A little about the Vatican 39 s surprising plan to poll Catholics about important issues in preparation for the Synod of Bishops next October just reported in NCR nbsp First off this is indeed new While in the past bishops were encouraged to promote discussion in their dioceses in preparation f

ldquo Everybody does it rdquo is never a strong argument whether the statement applies to evading taxes cheating on school exams stealing office supplies or eavesdropping on neighbors For one thing it rsquo s untrue Everybody does not do it For another it rsquo s irrelevant But that is the

The vocation of the Catholic brother is often misunderstood Frequently they are asked even by members of their own religious order quot Why don 39 t you get ordained quot It is often an insensitive question You might as well ask a married man why he didn rsquo t join a religious order nbsp

This past week the new U S envoy to the Vatican Ken Hackett noted that the similarities are greater than the differences between the objectives of the Holy See and of the Obama administration The retiring Archbishop of Winnipeg Most Rev James Weisgerber is calling for a greater focus on justi

As America rsquo s Washington Correspondent I rsquo m supposed to report and comment on what rsquo s going on in Washington The two dominant stories are the continuing failures of the ldquo Obamacare rdquo web site and U S spying on our allies including the private conversations of heads of sta

The setting was informal Ismael Moreno Coto S J known as ldquo Padre Melo rdquo wore shorts and sandals and sat on a couch in the living room of his Jesuit community Surrounded by friends coworkers and visitors from two U S delegations he spoke into his laptop computer Yet the impact was