The Good Word

The readings for the Fifth Sunday of Easter wake us up once again to the perennial truth and current application of Scripture nbsp Acts 14 21-27 takes place just after Paul and Barnabas had left Lystra and Derbe if ldquo left rdquo is the proper description of how Paul was escorted out of Ly

There is an important article by Joseph Bottum at The Weekly Standard com on the recent ldquo odd hysteria rdquo that is the media rsquo s response and role in the recent and revived claims regarding sexual abuse by priests and cover-ups of this abuse by some in the Church rsquo s leadership Th

Last week I posted excerpts of Father Robert Beloin s homily on the sexual abuse crisis in hopes that the resources of Scripture could be a fruitful resource for reflecting on the church s problems today This week we offer another homily for your reflection this one from Father Michael Ryan of th

3 How do we allow the Church to meet the standards that Jesus set for it in the treatment and reception of children All I can do as an individual Catholic is propose ideas imperfect though they may be for change that will serve the most vulnerable amongst us as Jesus intended I should be clear

2 We need to return to the source The mission of the Church was outlined by Jesus and we must listen to Jesus with renewed care The elements of the Church rsquo s mission with which I am concerned are a Jesus rsquo teachings on how his disciples should utilize power and authority b the partic

Some of you may be aware of the Talking Heads song ldquo Once In A Lifetime rdquo in which David Byrne sings the refrain ldquo same as it ever was same as it ever was same as it ever was rdquo over and over nbsp I sometimes get the sense that many members of the Church clerics and laity

When we launched The Good Word a few years ago we hoped it would be a place to meditate on events in the news in light of Scripture For Catholics the news these days focuses largely on the church itself so it seems fitting to take up the issue of the sexual abuse crisis on this blog as John W

Acts of the Apostles is our only canonical version of the early growth of the Jesus-believing community cf the Gospels where we have four accounts and so it is immensely formative in the tradition of what we assume happened That we count on the reliability of these events does not preclude our

There is a ldquo seam rdquo in the first reading Acts of the Apostles 5 12-16 for the Second Sunday of Easter nbsp 12 Now many signs and wonders were done among the people through the apostles And they were all together in Solomon s Portico 13 None of the rest dared to join them but the peo

Over the past two days the story of the healing at the Beautiful Gate of a man ldquo lame from birth rdquo has been read Acts 3 1-26 Peter and John encounter him at this Temple gate where he asks for alms Peter responds that he has no silver or gold but that he can offer something much bette