Somewhat unnoticed this past week in the U S media was the passing of Edward Schillebeeckx O P 1914-2009 a Dominican priest who advised the Dutch bishops at Vatican II and became a major figure in the Church s efforts to implement the reforms of that Council in the decades that followed H

Here s an article I wrote for Slate com for Christmas Eve this year You may have more in common with the Mother of God than you think If nbsp card manufacturers still think of Mary as a fair-skinned beauty queen many Christians especially Catholics don t even think of her as human Mary exist

No that is not a fake headline nbsp Here s the story from the Associated Press in which the official Vatican newspaper praises Homer Marge Bart Lisa Little Maggie et al on the occasion of the show s 20th anniversary nbsp nbsp NB the praise of laughter L Osservatore Romano on Tuesday cong

As promised while the magazine nbsp moves into its biweekly schedule over the holidays i e Christmas and New Year s just so you don t think we re succumbing to creeping secularism we are offering you a surfeit of items in our online Culture section nbsp And since moviegoing is a popular pas

From the London Times The Vatican has defended its moves towards beatifying Pope Pius XII saying that they reflected the piety of the wartime pontiff and not his ldquo historical importance rdquo nbsp Pope Benedict XVI sparked anger among Jewish groups on Saturday by bestowing the title ldquo

Surprise surpise The Washington Post reports this morning that officials at AIG have failed to return the ill-got bonuses they pledged to return earlier this year That pledge came after a firestorm of protest erupted at the news that the very same individuals who drove the company into a ditch ha

Elohim is something of a generic name for god it can be used to talk about many other gods than the God of Israel Each god had his proper name in the case of Israel that name was Yahweh nbsp When Matthew comments on the child described to Joseph by the angel of the Lord he says that this chil

Cambridge MA Some of you may remember that I marked the Triduum 2009 by drawing on Paramahamsa Yogananda rsquo s The Second Coming of Christ reflecting on how he explained the meaning of Holy Thursday Good Friday and the Resurrection Take a look My point was in part that we do well to listen

As ousted President Manuel Zelaya entered his third month holed up in the Brazilian embassy in Honduras rsquo capital city Tegulcigalpa it appears unlikely that the popularly elected Honduran president deposed on June 28 will spend Christmas anywhere else but with the Brazilians Attempts to neg

As America takes a brief break from its weekly publication schedule for the Christmas holiday we offer a few online only features for our regular Web readers First we have just posted an online edition of Signs of the Times our weekly news roundup This week s edition includes stories on the Cop

A very useful summary of the dialogue which has begun between Rome and the traditionalist Society of Pius X SSPX slipped out of a homily given in Argentina on 19 December by Msgr Alfonso de Galarreta as reported by an Argentinian site called Panorama Catolico Internacional h t The Tablet s man i

Exciting news Archeologists have discovered nbsp the remains of nbsp first-century house in Nazareth from the time of Jesus s boyhood nbsp While there s no way of telling whether it s Jesus s Home as The New York Post with its typical ridiculousness reported today the find will help

Some voices on the Left are unhappy with the health care reform bill the Senate will vote on this week They are upset about the lack of a public option They are mad that Sen Joe Lieberman abandoned a position he has long held in favor of a Medicare buy-in and by doing so got that provision toss

One of the most important titles used to describe Jesus is King nbsp Given that Jesus and the people of the Gospels come from the culture of the Old Testament it is no surprise that when they wish to express their deepest hopes and desires they think of the greatest benefactor of their histor

Traditional Christian concern for foreigners on the move -- Every migrant enjoys inalienable fundamental rights which must be respected in all cases says the key Vatican document -- is heightened at Christmas when minds turn to a displaced family 2 000 years ago that was also in search of shelte

I turned from being relatively indifferent to perhaps even a skeptic about global warming into someone who takes its peril quite seriously when I first read Tim Flannery rsquo s 2001 book The Weather Makers How Man is Changing the Climate and What it Means for Life on Earth Flannery has now

Cathy Kaveny nbsp makes a good point over at Dotcommonweal Saints don rsquo t have to be perfect And in canonizing Pope Pius XII the Church really doesn rsquo t mean to endorse his approach to nbsp Nazism And in canonizing Pope John Paul II the Church really doesn rsquo t mean to endorse his h

It is difficult for anyone schooled in the Catholic Church rsquo s social justice tradition not to be moved and moved profoundly by the prospect of near universal health insurance a prospect that took a giant step towards realization early this morning when the Senate invoked cloture on the refor

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And it's starting to bug me just a little bit.