When you first see the full 46-question survey from Rome you can rsquo t help but wonder whether the leaders of the church actually want to hear from anyone And I mean anyone mdash people in the pews professional church folk clergy religious even other bishops Because as we talked about yest
Jim McDermott
Jim McDermott writes about pop culture at jimmcdermott.substack.
Posted inDispatches
The Surveys for the Synod on the Bishops, Part II: Taylor Swift Saves My Sanity
Last Friday I wrote an overview about the surveys that all the dioceses of the world are doing right now in preparation for next October rsquo s Synod on the Family For perhaps the first time ever a pope has invited the entirety of the faithful to be an essential part of the church rsquo s discern
Posted inDispatches
The Surveys for the Synod on the Bishops, Pt 1: Initial Observations
Earlier this week the National Catholic Reporter did a story on the surveys being conducted by all the dioceses of the United States in prepartion for October rsquo s Synod on the Family Again this is all part of the two year consultation process that Pope Francis began over a year ago to discuss
Posted inSigns Of the Times
A Controversial Canonization
What should disqualify someone from being a saint?That might seem a funny question. How about sin? But over the course of the last month, people in California and elsewhere have been asking it a lot. In January, Pope Francis announced that in September he will canonize Junípero Serra, the 18th-cent
Posted inDispatches
No More Waffles: Goodbye To “Parks & Rec”
You kind of had to be there. And thanks to Netflix, you still can be.
Posted inDispatches
Cardinal Luis Héctor Villalba; Tucumán, Argentina
When Pope Francis first started out as an auxiliary bishop in Buenos Aires in 1992 he was assigned as vicar to the Flores district which was in fact the part of town in which he had grown up And he would later relate that the work there was easy because he just had to keep doing what the previous
Posted inDispatches
Cardinal Karl-Josef Rauber
In 1990 when nbsp Cardinal Karl-Josef Rauber now 80 became the President of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy mdash the Vatican rsquo s training school for diplomats mdash he made a point of making sure that his students took weekend parish calls ldquo You cannot just be a bureaucrat or yo
Posted inDispatches
Everything You Never Wanted to Know About the Oscars (or Why There is No Love in the World for Harrison Ford)
Who gets to be in the Academy of Motion Pictures and Arts There are 19 branches to the Academy — 17 for specific fields like Acting Directing Set Design and two ndash Members-at-Large and associates — for people who don rsquo t fit in the other categoriesTo get into the Academy you have to b
Posted inDispatches
‘Live in the Presence of This Good God,’ Cardinal Júlio Duarte Langa; Maputo, Mozambique
Years after he had been appointed Bishop of Xai-Xai in Mozambique now Cardinal J lio Duarte Langa 87 was asked how he had reacted to the announcement He explained ldquo Well I think the Holy Father at the time was looking for someone better and not finding anyone exceptional he just settled f
Posted inDispatches
‘Feel the Consolation and the Love of God,’ Cardinal Luigi De Magistris; Cagliari, Italy
Most of what Cardinal Luigi De Magistris 88 spent his life doing you rsquo ll never hear about Not because it wasn rsquo t important but because it was Born into a well-known family in Cagliari the capital city of the island of Sardinia off the west coast of Italy Cardinal de Magistris spent m