Kevin Clarke

It was probably too much to hope that our family squabble over the health care reform package nbsp could have been conducted without generating too much acrimony But the current divergence of thinking on health care reform though it may appear little more than a ball of confusion to many lay Catho

I have found myself marveling this week at the small parade of gay-outings among U S politicians Like previous media outings of closeted politicians these expose men who have often built their reputations and careers on their passion for family values and their antipathy to anything that smacks o

European Catholics who may have hoped sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholic clergy was mostly a North American problem may be waking up to the widespread reality of this crisis A sudden eruption of stories of abuse emerging from Ireland Germany Austria and the Netherlands must be reverberating unp

The jaw-dropping revelations of the appalling double life of Mexico s Marcial Maciel just keep coming James Ellroy wouldn t write such stuff and expect anyone to buy it Two years after his death the execrable life and times of the founder of the powerful Catholic religious order the Legion of Chr

Former Boomtown Rat Sir Bob Geldof don t like Wednesday s report from the BBC alleging that essentially all of the money raised during 1985 s Live Aid Band Aid rock extravaganzas mdash including the big cash generated by best-selling tunes Do they know it s Christmas We are the world associa

The bishop s teaching on the medical use of feeding tubes for nutrition and hydration was revised last November to mandate ldquo an obligation to provide patients with food and water including medically assisted nutrition and hydration for those who cannot take food orally rdquo that nbsp extend

Two reports from Britain s Independent Catholic News and Fides indicate how difficult even dangerous it has become to be a Christian in the Middle East and why the pope s call for reciprocity remains so important The first story relates the increasingly precarious position of Christians in Iraq w

The Vatican is hardly a site where intrigue is unknown but a recent effort to discredit Archbishop Rino Fisichella nbsp has managed to raise some eyebrows A letter has been circulated among various media outlets calling for Fisichella s removal Signed by five members of the Pontifical Academy for

Took some last minute shuffling of flights owing to Washington winter storm wipeout and more is on its way but I have arrived at the annual Catholic Social Ministry Gathering The event brings together diocesan and parish-based directors and supporters of social justice and peace offices for some