Pope Benedict s message for today s World Day of Peace text here is a powerful and succint argument for religious freedom as the foundation of all other human rights and freedoms It s not an academic matter Mounting violence against Christians in the Middle East -- the Pope begins with the massa

In the midst of this blog s focus on Advent properly I might say and the liturgical year in general which is the focus of the Catholic Church s activities the year round an interesting challenge of sorts comes from the blog nbsp Inhabitatio Dei in the post The Impotence of the Liturgical Year

Hymn to Matter” may be one of the oddest-seeming prayers ever penned by a priest. Christians pray to God, to the saints, to the angels perhaps, and sometimes to deceased loved ones. But a hymn to matter? To atoms and rocks, gases and plasma, minerals and stardust? It sounds like idolatry, and

Further evidence that Benedict XVI s comments on condoms were deliberate clear premeditated and designed to correct misrepresentations of church teaching appears today in an Our Sunday Visitor interview with Fr Martin Rhonheimer the moral philosopher close to the Pope s inner circle whose 2004 ar

In a divided church, the work of the Catholic Common Ground Initiative remains as important as ever.

Austen Ivereigh discussed this a few days ago but I suspect the import of it is getting a little lost in the media kerfluffle over the church s shocking about face on condoms My apologies to those who argue this is not new but seriously you ve got to be kidding at least insofar as how church

As a journalist and commentator I have been followed the arguments over the morality of condoms in the context of Aids for some years nbsp Pope Benedict s remarks in Light of the World finally clarify this question ending the silence from Rome The point argued by moral theologians was always th

I have started my reading of Verbum Domini the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation of Benedict XVI on the ldquo Word of God in the life and mission of the Church rdquo At this point I have skimmed through most of the document and have read through about 30-40 pages carefully As a result my com