In his general audience, Pope Francis highlighted how old age ironically helps us to fulfill Jesus’ commandment to be “born again.”
Death and Dying
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.
Posted inFaith, Speeches
Pope Francis: The best gift of old age is spiritual sensitivity
Even though old age can weaken the body, Pope Francis said, it can also sharpen a person’s connection to God.
Posted inFaith, Speeches
James Martin, S.J.: Four lessons from my Jesuit ministry of walking with the excluded
James Martin, S.J., shares the lessons he learned as a young Jesuit about accompaniment.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Young Afghan mother and Catholic Charities volunteer killed by oncoming truck
A retired nurse who felt called to help Afghan refugees and the young Afghan mother she embraced as a mentor were killed in a truck accident while out taking a walk Feb. 15.
Posted inFaith, Speeches
Pope Francis: A good death must be welcomed, not administered
“Life is a right, not death, which must be welcomed, not administered,” Pope Francis said during his weekly audience. “And this ethical principle applies to, concerns everyone, not just Christians or believers.”
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: How the Catholic Church did—and didn’t—respond to the AIDS crisis
In his book “Hidden Mercy: AIDS, Catholics, and the Untold Stories of Compassion in the Face of Fear,” Michael O’Loughlin has named some of the hidden glories of the Catholic Church’s responses to H.I.V./AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s in the United States.