James Martin, S.J.

A unusually good and unusually fresh meditation on Pope Benedict s visit to Ground Zero and the pope s visit with the sexual abuse victims which uses the imagery of St Peter–who is told by Jesus that the leader of the church will be taken where you do not want to go It s at Pajamas

The Papal Mass at Yankee Stadium yesterday was one of the high points of my Catholic life Not simply for being able to be close to Pope Benedict XVI a man with whom I from time to time disagree and being able to see the Successor of St Peter but also for being able to celebrate being Cath

Today Pope Benedict met with five or six victims of sexual abuse from the Boston area The emotional meeting took place in the office of the Vatican nuncio to the U S in Washington D C For many Catholics this represents a significant step forward in the healing of the church It is not

Thank goodness for Youtube among other graces in the papal visit so that we can hear President George W Bush utter what are sure to be oft-quoted words addressed to the Vicar of Christ Thank you Your Holiness Awesome speech The response of the Successor to St Peter is not audible Ja

Here s my take over at A Papal Discussion on the pope s landmark speech to the U S Bishops on a variety of topics including the abuse crisis Benedict and the bishops See if you agree James Martin SJ

Pope Benedict decided to end speculation about whether he will discuss the abuse crisis even before he lands Aboard the plane en route to Washington D C he said this according to the Associated Press It is a great suffering for the Church in the United States and for the church in general

Here s Associate Editor Matt Malone SJ on NPR today along with a seminarian from St Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia Pa on All Things Considered considering the shortage of priestly vocations and why a person would choose to enter a seminary or religious life Besides bein

Equal time for Senator McCain After a plea to our readers to provide In All Things with a list of the Republican Senator s Catholic Advisors a kindly soul pointed us to this link McCain s Catholics We would list all the personages as we did below with Senator Obama but Mr McCain

Here s the first post from yours truly on the New York Times s special blog A Papal Discussion Be sure to check out the very first comment which shows that while dissent is frowned upon within the church in the blogosphere anything goes Great Expectations In addition to Laur

In the Star-Ledger today David Gibson religion journalist and author of The Rule of Benedict has a well-researched piece on the increasing regularity with which Benedict has been sporting far more traditional vesture Gibson on Benedict Keith Pecklers S J looked at the same phenomenon–m