Catholic approaches to end-of-life care

The contemporary American approach to end-of-life care is captured in an essay by Atul Gawande, M.D., in The New Yorker (8/2/10) entitled: “Letting Go! What Should Medicine Do When It Can’t Save Your Life?” Dr. Gawande, a surgeon at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital

by John J. Paris

Of Many Things

Letters

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The Missing HalfMention of the ordination of women to the priesthood was conspicuously absent from the letters that were chosen to deliver to the pope, or at least the topic was not mentioned in “Dear Pope Francis,” by Elizabeth Groppe (9/14). I am certain Pope Francis is not so foolish

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Dealing with the aftermath of suicide

‘I try so hard to hold onto pleasant images of Tim, but all I can see is him hanging there in the garage.” So said my sister a few months after our older brother died of suicide. That was one comforting linguistic suggestion, that he “died of suicide,” not that he “comm

by Richard G. Malloy

Faith in Focus

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We will live on a paved street or a roughAlley left between walls, almost forgotten,Or on the bank of a dry river bedWith rose petals running over jagged stone,Or we will live, naked as bees, in a patchworkForest stitched with water drawn from the sky’s groin.Sooner or later we will find ourse

by Daniel J. O'Connell

The Word

Gospel: Wisdom is not the product of the wittiest tweet

An elected county clerk in Rowan County Ky Kim Davis was jailed for refusing to grant marriage licenses She is required by law to offer marriage licenses to same-sex couples which she refused to do since it affronts her understanding of the nature of marriage as a Christian The situation has

by John W. Martens

Current Comment

Current Comment

Bombings in Yemen, which have become random and daily, have devastated a country that is among the poorest in the world.

by The Editors

Faith

Dealing with the aftermath of suicide

‘I try so hard to hold onto pleasant images of Tim, but all I can see is him hanging there in the garage.” So said my sister a few months after our older brother died of suicide. That was one comforting linguistic suggestion, that he “died of suicide,” not that he “comm

by Richard G. Malloy

Of Other Things

Signs Of the Times

In Cuba, Pope Urges Young to Be Signs of Hope

Minutes after arriving in Cuba on Sept. 19, Pope Francis hailed “the process of normalizing relations between the two peoples of Cuba and the United States” after more than 50 years of estrangement as “a sign of the victory of the culture of encounter and dialogue” that

by Gerard O’Connell

The U.S. Church Gets an App

The leadership of the Catholic Church in the United States has introduced its first mobile application, called “USA Catholic Church.” Designed to draw Catholics closer to their faith by providing access to church information on all screens and devices, this is the only app that brings to

by From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources

October Is Respect Life Month

People discover their worth when they discover their true identity as created in God’s image and called to an eternal destiny with him, said Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, O.F.M.Cap., archbishop of Boston and chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholi

by From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources

Central America: worth the investment

President Obama wants to earmark a billion dollars to aid Central America—specifically, the isthmus’s “northern triangle” of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.The U.S. military’s Miami-based Southern Command has labeled the northern triangle the “deadliest zone

by Tim Padgett

News Briefs

Pope Francis named Brother Guy Consolmagno, a Jesuit from the United States, to be the new director of the Vatican Observatory on Sept. 18. • The Archdiocese of Cincinnati is one of the latest U.S. dioceses to heed the call of Pope Francis, announcing that annulment fees would be eliminated eff

by From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources

Synod on the Family

A Synod of Solutions?

Some 250 bishops from all over the world will gather in synod in the Vatican from Oct. 4 to 25 for what many consider to be the most important assembly of this kind since the Second Vatican Council. They gather exactly 50 years after that council to focus on the family and, in the words…

by Gerard O’Connell

The Living Word

The Passion’s vocabulary of consolation

There are certain things we know deeply, risk our lives upon, but can never adequately explain to ourselves or others. This is particularly true of the death of Jesus and how that death washes us clean of sin, opens the gates of heaven for us and teaches how to give our own deaths away as…

by Ronald Rolheiser, O.M.I.

Washington Front

Faith on the Stump

I have been searching in vain for an earlier column of mine in which I predicted that Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders would surge, Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush would be in trouble and Ben Carson would show unexpected strength in the race for the White House.The way faith is playing out in the campai

by John Carr

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