the

Does the Apostle Paul help us understand what rsquo s going on in Denver You might ask what rsquo s going on in Denver Two children preschoolers whose parents are lesbians are not going to be able to continue their education in the Catholic school at Sacred Heart of Jesus parish The reasons o

It s nbsp not surprising that given all the problems with organized religion many people would say ldquo I rsquo m not religious rdquo They say ldquo I rsquo m serious about living a moral life maybe even one that centers on God but I rsquo m my own person rdquo ldquo Spiritual rdquo o

My colleague and friend Austen Ivereigh has an important post below about the sexual abuse crisis and the way Pope Benedict XVI is now involved in addressing it The situation in Germany itself and in Regensberg particularly has raised the possibility that some enterprising journalist will be sear

Tom Heneghan at Reuters has an excellent analysis piece on the developing central European abuse crisis The more the scandal of Catholic priests sexually abusing boys in Germany spreads the more the focus turns to Rome to see how Pope Benedict reacts The story is getting ever closer to the German

On last weekend rsquo s NPR quiz show Wait Wait Don rsquo t Tell Me host Peter Sagal recalled the resignation of then-Governor Elliott Spitzer who got caught up in a high-end prostitution ring Sagal commented Who know that would be the high water mark for moral conduct among New York politic

It is extremely unusual for the Vatican to make a statement on the clerical sex abuse crisis The one read out by the Pope s spokesman Federico Lombardi on Vatican Radio yesterday is a sign that Rome feels it can no longer resist the accusation that it is maintaining a wall of silence on the issue

European Catholics who may have hoped sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholic clergy was mostly a North American problem may be waking up to the widespread reality of this crisis A sudden eruption of stories of abuse emerging from Ireland Germany Austria and the Netherlands must be reverberating unp

Our friends at Salt amp Light have posted an nbsp unofficial transcription of an address by William Cardinal Levada prefect of the CDF nbsp on Anglicanorum coetibus the Vatican nbsp document on nbsp the reception into the church of nbsp members of the Anglican communion nbsp Cardinal Levada

At Fordham I have the challenge and distinct joy of working with many different kinds of theology students from undergraduate to master s to doctoral students often in the space of a single day This term I teach an undergraduate course that is an introduction to practical theology We are a sma

One of my favorite terms in publishing is the ldquo pub date rdquo which refers not to the night when you go out for a beer with pals at your local haunt but the publication date of a book nbsp Anyway for the last four years I rsquo ve been working on a book called at various times The Jesu

Two recent addresses help to clarify Pope Benedict XVI s personal ordinariate scheme for groups of Anglicans wishing to enter into communion with Rome nbsp Speaking in Canada the president of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith CDF Cardinal William Levada said groups of Anglicans e

If you think you are tired of reading blog posts about health care reform think about the 30 million Americans who lack access to adequate health care because they do not have insurance If you wish the issue would just go away or you are worried that further government intrusion might muck up our