The movement for natural burial is growing and is slowly becoming more mainstream in the United States, but the practice is as old and widespread as our species.
Death and Dying
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Two scholars on Covid, mortality and the meaning of friendship
While a new book of letters between Jack Miles and Mark C. Taylor uses the early months of the pandemic as the background and occasion for their letters, the friendship they display is vastly more interesting.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
California legalizes human composting bill against Catholic bishops’ opposition
California is now among the U.S. states that have legalized the process of converting bodies into soil, a procedure the Catholic Church said fails to show ‘respect for the body of the deceased.’
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
When my mom could remember almost nothing else, the Psalms gave her peace in her last days
The moment I said “The Lord is my shepherd,” my mother calmed down and laid there in quiet contemplation.
Posted inFaith, Speeches
Pope Francis: Visit the elderly—together and often
In his general audience, Pope Francis implored Catholics to take care of the elderly as a community of faith.
Posted inFaith, Speeches
Pope Francis: Don’t use makeup to hide your wrinkles
In his general audience, Pope Francis highlighted how old age ironically helps us to fulfill Jesus’ commandment to be “born again.”
Posted inExplainer, Faith
People don’t become angels when they die. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t watching over us.
Is it in keeping with our faith to believe it is possible that those who have died may be able to help us? Absolutely.
Posted inFaith, Speeches
Pope Francis: Do not ‘cancel’ the elderly from your life
“Do not hide old age, do not hide the fragility of old age,” Pope Francis said in his Wednesday audience. “This is a teaching for all of us.”
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
Heaven, hell and a baptism in the NICU
I did not expect that the first time I administered the sacrament of baptism would be at 2 a.m. in a hospital. And I could not have guessed it to have happened at the intersection of my vocations as both a Jesuit and a nurse.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
We don’t need to ask God for signs—they’re already all around us
God is in all things. But in moments of pain and tragedy, we want that extra wink, that hand of comfort.