As the Holy Land marked a grim first anniversary Oct. 7 of the Hamas attack on southern Israel, the papal almoner raised $35,000 in one afternoon from synod delegates and immediately sent it to Holy Family Parish in Gaza City.
Politics & Society
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Pope Francis to welcome Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy back to Vatican
Pope Francis will welcome Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy back to the Vatican Oct. 11.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
A rabbi’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks—and how the conflict has evolved since
Israel was forced into this impossible situation by those who planned and executed Oct. 7. Yet we have been confronted with denials, justifications and even glorifications of the Hamas attack.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
A nonviolent resistance movement is at work in Palestine. Activists say it’s the only way to peace.
A delegation organized by the American group Christians for Ceasefire visits Palestine and experiences a weeklong training session in nonviolent resistance.
Posted inFeatures, Politics & Society
A lesson from Punxsutawney: The United States will always be divided—and that’s O.K.
With Pennsylvania widely considered the most crucial of the seven 2024 swing states and America feeling stuck in a winter of discord haunted by the specter of political violence, I decided to report on the election from Punxsutawney.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Catholic leaders in U.S. and Holy Land reflect on an anniversary of violence
The violence has claimed the lives of thousands of innocent victims, but it also “struck a profound blow to the common feeling of belonging to the Holy Land, to the consciousness of being part of a plan of Providence.”
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
A year of anxiety and anguish for the Jewish people
One year after Oct. 7, we live amid a stunning increase in antisemitism. Never in my nearly 40 years as a rabbi have I heard so many expressions of despair from the Jewish community. Never have I come so close to it myself.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Catholic advocates deplore Biden administration’s asylum restrictions at the border
President Biden’s new restrictions on asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border have drawn criticism from Catholics who minister to immigrants and refugees.
Posted inPolitics & Society, The Weekly Dispatch
Sudan, Haiti and Myanmar suffering continues—but not on the front page
Focus on the fate of Israel, its hostages in Gaza and the people of Gaza and south Lebanon means that little attention is being paid to other continuing crises around the world—Sudan, Haiti, Myanmar among them.
Posted inDispatches, Faith
South African women feel left off the agenda at the synod—and they’re frustrated with Pope Francis.
One South African theologian described “a deep sense of disillusionment that the church, on the one hand, is saying we need to be a synodal listening church, and has yet again taken the diaconate for women off the table.”