I know adults tell children not to take candy from strangers. But I decided to amend the rule: Never take candy from strangers unless that “stranger” is the pope!
Faith in Focus
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I’m a Gen-Z Catholic. Pope Francis changed my despair about the world into hope
For many Catholics older than me, Francis represented a cultural shift from previous pontificates. As a Gen-Z Catholic, Francis is the only pope I’ve known.
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Pope Francis changed my life—and the lives of countless L.G.B.T.Q. people
All of Pope Francis’ gestures, meetings and desires for encounter were themselves a form of “teaching.” And L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics and their families have told me repeatedly what a difference this change in approach has meant.
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I’m Catholic, and my wife is Protestant. Here’s what I’ve learned from my ecumenical marriage.
My Catholic identity and my wife’s Protestant identity continue to endure, and our faith has developed together in greater harmony, knowing that our love for each other was ultimately grounded in our love for God.
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What performing in a silent Stations of the Cross play taught me about slowing down
Lent, as a season of penance and preparation, served as the perfect time to push myself out of my spiritual and physical comfort zone––both for my own sake and for those coming to the performance.
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I went to the Met to look at Caspar David Friedrich’s landscapes. I didn’t expect to find my old Jesuit friend.
It was Drew Christiansen, S.J., even more than Thoreau or Aquinas, whom I was surprised to encounter amid the German landscapes on the Upper East Side.
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A young comedian’s complicated relationship with Catholicism
And the Easter Mass that moved her
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Watching ‘The Chosen’ in prison
It is a profound thing, when society has labeled you a criminal and a felon, to think that at the center of the world’s most populous faith tradition is a man whom those in power at the time condemned as a criminal.
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At age 95, I’m trying a softer approach to Lent
I’m hoping that a softer approach to these 40 days will help prepare me for the more difficult ones I know are coming.
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Why Pope Francis means so much to non-Catholics
The thought of losing Pope Francis one day is a hard one for me to grapple with; I know my reasons why. What surprised me was how many of my non-Catholic friends, even those whose feelings toward the church are decisively negative, also expressed their care and concern.