When his plane lands at Borispol international airport outside Kiev on the afternoon of June 23, Pope John Paul II will begin what will arguably be the most controversial foreign visit he has undertaken during his 23-year reign. His destination will be Ukraine, a country whose government, after 10 y

Urgent calls are going out once again for massive food and other humanitarian aid to Sudan. Yet a group of Catholic missionaries working in the “liberated areas” of South Sudan refuse to accept famine, human suffering and dependence on international charity as the permanent lot of Sudane

Awake now! So goes my two-year-old’s announcement every morning around 6. She wakes up, crawls out of bed, walks down the hall into our room and, putting her face as close to mine as she possibly can, declares the entire truth as she sees it at that moment. It is a microcosm of her every actio

Two of the most troubling aspects of American society today are the high rate of divorce and the fact that divorce in one generation increases the likelihood of divorce in the next. Current divorce statistics indicate that most divorces occur for couples married less than five years and that the pro

This is not the first book on the liturgy from Joseph Ratzinger a German Catholic theologian cardinal prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and former archbishop of Munich He has also written A New Song for the Lord as well as an important introduction to Klaus Gamber

Saint Benevolens parish just got the dreaded word. As of next June, St. Ben’s will cease to be a parish. To appreciate this situation, there are some things you should know. St. Ben’s parishionersit’s a real placehave had three pastors in the past four years. They have survived a s

Pope Clears Way for Beatification of 27 Ukrainian MartyrsJust seven weeks after the local study of 27 Ukrainian martyrs ended, Pope John Paul II cleared the way for their beatification during his trip to their homeland on June 23-27. The Vatican published the decrees recognizing the martyrdom of the

Back in December of 1994, when John Salvi opened fire at two abortion clinics in the Boston area, killing two and wounding five others, both Gov. William F. Weld and Cardinal Bernard Law called for talks between the two sides of the abortion debate in order to deescalate the rhetoric. But given the

Like little green shoots, small church communities are emerging all over the Catholic parish landscape. They are one of the more promising pastoral initiatives at work in U.S. parishes today. In an individualistic and consumerist culture, whose spirit in some respects infects the very way we do pari

The first ratings of clerical performance by the laity occurred almost a half century ago in a study by Catholic Digest, which was in fact the first sample survey ever of American religion. At that time 40 percent of Americans, whether Protestant or Catholic, rated their clergy as “excellent&r