Friends and colleagues remembered Richard Gaillardetz, who died on Tuesday, as a perceptive theologian, mining in his talks, articles and books the ecclesiology of Vatican II and Pope Francis’ vision for the church. They also noted the powerful witness of his reflections on his final months of life.
Death and Dying
Posted inArts & Culture, Television
Matthew Perry: a friend who gave even as he suffered
What do you do when literally the entire world loves you, but not you?
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Movie Club
Catholic Movie Club: ‘Coco’ builds a bridge between the living and the dead
In “Coco,” memory doesn’t just summon up phantoms from the past, it reunites us with those we’ve lost.
Posted inFaith, Faith and Reason
Memories can be the way we show the dead our love on All Souls’ Day
Many Catholics today fail to appreciate the meaning and moral value of remembrance on All Souls’ Day—though praying for the dead was central to early Christian practice.
Posted inFaith, Short Take
Tim Wakefield’s death reminds us how (not) to accompany the dying
The baseball world recently mourned the loss of former Red Sox ace Tim Wakefield, but news of his grave illness was shared in an inherently anti-Christian way.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Movie Club
Catholic Movie Club: ‘Wit’ is a film that stares death squarely in the eyes
In ‘Wit,‘ Dr. Vivian Bearing uses her formidable intellect as a shield against her existential terror.
Posted inFaith, Faith and Reason
A crisis in Canada: Medical assistance in dying is not what our most vulnerable people need.
The legalization of euthanasia in Canada—so-called medical assistance in dying, or MAID—challenges our common values and shakes the very foundations of our living together.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Catholic leaders offer prayers, express outrage after 46 die in Honduras women’s prison massacre
Catholics in Honduras prayed for the victims of a horrific massacre in a women’s prison—an attack underscoring the power of the country’s criminal gangs and their control over correctional facilities.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
My children think tech will let them live forever. Our faith tells us why we shouldn’t try.
Birth and death bookend our temporal experience, but we are called to fill everything between them with love and mercy and decency, not cling to fantasies of a fraudulent eternity.
Posted inFaith, Features
Bishop Dolan: How losing family to suicide led me to start a mental health ministry
I am a bishop, but before anything else, I am a human being who understands the severe toll of mental illness, especially when it is left untreated.