A bill making its way through the California Legislature would make the state the first since 1999 to require priests to choose between violating the law or violating the seal of the confessional.
Sacraments
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis celebrates first Communion with 245 children in Bulgaria
Even as pope, Francis considers himself a parish priest—“the world’s parish priest” as he once told a friend. This morning, he presided in a small Catholic enclave more than 100 miles from Sofia, the capital city.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
Dear priests who improvise at Mass: Please don’t.
Adding more words will not make Mass “better.” If you cleanly speak the words as they are, if you let them flow through you, the people in the pews may hear the Mass as they have never heard it before. You do not need to do more. It’s not about you.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
A First Communion memory
Some three months before Neil Armstrong stepped off the ladder of the lunar module and left his footprints upon the surface of the moon in July, 1969, and uttered those immortal words about it being but “one small step for man” and yet “a giant leap for mankind,” a young, brown-haired, freckle-faced boy in the […]
Posted inFaith, News
Number of priests declines for the first time in a decade, Vatican says
The percentage of Catholics in the world has remained steady, while the number of priests has decreased for the first time in almost a decade.
Posted inFaith, Short Take
Sin and ash: On our collective guilt and the need for reconciliation
Even the holiest people are complicit in social sin; we benefit from injustices that we do not control. Yet we still have the freedom to seek God’s grace.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
How should we react to Michael Cohen’s imperfect contrition?
Was Michael Cohen’s soul searching authentic or merely convenient? It’s a question at least as much about sin as about political strategy.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Remaining faithful to fragile gifts
In ‘The Dangers of Christian Practice,’ Lauren Winner shows that even our holiest religious practices create characteristic distortions.
Posted inExplainer, Faith
Explainer: Will Pope Francis allow married priests?
What exactly is Pope Francis suggesting?
Posted inExamen, Faith
James Martin, S.J.: Why was Jesus baptized?
Did you ever wonder why Jesus was baptized? What sins did Jesus have to repent of? Nothing.