Church Commentary

Faith

Many Cultures | Una Familia: ‘Why don’t they come here legally?’
Jan 24 2012
Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a conference sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network. More than 200 participants from around the country, including bishops, priests, advocates, immigration lawyers and pastoral ministers, gathered in Salt Lake City to study and discuss the current situation of immigrants in the 50 states.

‘I think we’ve found the key’: Welcome to new digital format for Catholic Review Media
Jan 24 2012
After 18 months of planning and untold hours of work, this week we launched new formats for the Catholic Review. Our new print edition arrived in mailboxes around Maryland this week, and the same day, our completion re-envisioned website landed on computer screens and tablets everywhere.

AFRICENTRIC | Matters that matter
Jan 24 2012
As we walk into this new year, new challenges await us. Sometimes when faced with looming challenges, the bountiful blessings given by God often seem to vanish or grow small in our psyché. I would like to share some thoughts on both the challenges and the blessings as “matters that matter.”

Thoughts on Our Church| Pope’s words should inspire us all
Jan 24 2012
Canon law requires each Catholic bishop to make a pilgrimage (or ad limina visit) to Rome every five years to report on the state of his diocese and, while there, to “venerate the tombs of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and to present himself to the Roman Pontiff.”

Less reliance needed on government
Jan 23 2012
It seems the more we rely on government for our needs, the more beholding we are to the government.

Wit and wisdom: Focus on love, not worry
Jan 23 2012
Chose to let go of your past. We can choose to let go of the fears and worries as they arise.

Making the old new: Vatican encourages a recovery of ‘apologetics’
Jan 15 2012
VATICAN CITY – In the Catholic Church, it’s true that everything old can be new again, and the Vatican wants one of those things to be the art of “apologetics” – dusted off and updated to respond to new challenges, including those posed by militant atheists.

Cardinal Foley, ‘patriarch of American Catholic press,’ dies
Dec 13 2011
Cardinal John P. Foley, an internationally respected priest-journalist who led the Catholic Church’s social communications council for more than two decades, died Dec. 11 in his native Philadelphia. The 76-year-old cardinal had been battling leukemia.

Cardinal Foley dies; was Vatican communications chief, Mideast advocate
Dec 12 2011
DARBY, Pa. – U.S. Cardinal John P. Foley, who spent more than two decades leading the church’s social communications council and later worked for the church in the Middle East, died Dec. 11 after a battle with leukemia. The cardinal, who had been residing at Villa St. Joseph, the home for retired Philadelphia archdiocesan priests, was 76.

Archbishop O’Brien praises leadership of Cardinal Foley
Dec 12 2011
Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien issued the following statement Dec. 11, regarding the death of Cardinal John P. Foley and his contributions to the church.

Silent erosion of religious liberty
Nov 17 2011
“Religious Freedom expresses what is unique about the human person, for it allows us to direct our personal and social life to God, in whose light the identity, meaning and purpose of the person are fully understood,” – Pope Benedict XVI, Message for the World Day for Peace, January 1, 2011.

As bishops stay neutral, voters have say on ‘personhood,’ labor rights
Nov 10 2011
WASHINGTON – Voters in Mississippi and Ohio confronted such traditional Catholic issues as abortion and labor rights on Election Day, but the Catholic bishops in those states remained neutral on the specific ballot questions raised.

US Catholics give mixed reaction to Vatican’s economy document
Oct 28 2011
WASHINGTON - U.S. Catholics have mixed feelings about the Vatican’s ideas on how to fix today’s troubled global economy.

‘Radically new and unprecedented attack on religious freedom’
Sep 20 2011
Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien is urging the Obama administration to back down from a pending health mandate that he believes violates the conscience rights of Catholic health care providers and others.

Baltimore backs bishops’ aim to mobilize Catholics to guard consciences on contraception
Sep 16 2011
WASHINGTON – The U.S. bishops are working to mobilize Catholics across the country to tell the Obama administration that contraception and sterilization do not constitute preventive care for women and must not be mandated as part of health reform.