Conservatives to Meet With Bishops on Sex Abuse CrisisSeveral leading U.S. bishops are expected to attend a discussion forum with self-styled conservative Catholic voices on the clergy sexual abuse crisis on Sept. 8 in Washington, D.C. We should be talking about the 25-year legacy of our pope and ho

Recent ethical and legal scandals in the American church pose a perplexing question. How could intelligent and generally good persons have been sucked into such a mess? The same question arose when the recent business scandals were studied. What has been learned from analyzing business scandals can

Seventy years ago a fateful meeting occurred in Rome. The Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (the future Pope Pius XII), and Germany’s vice chancellor, Franz von Papen, formally signed a concordat between the Holy See and the German Reich on July 20, 1933.

Vatican Says Same-Sex Unions Are Harmful to Society’Amid increasing worldwide initiatives to grant legal recognition to same-sex unions, the Vatican called on lawmakers to offer clear and emphatic opposition to such measures, which it said were contrary to human nature and ultimately harmful t

What is truth? John the Evangelist attributes this question to Pilate in his examination of Jesus. Pilate was expressing his frustration over the unpleasant reality that the man before him was probably innocent of the charge of treason to the Roman state, but that it would nevertheless be necessary,

Generations of college freshmen have puzzled over the ancient notion of the “noble lie.” “If anyone at all is to have the privilege of lying,” Socrates suggests in Plato’s Republic, “the rulers of the state should be the persons; and they, in their dealings either

In Rome and Jerusalem, proposals have been made to divide the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and to establish alongside it a church jurisdiction for Hebrew-speaking Catholics in Israel. This new jurisdiction would be directly dependent on Rome and independent of the local Latin (Roman Catholic) pat

Heavier burdens are in store for single mothers who currently receive Temporary Aid to Needy Families—if the administration and the House of Representatives have their way in the re-authorization of the 1996 welfare reform law. The re-authorization was to have taken place before last Oct. 1, b

Vatican: Collapse of Regime Offers Opportunity for IraqAs Baghdad and other Iraqi cities fell to U.S.-led forces, the Vatican said the collapse of President Saddam Hussein’s regime was an opportunity for the Iraqi people and offered to help in the massive humanitarian task that lies ahead. At

Medicare, the health insurance program for Americans over 65, is getting much attention these days, because of the president’s much-contested plan to provide prescription benefits for low-income seniors. Medicaid, on the other hand, which is supposed to provide medical care for poor people of