Check out these recent articles from around the web:

“As the Church has always taught….” by Michael Sean Winters: “Just as at Vatican II, so at this synod, there are those who conflate current praxis with particular doctrines, neglecting other doctrines, and insisting that nothing can change. As the cardinal indicates, if nothing can change, there would be no need for a synod.”

Cutting through the noise: the power of personal relationship by Allison Walter: “I am drawn to advocacy because I have witnessed and participated in the power of sharing the story. In the end, it’s not about the latest census data or the newest study; it’s about people.”

All Things to All People by Andy Otto: “Day to day living reveals how God uses us in different ways. One day we may find ourselves being an ear for our co-worker. Another day we discover the need to empathise with a teenager’s struggles of puberty. Yet another day we find ourselves sitting with the dying.”

A Q&A with the Pirolas by Inés San Martín: “The thing that distinguishes marital spirituality from any other form of Christian spirituality is sexual intimacy. Marriage is a sexual sacrament and this is not understood nor recognized enough.”

Khartoum Announces a Campaign to Starve the People of the Nuba Mountains by Eric Reeves: “In the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan and in Blue Nile State to the east, perhaps 1.5 million people have been displaced and have acute humanitarian needs: food, primary medical care, and above all, an end to the aerial bombardment that has terrified people to the point that they can no longer work their fields. They live in caves and ravines; villages are relentlessly attacked on the ground, with foodstocks the primary target for destruction. Many thousands have died.”

Investigators in Syria Seek Paper Trails That Could Prove War Crimes by Marlise Simons: “Behind the blitz of airstrikes and land battles in Syria, an unseen army is hunting for special spoils of war: pieces of paper, including military orders, meeting minutes, prison records and any other documents that could help build cases for future prosecutions. Several Western governments, including those of the United States and Britain, are financing two separate teams of investigators searching for evidence needed to establish criminal liability in any future war crimes trials.”

Remain Here With Me by Joan Miller: “When the rape first happened, I felt I was a victim of violence. Over time this morphed into something that I slowly and quietly came to believe I had somehow deserved. The rape, along with the lack of support from family and friends, made me feel indescribable shame. I became disconnected from the world—from my parents, my friends and from God.”

Raising the minimum wage is common sense by Jack Quinn, Mike Castle, Steve LaTourette, and Connie Morella: “It’s wrong that someone in the United States of America who works hard for long hours to support their family can still be stuck in poverty today. It is time for Congress to give the working poor a raise and take the politics out of this issue by linking future increases in the minimum wage to the cost of living.”

The ominous math of the Ebola epidemic by Joel Achenbach, Lena H. Sun and Brady Dennis: “When the experts describe the Ebola disaster, they do so with numbers. The statistics include not just the obvious ones, such as caseloads, deaths and the rate of infection, but also the ones that describe the speed of the global response. Right now, the math still favors the virus.”

The small steps to save our gains in Afghanistan by Vanda Felbab-Brown, Ronald Neumann, and David Sedney: “The shared interests of Afghanistan and the United States have taken dramatic steps forward in recent weeks, and a success that Americans can be proud of is within reach. But there is also a real danger that we will throw away the gains we have made unless we capitalize with small investments that can enable significant payoffs.”

Debate emerges on St. John Paul II’s early writings on social ethics by Jonathan Luxmoore: “Concepts important in his later papal teachings, such as ‘solidarity’ and ‘moral victory,’ make first appearances in the writings and have a sharp, passionate edge. ‘The church is aware that the bourgeois mentality and capitalism as a whole, with its materialist spirit, acutely contradict the Gospel,’ the young priest wrote in one section.”