At the opening of the Year for Priests copyeditors note for not of Pope Benedict XVI has released an extended letter to priests worldwide nbsp nbsp In his exhortation the Holy Father nbsp emphasizes the themes of service devotion and piety nbsp nbsp Using the example of St Jean Vianney

Last week Dr Mary Hunt of the Women rsquo s Alliance for Theology Ethics and Ritual took issue with an earlier post of mine about Frances Kissling rsquo s attack on President Obama rsquo s selection of Alexia Kelley to an important post at the Department of Health and Human Services Kissling o

Another academic heavy hitter spoke at yesterday s afternoon session of the Faith and Reason 2009 A Dialogue at the Heart of Jesuit Education conference at Fordham University Fr Michael Himes of Boston College His courses at BC on Twilight of Belief and Golden Age of Atheism are renowned f

If we follow the time line closely in Mark s Gospel the event in Jesus lifewe hear about this Sunday rounds off an action-packed day Jesus has aserious run-in with his townsfolk his Mother and family he has taught fiveoutstanding parables explained the detail of one of them and then in theeve

This morning rsquo s Washington Post has an article on the dearth of Lutherans in Wittenberg as that city approaches the 500th anniversary of Luther rsquo s revolt The article is interesting if you wish to see what a post-Christian culture looks like But it also provides a chance for Catholics to

In today s morning session of the Faith and Reason 2009 conference at Fordham University participants were treated to a presentation by noted historian John W O rsquo Malley S J The University Professor at Georgetown University O Malley specializes in the religious culture of early modern Eur

Frederico Lombardi S J the Vatican spokesperson has called the nbsp planned nbsp upcoming priestly ordinations of members of the schismatic Society of St Pius X illegitimate nbsp The order founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefevre pictured here nbsp in the wake of his rejection with many of

Dan Gilgoff who covers and covers very well the religion beat for US News amp World Report nbsp has this news about the Obama administration gearing up to address the abortion issue head on nbsp Gilgoff nbsp says that Obama will announce his plan as early as this summer nbsp Get ready n

Same-sex marriage may be the new third rail in the culture wars Touch it at your peril Emotions understandably get worked up very quickly on all sides It is difficult to tell someone who is in a long-term committed same-sex relationship that you value their relationship differently from the wa

Tonight at Fordham University was the opening session of a conference on Faith and Reason 2009 A Dialogue at the Heart of Jesuit Education The opening speaker was someone who comes as close as academia can get to a superstar and he is apparently steroid-free philosopher Charles Taylor Spea

The usually mild-mannered Paul Baumann editor in chief of Commonweal left nbsp has taken nbsp aim at Joseph Bottum editor of First Things right writing in the Weekly Standard nbsp Don t let all that concatenation of magazine names fool you this is nbsp important stuff nbsp nbsp What s

This morning the Holy Father named Father J Augustine DiNoia O P as the new Secretary at the Congregation for Divine Worship Father DiNoia will be elevated to the dignity of an archbishop and has been assigned the titular see of Oregon City Most bishops and archbishops reside in their own dioce

Yesterday a two-member Elections Board yes two-member sometimes you can rsquo t make this stuff up ruled that the citizens of the District of Columbia have no right to vote on whether or not to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions Whatever you think of the issue of gay

Readers nbsp in the New York area who are interested in the dialogue between faith and reason will appreciate a conference happening this week at Fordham University s Rose Hill campus nbsp The conference includes 120 invited faculty and staff of the twelve East Coast Jesuit colleges and universiti

NCR has been nbsp providing in-depth coverage of the ins and outs of the Apostolic Visitation of women s religious orders which has already begun nbsp Several sisters have already told me nbsp of their congregations meeting with Mother Mary Claire Millea the superior general of the Apostles of

An event like the Iranian elections shows just how myopic American media and news agencies have become With financial conditions requiring most news agencies to abandon the extensive foreign desks they once had our ability to know what is going on let alone to make sense of it is dwindling fast

The Independent books section has a great interview with Malcolm Gladwell he of Blink and The Tipping Point fame in which Gladwell talks at length about any number of subjects including the future of newspaper journalism nbsp Gladwell s latest book Outliers The Story of Success offers clues

Statistics point to dramatic shifts in Christianity and Catholicism a shift from Europe to North and South America nbsp to especially to Africa and nbsp Asia nbsp This was very much reflected in this three day conference at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley Ca co-sponsored by nbsp S

An interesting essay in Slate Magazine discusses a lawsuit that nbsp the reclusive nbsp J D Salinger is bringing against an author attempting to publish what is essentially an unauthorized sequel to Salinger rsquo s famous 1951 novel Catcher in the Rye nbsp Some snippets from the article nbsp

The family of Steven Johns the security guard at the Holocaust museum who was killed by a fanatic anti-Semite and racist on Wednesday deserves a thorough investigation into their beloved rsquo s murder So does the family of Dr George Tiller killed by a fanatic anti-abortion activist two weeks a