The Church of England s Parliament known as the General Synod meets this week beginning today with an announcement on women bishops which is certain to have an impact on the numbers of Anglican traditionalists choosing to take up the Pope s ordinariate offer Synod voted two years ago to move tow

You must sing the title as in Fiddler on the Roof Go back and try it if you did not this blog post will improve greatly with the sound of the song ringing in your ears Paul s beautiful demonstration of the reality of Christ rsquo s resurrection is based on the tradition of the early Church of w

Francis Cardinal George archbishop of Chicago and president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops nbsp has denounced nbsp New Ways Ministry a national nbsp organization based in Mt Rainier Maryland which reaches out to gay and lesbian Catholics nbsp runs nbsp conferences on issues concerni

Cambridge MA We just finished the second week of the semester at Harvard and things are settling down I am team-teaching a first year Master of Divinity course ldquo Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion rdquo which raises some interesting questions about whether and where academic s

The lesser of two evils is nbsp an important concept nbsp from the Catholic moral tradition that is being applied in a new way in the diocese of Albany as RNS s Daniel Burke reports in this story of its needle-exchange program nbsp In the past few decades nbsp a few theologians nbsp have argue

On Feb 2 Pope Benedict XVI nbsp in his nbsp homily marking this year s nbsp World Day for Consecrated Life nbsp praised the commitment of men and women in religious orders nbsp nbsp Each one of you said the Holy Father referring to men and women religious has approached nbsp Christ as

It s nice to be reminded that the U S church has a position on peace we re all for it BTW and that the U S and Russia still have much unfinished business related to the end of the Cold War and the final status of our absurd nuclear weapons stockpiles Here s one time-ordinary of the U S Archdi

A well-briefed media-trained speakers bureau of Catholics is being set up in the UK in advance of Benedicts XVI s visit in September Declaration of interest I m one of those behind it Catholic Voices is a project of the Catholic Union a venerable institution created in the late nineteenth cent

Bipartisanship has a better name than it should As often as not it yields an anodyne moderation that is unequal to the tasks facing the nation Last year President Obama scaled back the stimulus bill in hopes of attracting GOP support he got none when we now realize the stimulus needed to be l

Gaza might not be the only thing under siege in the Middle East Israeli democracy has taken a fair number of hits recently A Zionist student organization Im Tirtzu partly bankrolled by the Christian Dispensationalist-Zionist and non-pal to Catholics John Hagee has issued an inflammatory repor

Every year a good friend calls me one morning in early February to quiz me on the Oscar nominees nbsp The game is that I m not supposed to listen to any news broadcasts or read any papers or now surf the web nbsp nbsp Some years I m batting 1000 or at least 900 other years not so much nbsp

A nbsp contact at the White House sent us these remarks and since I m not sure if they are on the web yet I ll post them in full nbsp Heads of state cabinet members Members of Congress religious leaders distinguished guests ndash it rsquo s good to see you Let me begin by acknowledging th

We have just posted a more detailed explanation of our comments policy If you have any questions about it please feel free to contact me America welcomes thoughtful respectful and well-reasoned comments from all of our readers Our aim is to promote a civil and charitable discourse about topics

This morning is the National Prayer Breakfast It is a gaudy affair held in a ballroom not in a sanctuary at which politicians are invited to strut their spiritual feathers It permits reporters to write articles like the one in this morning rsquo s paper entitled Obama rsquo s spiritual life lar

A transcript of Archbishop Rowan Williams remarks upon accepting the 2009 Campion Award last week are now available online You can also listen to a recording of the event which is well worth it if you have 10 minutes The archbishop s charm and intelligence are well evident Tim Reidy nbsp nbsp

The American Principles Project APP founded by conservative Catholic professor Robbie George seems to have an inordinate fixation on gay people In dealing with presidential appointments and now with the President rsquo s promise to end Don rsquo t Ask Don rsquo t Tell Professor George rsq

The UK media outcry over Pope Benedict s remarks Monday to the English and Welsh bishops caught me by surprise Anger as Pope slams UK equality law is the Press Association headline which could stand for all the others nbsp The Pope told the English and Welsh bishops in Rome Your country is we

Charles M Whelan S J the longest serving editor in America s history died this morning at the age of 83 In the coming days you will surely hear more from my colleagues about the man they worked with for so many years Here Fr Whelan who also taught at Fordham Law School remembers the first

As a young child I loved Catholic Schools Week this year Jan 31-Feb 6 During my elementary-school years my school s celebration often included activities such as coloring a poster or bookmark with the Catholic Schools Week logo attending a school-wide Mass or eating a free ice cream sundae

Last year I wrote a blog piece entitled A Call for Charity asking why the Vatican opposed a United Nations resolution condemning the criminalization of homosexuality and the beatings and killings of gay men and women across the globe It made no sense I wrote for the church to take this position